‘Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency’ is completely absurd. If you have read other books by Douglas Adams, like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, gentle reader, it is helpful to know that all of Adams' books, including this one, are hilariously ridiculous and impossible. The characters and the plots are played entirely for laughs, puns, jokes and satire. Oh, and usually some of the known aspects of quantum physics and Einstein's relativity theories drive the action endured by Adams’ mostly hapless and confused main characters, who often are deers in headlights as quantum weirdness takes over their realities. Also, expect ghosts. And electronics which can bridge universes (remember our real history of linking electricity with spiritualism in the late 19th century?) And animals with some very human-like or weirdly species-appropriate thinking.

It takes a few chapters and many seemingly disconnected introductory scenes of many other characters, but eventually Dirk Gently is introduced. Dirk Gently is a very peculiar detective. He has been forced into the profession after being sent down from St. Cedd's college for cheating. He didn't cheat - it was a coincidence when he guessed all of the answers to an upcoming test correctly. He DID coach many students in the answers to the test to make money, supposedly through mystic means which he believed he was faking, but he truly had no idea his con would end up being so correct. The unspoken assumption behind Gently's becoming a detective is the mystery of having all of the right answers when he never knew he had all of the right answers has led him to being a detective. He is not a mystic, but he believes in particle physics and Einstein's relativity, apparently, and all of the spooky science which comes out of that, and especially, maybe, in the Grand Unification Theory of Everything. A Holistic universe, so to speak. Hehe.

Of course, as the author explains Gently's accidentally appearing to be seemingly clairvoyant, or in the University's thinking, a cheater, Gently was actually a simple student who simply knew the patterns of the usual questions asked on the usual exams given usually in any given subject. He made assumptions that some form of the usual questions with the usual answers would be asked. He hinted it was a mystical process when he was only being logical, based on past patterns of human behavior - which if you analyze, gentle reader, is a holistic exercise we all do, and get better at, as we age and collect patterns of past behaviors of actual people around us...and coincidences of perfect guesses occur, an actual scientific possibility of statistics. Or like a guess of what Time it is being correct twice a day.

: D


Adams appears to me to design scenes in the manner of someone using free-association word games where someone who is trying to think of creative ideas writes down a word on a paper, and then follows that up with whatever words are triggered by that word, letting the mind go where it will without restraint - and then putting some humorous order to the ideas, like the physics theories which most decidedly are putting a humorous and impossible order on the actual universe. In Adams case, these wild and insane ideas appear to always involve quantum/relativity physics craziness, along with space aliens, which he spins down into a kind of daft coherency - barely.

This is the usual premise of a Douglas Adams' novel: Barely competent space aliens land on Earth and cause mysterious events to occur to barely competent earthlings. The space aliens have the advantage of superior technology, which, combined with the aliens' ignorance or incompetence, frequently bring horrendous side effects to the unfortunate earthlings who unsuspectingly become part of whoever and whatever space aliens' lives they have the bad luck with whom to be swept up. Three hundred pages later, luck and fate and accidents have led the main characters, and us readers, down a rabbit hole to an Alice-in-Wonderland adventure which we all have miraculously survived!

Even though describing an Adams' book can make them seem alike, this is not true. Well, not entirely true. What is important is the novels are extremely funny and entertaining! However, the humor is whacked out and often bizarrely witty. It requires a flexible mindset, and being prepared for all kinds of coloring outside the lines.


We assume space aliens would be smarter than us, or more noble, or are more purposefully vicious, and intent on a plan or have goals in mind - after all, to fly here would require all sorts of brilliant technology which should reflect a greater intelligence. But what if space aliens, even if they have better tech, are no different in their faults or interests or mental lapses than any humans? What if space aliens differ the same way people differ - they can drive a spaceship or time machine like most of us drive a car, but just like most of us, they do not know any more of how their spaceship works than we do, but they do want a vacation or just an outing, or an adventure, just like we do. Plus, they have missed connections, or their vehicle breaks down, or they run out of money, or decide to settle, for the same reasons we do.

The fact is we are all unknowingly silly while we believe we are doing things meaningfully - this fact slowly grows on readers of Adams' novels. People are very very silly. This is why Adams has had plenty of silly material for his books.

That said, I would not read this book first of Adams’ work. I’d start with ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ - in my opinion, his best book.

Here is a link to my review of 'The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul': https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

4.5/5 stars! Very funny, very British, and overall good fun!

Something terrible has happened! Richard MAcDuff's boss Gordon Way has been murdered! And Richard is considered the prime suspect! Gordon's ghost wanders the outskirts of London and Cambridge, desperately trying to make contact with anyone and anything. Susan, Gordon's sister, is trying to cope with her brother's death and is trying to figure out why Richard, her boyfriend, is been acting so strange lately. Reg, Richard's old professor, is trying to figure out why a horse showed up in his flat, though that's not too troubling of an issue. And Richard needs to clear his name and prove his innocence. His only hope? An old acquaintance of both his and Reg's--the enigmatic detective Dirk Gently, who has a penchant for quantum physics, and for not being very frugal with money.

Oh, and there's and Electronic Monk, owner of said horse, who believes in everything who is very lost.

I haven't read read Douglas Adams since I was in high school, when The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was one of our required reading for (I think) summer, and it was such a delight to get back into him. He's a very easy read for the most part. His pacing is quite quick, you never lose interest in anything. And his comedy is absolutely great. You won't laugh at everything, but you will definitely laugh at something. Adams' comedy is not only in the jokes he tells with narration, though the comedy mostly comes from that; it is also in the characters' interactions and dialogue with each other and in the realization about certain scenes and themes within the book. Like I said, the comedy is all very British. I grew up watching all of the Monty Python movies and entire TV series, so while I haven't seen every avenue of British humor, I am certainly acquainted with it to a certain extent. Adams' comedy is reminiscent of Monty Python, but it certainly all his own. The one criticism I had towards the comedy is that sometimes the build-up to some of his jokes were a bit lengthy. The punchline was always good, but not ever build-up needs to be that extra long.

All of the characters were a delight and aided the comedy too, especially Dirk. You really don't see Dirk until towards the middle of the book which made me a bit crossed (as the Brits say). We do see a good amount of him after he is introduced, but it made me wish he had been introduced earlier. Reg and Richard were the next funniest members of the cast. In fact the funniest thing about Richard is that he worked with Mac computers. HAH! *slaps my knee*

Anyway, much of the comedy with Richard was in what was happening to him via plot. Reg's comedy was mostly like Dirk, things he said and did. Susan was funny in the moments Adams made her be, however this is where I have another criticism. I wish we had seen Susan more. She was such a fun and important character and I really liked her. She was kind of the straight (wo)man in the entire group. Gordon was funny too, but not as much as everyone else.

I will say that some parts of the plot, such as some of the science stuff, made me a bit confused. I must confess that I'm confused as to why Gordon died and why his killer killed him and what his killer was ultimately going to do after Dirk, Richard, and Reg saw him off towards the end. Also, the ending scene with Richard and Susan and Richard not knowing about Bach made me scratch my head. Adams certainly knows his quantum physics and computer science and applies it well, but I think I am just not knowledgeable about it enough to understand. If you're like me in that regard, then you can just fly through some of the science bits and you'll still be able to enjoy the story and humor. The plot is straightforward, but some of the events just left me head scratching.

In terms of sci-fi, other than the quantum physics and computer science stuff, there isn't too much other sci-fi elements. It isn't as heavy as your space operas or military sci-fi and that's just fine for me. There is some philosophical stuff, but nothing meant to be a world-spanning and deep as something like Dune or Stranger in a Strange Land. There's actually some history stuff and English poetry from Samuel Taylor Coleridge that I enjoyed, I might even pick up some of his stuff.

This was a really fun read. My co-worker who lent me this said you don't have to read any of the next books to enjoy the story, but I still have questions so I might pick up the next book in the future.

1988 The plot gets a bit muddled at the end, but I dearly love this book. And the sofa.***Sept 10, 2012This may be one of the few books that is more rewarding to re-read. Now all those random scenes make sense.In fact, my reading pal at the mini mart and I were talking yesterday about how hard it can be to read Adams the first time. That you have to just stick with it, and hope it makes sense at the end. [It won't, it'll still be muddled nonsense, but it'll be funny nonsense] This reading what I particularly enjoyed were all the bits about music and computers and cats. These may have been my favorite bits before, but I failed to record that. I also particularly noticed the idea of extinction, echoed in Last Chance to See.And the sofa issue.Personal copy

Another romp of wackiness mixed with quantum mechanistic hyperbole and time travel played out by nut-job characters bent on saving the world. Gotta love it!

Ha. No. Just no. Forced humour. Dont uds whats going on. Not for me. 1 sofa.

Ég er auðvitað rosa partial til þáttanna með Elijah Wood (

Hysterical. If you liked The Hitchhiker's Guide but thought it could do with fewer spaceships, try this. If you're shaking your head in bafflement, thinking "Fewer spaceships? Do you want to ruin the whole thing, woman?" try this. If you've never read any Douglas Adams at all, try this. If you like things that are good, try this.

On the other hand, I am pretty sure my best friend hated it, and she does often like things that are good, so maybe it's not for everyone. But try it anyway.

"He was rounder than the average undergraduate and wore more hats. That is to say, there was just the one hat which he habitually wore, but he wore it with a passion that was rare in one so young. [...:] By means of an ingenious series of strategically deployed denials of the most exciting and exotic things, he was able to create the myth that he was a psychic, mystic, telepathic, fey, clairvoyant, psychosassic vampire bat.

"What did 'psychosassic' mean?

"It was his own word and he vigorously denied that it meant anything at all."

Not as light as the early Hitchhiker books this book is a lot heavier and grimmer though the humour of Douglas Adams shines through from time to time. Written with all the confusion I expect from his work this an interesting, twisted story. I can't say I enjoyed it as much as the Hitchhiker books but it wasn't too bad.

Infinitely dull for long stretches, punctuated by brief flashes of humor and incomprehensibility, with an ending that's fairly amusing. Time well spent? No, not really. Recommended for lovers of dry British humor that can stomach even the driest of Monty Python sketches.

“He instituted this Chair of Chronology to see if there was any particular reason why one thing happened after another and if there was any way of stopping it. Since the answers to the three questions were, I knew immediately, yes, no, and maybe, I realised I could then take the rest of my career off.”

Books by  Oscar Wilde,  Terry Pratchett and  Douglas Adams have (at least) one thing in common. I can easily pick funny, witty, interesting quotes from every page. The above quote represents Adams’ surreal sense of humour quite nicely, I think.

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency is of course, Douglas Adams’ lesser known series, compared to the incomparable (but often compared to) Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Still, there are only five “Hitchhiker's” books, excluding Eoin Colfer's  And Another Thing..., which—in all fairness—I have not read, but I am not that big a fan of Colfer's  Artemis Fowl, so the idea of a sequel by him is a nonstarter for me.

So how does Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency compare to  The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? What kind of question is that? Damn you! (Sorry, I’m feeling a bit schizophrenic). Anyway, the answer to that question would be “favorably”. It does not have the epic space opera setting of Hitchhiker's, but then Adams wanted to write something different rather than retread old ground so the smaller scale of the setting is understandable.

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency is not really about the eponymous Dirk Gently’s, I would not even call him the protagonist. He is one of the central characters. As the book has to be called something the title Adams went with is a suitably intriguing one. The plot of the novel is a combination of several seemingly unrelated plot strands. It starts with an “Electric Monk” looking for a Door (the capital D distinguishes from any old door), then the scene switches to a dinner at St. Cedd's College in Cambridge where Professor Urban Chronotis performs a seemingly commonplace magic trick is for a child. Soon after that a horse is found in the professor’s bathroom. A wealthy businessman is shot dead for no reason, and his ghost starts to roam. An alien spacecraft accidentally lands and soon blows up.

The disparate plotlines are actually interrelated, and the only man who can find the connection between them is Dirk Gently, the world’s first “Holistic Detective”, which means that he understands “the fundamental interconnectedness of all things”. Sherlock Holmes famously said “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth”, Dirk Gently goes one better by not even eliminating the impossible (see one of the selected quotes below). His ability to make intuitive leaps verges on being a superpower.

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency reminds me a little bit of Kurt Vonnegut's  Breakfast of Champions, another novel with different plotlines that seem to bear no relation to each other. I thought that was a bit of a mess, but a funny, admirable and beautiful one by the time I finished it. “Dirk Gently’s” is similarly messy, but the eponymous Dirk untangles all the plot strands by the end of the book. For the most part, it is easy enough to follow, and always funny, but the climax and denouement are a little convoluted. If your attention strayed during some seemingly unimportant scenes some of the expositions at the end may be confusing. For the most part Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency is a madcap surreal comic novel with a lot of sci-fi elements that you can expect from Douglas Adams. However, a shade of sadness, melancholy and loneliness permeate the last few chapters of the book.

The characters are mostly well developed, with Dirk, being the standout due to his eccentricity and superhuman intuition. Not far behind is the enigmatic Professor Urban Chronotis who is much more than he seems, and he also appears in  Doctor Who: Shada, based on Adams’ Doctor Who TV episode script.

If you are a fan of  The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy but have read all the books already you should not miss this book. On the other hand—or perhaps the same hand but different fingers—if you have not read all the “Hitchhiker's” books, or have not read any, or never heard of Douglas Adams, you should still not miss this book. Who then, should give this book a miss? I don’t know, dead people perhaps?

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Notes:
• There was a BBC adaptation of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency in 2010, only a few episodes were made. Quite good as I recall.

• A new adaptation is being made by BBC America (announced March 2016)

• I am looking forward to reading the sequel  The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul soon.

Çevirinin ve düzeltilerin kalitesizliğinden ötürü yarıda bıraktım. Kitabı orijinal dilinde okuma fırsatını elime geçirdiğim an buradaki yorumum güncellenecek.

A bit underwhelming. As I was reading, I realized I was liking it less and less. I don't think it amounted to much in the end, unless I missed something critical? I was going back and forth between audiobook and the kindle version, so there is a possibility of oversight on my part. Much like Galaxy Hitchhiking, I thought it was too goofy for my liking. I'd also put it in the same category as Strugatsky's "Monday Starts on Saturday".