Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

I HATE THE WAY BBC TREATED DOUGLAS ADAMS. This guy deserved his own show, but they even didn't let him make his own DW stories in peace: "wE rAn OuT oF mOnEy" "yOu CaNt Go To PaRiS" etc.

This book is basically a doctor who story named Shada, that they never got to complete because MONEY! Also, the ending was kinda (spoilers!) Like the ending of City of Death (another DW episode that Adams wrote). And sure he didn't explain EVERYTHING at the end, but srsly, it was obvious. And I loved how the story was full of pieces that at first seems like they had nothing to do with each other, but at the end they all came togethet and made a whole picture. Adams was really brilliant in that way.

I wish Adams was still around to at least write in modern era of DW

I last read this when I was really young and was shortly getting off a fantastic kick of HHGttG wanting MORE, as, I assume, most people do when they get on a Douglas Adams kick.

Like the other series, every page is filled with wonderfully witty and fascinating and wise (crack) quotes that will delight and amaze and generally blow most writing away by the sheer audacity.

To think that Douglas Adams never considered himself a writer! Truly amazing. And of course us fans just snicker at that and keep reading.

I admit to really liking this but not loving it as much as the Hitchhiker series. I don't know. Maybe I just wanted more of the idiot and less of the incomprehensible mystic in systems-theory sheep's clothing.

What can I say? As an adult, I'm doing an about-face and saying that this might be better by far. It's still wacky and zany and full of oddball moments, but it's closer to Earth... mostly... just not always in the same time-zone. :) And on top of that, it was fun as hell getting into all the old computer stuff and getting into the poetry and the music and ESPECIALLY the problem of the couch.

The couch stayed with me all these years and it was such a wonderful character. It almost reaches the same heights as a certain fridge in the next book. Of which I'm doing a re-read next. :)

Now, to be sure, I probably wouldn't have done a re-read at all if it hadn't been for the BBC tv production of the same name, and even as I was watching it I was going... "Is this remotely the same?"

Definitive answer: SOME. lol. Not all that much. Characters, some. Situations, hints. Zany? That's full-tilt. :) All said, no complaints on either side of the tv screen. )

I'm glad to be doing all of the above. :)

Doğrusu beynim güzel yandı.

A confusing story that wraps up toward the end, but isn't that just like life? You can't make heads or tails of what's happening until towards the end. And by then, it's too late. But the beauty of a book, is you can go back and read it all over again.

The individuals involved - Reg, Richard, Gordon, Susan, and Michael - all have roles to play in a wildly complicated mystery that pre-dates human life - in fact all life on the planet, and it takes Dirk Gently, aka Svlad Cjelli, to solve it, with the help of a salt cellar.

A must-read for Adams fans, but don't expect to understand the complicated tangle right away. I did, and I should have read this as one does Adams' other works, and that is to sit back and enjoy the ride. Even when cats (or horses stuck in a bathroom) are involved...

I discovered Douglas Adams by coincidence. I found his book Last Chance to See, co-written by Mark Cawardine, about animals near extinction and Douglas' and Mark's trip around the world to see some of them, in a box with "Mängelexemplare" (old books, sometimes not in top condition that are therefore sold at a reduced price). His humour stood out even in the German translation and when I told a friend about it, she told me all about an odd-sounding story about a guy hitchhiking across the galaxy and something about the number 42. ;)
Since I've always been an odd duck, I went and bought that book too (in the English original this time) - and have read The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy once every year (May 25th to be exact) ever since.

However, despite having heard of Dirk Gently too, I have never picked up these books, for some weird reason. I'm glad I rectified this now because although I LOVE Hitchhiker, this is actually better!

Douglas Adams has not just been a British author with the usually expected British humour. Sure, he had a dry wit, but also a mind as sharp as a katana and the observations about humanity that he put into his books, while being disguised as silly dialogue or even sillier happenings, are always very deep, reflective and spot-on.

So this story is about the titular Dirk Gently, although that is only the most recent in a long list of names he's used. He doesn't even make an appearance for the first quarter of the book, actually. Mr. Gently believes in the interconnectedness of all things, therefore he named his detective agency "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency".
It's this interconnectedness that has to be proven when a former friend of his with a sofa being stuck halfway up the way to his apartment gets bored half to death at the annual reading of a Coleridge poem (THE Coleridge poem, I should say) at Cambridge university, then witnesses a conjuring trick by one of his old professors, finds a horse in the bathroom of that same professor (after it finally got rid of its rider, an Electric Monk), and finally gets caught up in a very weird murder involving his boss, followed by people acting strangely indeed.
You're confused? Good!
It's a bit like watching Doctor Who and getting all of your brain in a tight knot, but you know exactly that it will all make perfect sense in the end.

As I said, silliness abound in DA's book, but all the silliness serves a purpose and that is what makes this book not only entertaining, but actually intellectually challenging and bloody perfect! Especially eccentric Dirk Gently himself with his weirdness actually makes perfect sense - it's the world that is bonkers.

Thus we end up with gems like the following (some of my favourite bits that I marked in the book):

Electric Monks believed things for you, thus saving you what was becoming an increasingly onerous task, that of believing all the things the world expected you to believe.

It is difficult to be sat on all day, every day, by some other creature, without forming an opinion about them.
On the other hand, it is perfectly possible to sit all day, every day, on top of another creature and not have the slightest thought about them whatsoever.

So two legs were held to be both more suitable and cheaper than the more normal primes of seventeen, nineteen or twenty-three; the skin the Monks were given was pinkish-looking instead of purple, soft and smooth instead of crenellated. They were also restricted to just one mouth and nose, but were given instead an additional eye, making for a grand total of two. A strange-looking creature indeed. But truly excellent at believing the most preposterous things.

She tried to worry that something had happened to him, but didn't believe it for a moment. Nothing terrible ever happened to him, though she was beginning to think that it was time it damn well did. If nothing terrible happened to him soon maybe she'd do it herself.

... coincidences are strange and dangerous things.

... there is a huge difference between disliking somebody - maybe even disliking them a lot - and actually shooting them, strangling them, dragging them through the fields and setting their house on fire. It was a difference which kept the vast majority of the population alive from day to day.

This was a public telephone so it was clearly an oversight that it was working at all.

Only a child sees things with perfect clarity, because it hasn't developed all those filters which prevent us from seeing things that we don't expect to see?

... normal English condition, that of a damp and rancid dish cloth ...

... he believed with an instant effortlessness which would have impressed even a Scientologist.

"It disturbs me very greatly when I find that I know things and do not know why I know them. Maybe it is the same instinctive processing of data that allows you to catch a ball almost before you've seen it. Maybe it is the deeer and less explicable instinct that tells you when someone is watching you."

"And Mrs. Roberts? How is she? Foot still troubling her?"
"Not since she had it off, thanks for asking, sir. Between you and me, sir, I would've been just as happy to have had her amputated and kept the foot. I had a little spot reserved on the mantlepiece, but there we are, we have to take things as we find them."

The cry "I could have thought of that" is a very popular and misleading one, for the fact is that they didn't, and a very significant and revealing fact it is too.

"Charitable, ha!" said Dirk. "I pay my taxes, what more do you want?"

One thing I could also identify with immensely was this description of Susan:
She had an amazing emotional self-sufficiancy and control provided she could play her cello. He had noticed an odd and extraordinary thing about her relationship with the music she played. If ever she was feeling emotional or upset she could sit and play some music with utter concentration and emerge seeming fresh and calm.
Only in my case the cello has to be replaced by books and playing music by reading. But yes, a very precise description of me.

Oh, and despite me being too young to know too much about what it was like with the very first computers being sold, it was so cool to read about all the technical stuff because I know from interviews and Neil Gaiman's biography of Douglas Adams what a techie / computer enthusiast he was (plus, from a historical point of view alone it must have been pretty exciting).

So you see, not just a thrilling writing style with engaging and quirky characters, but also wit dry enough to start a wildfire that illuminates a wide range of important topics, making the reader not only laugh but also reflect, all while you're having the time of your life.
Honestly, no idea why this is rated lower than Hitchhiker, because despite me being a huge fan (I even bought a towel and stitched "42" and "Don't Panic!" onto it and carry it with me every Towel Day), I am firmly sold on Dirk Gently and think this first volume beats the first of the 5 volumes in the Hitchhiker trilogy.

Robot monks, ghosts, murder and add a bit of The Doctor. But since it is Douglas Adams, don't forget the towel.

Douglas Adams has never failed to make me glow with delight, with no disappointment aftertaste on re-read.

I shouldn’t be such a fan. I’m tone deaf about a lot of humor. Fantastical, whimsical romps rarely work for me. Adams hits every note right, is an exception who stretches my boundaries, was a treasure we lost far too early.

Having read other Douglas Adams books (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), I was already familiar with his writing style. It's the equivalent of going for a ride with the Mad Hatter on the Knight Bus. Sometimes confusing, always funny, and eventually you will end up where you are supposed to go. I love Douglas's snarky English humor. But I would definitely say his works are not for everyone.

Dirk Gently starts out with a series of series of seemingly random people and events that wrap around and tie together as the story develops. I liked how Coleridge was tied in throughout the book. But I was confused by the leap made at the end. I wish it would have been explained a little more. I think I figured it out, but I had to look up the The Rime of the Ancient Mariner to double check.