2 estrellas... no se, nunca me "engancho" la historia

“Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.”

¿No les ha tocado que están en una reunión con amigos y se ponen a recordar una historia entre todos, para contársela a un invitado, pero como cada quien tiene su visión, todos terminan hablando de las anécdotas y nunca llegan al punto de la historia? eso es lo que siento que pasa con Dougals Adams y la historia de Dirk Gently. Lo interesante de todo esto es que Adams escribe todas sus historias (o de perdida las que conozco) con esta misma dinámica, pero con un nivel de éxito mayor o menor según su humor... o el del lector

“There are some people you like immediately, some whom you think you might learn to like in the fullness of time, and some that you simply want to push away from you with a sharp stick.”

Realmente no hay mucho que decir sobre la historia, siempre que no quieras agregar spoilers, así que de una manera resumida mencionare que los personajes son raros y tienen problemas de comunicación entre ellos, ya que muchas veces te dejan con la sensación de que a la acción o conversación que están levando le falta un poco mas para llegar "a buen puerto".

“Don't you understand that we need to be childish in order to understand? 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.”

Aun así algunos personajes son buenos y hasta simpáticos, lo cual siempre ayuda. Los toques de ciencia ficción me gustaron, aunque creo que no fueron manejados de la mejor manera  Hablo de ustedes malditas paradojas temporales En fin, no es un libro de Adams que recomendaría, y veo dudoso que lea los demás libros de la serie (si señores, tiene mas partes) pero claro eso nunca se sabe jajaja

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”

Started with promise but was ultimately too scattered and not funny enough to be great. The whole part about Dirk's background and real name seemed unnecessary. And ultimately Dirk pans out as a pretty minor character. I'm a much bigger fan of his Hitchhiker books. This one was just marginally okay.

It's funny, I thought I had read this before--I'd bought a used copy years ago and had kept it on my shelf fondly along with the Hitchhikers Guide books. And then I started to "re-read" it for book club, and a) hated the first chapter (about the Electric Monk) and b) realized that I never had read it before, probably because I read the first chapter and was like "wtf is this" and put it down FOREVER.

I'm glad that I persevered this time around, though, because it really is a fun and clever story.

(I probably still don't like it as much as the Hitchhikers Guide books but that's fine.)

2.5

So, I picked this up because it was a BotM in one of my groups and I was in the mood for something light and funny. I wanted real laugh-out-loud kind of humor, but, unfortunately, I thought there were only a few chuckles or wry grins, but I don't think one single vocal laugh in the whole book. Well, not for me, anyway. And most of the humor was towards the beginning and started petering out as it progressed, so... yeah...

As for the story itself - it's an odd little thing in which we don't actually meet the title character until a bit more than halfway through (or at least that's what it seemed), and while he was kind of interesting I just didn't care all that much about the overall story.

The one character that I wanted to see more of was the Electric Monk and his horse (ok, I guess that's two characters), but after they served their purpose, so to speak, we don't see all that much of them, and that was disappointing.

Overall not a terrible story, but I'd hoped for so much more than random zaniness which felt forced in places and often disconnected.

Meh.

Probably best to already be a Douglas Adams fan before trying this one. You have to appreciate his absurdity and accept that much of the story won't make sense in the traditional way of a novel. Parts of this are pretty darned hilarious, and the characters are memorable.

4 stars

I reread this with the Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club this month and really enjoyed it. It's not as laugh-out-loud funny as the Hitchhiker's Guide books, but it's delightfully weird, and I love the way everything wraps up.

n  Stavolta non ci sarebbero stati testimoni.
Stavolta c'era solo la terra morta, un rombo di tuono e l'inizio di quell'interminabile pioggerellina da Nordest che sembra accompagnare buona parte degli eventi cruciali di questo mondo.n

Se è vero che l'incipit di un romanzo sia fondamentale, in quanto già riesce a metterti in sintonia con le corde di tutta la narrazione, quello di Douglas Adams è la perfezione. L'empatia tra me e Dirk Gently è iniziata subito, dalla prima pagina, tanto da domandarmi se io e tutta questa storia non fossimo destinate ad incontrarci, per via della fondamentale interconnessione di tutte le cose.
L'investigatore più assurdo di tutta la storia dei possibili investigatori che la letteratura abbia mai prodotto (e di tizi strambi ne sono usciti fuori parecchi), nasce dallo strano connubio di fantascienza, giallo ed umorismo; quello che ne esce fuori è Dirk Gently, descritto talmente sommariamente nell'aspetto fisico - tanto che non ne abbiamo che una confusa e poco delineata idea - quanto minuziosamente dal punto di vista caratteriale per farcelo apparire come assolutamente fuori di testa.
Ammetto che alcuni punti della trama mi hanno lasciato un po' di perplessità, ma sono curiosa di scoprire cosa si nasconde tra le pagine dei volumi successivi. Lettura assolutamente consigliata, se non altro per lo strano alternarsi di comicità e riflessioni di una profondità commovente.
In verità è una mente rara quella che può rendere ciò che finora non esisteva di una ovvietà accecante.

ডগলাস অ্যাডামসের গদ্যশৈলী খুবই চমৎকার। কাহিনীর নতুন একটা অংশ শুরু করার ভঙ্গিটা উপভোগ্য। গল্পের মোচড়গুলো উপভোগ্য ছিলো। সাড়ে তিন।

Inexcusably unread for 37.5 years, remedied over a couple of days at the beach.

"Mrs. Pearce!" schrie er. "Würden Sie bitte freundlicherweise unserer lieben Mrs Sauskind eine korrigierte Rechnung schicken. Die neuen Rechnung lautet: 'Für die Rettung der Menschheit vor völligem Untergang - kein Honorar.'"
Douglas Adams Humor ist, daran besteht kein Zweifel, speziell. Mitunter beschränkt sich eine wichtige Aussage, für die andere dicke Bücher voll schreiben, bei ihm auf eine einzige Zahl. Wie schon bei "Per Anhalter durch die Galaxis" ist auch hier sein Schreibstil anstrengend unterhaltsam, konfus erhellend, verwirrend einleuchtend.
Leider kam Douglas Adams nicht mehr dazu, die Reihe um Dirk Gentlys holistische Detektei weiter auszubauen. Band zwei heißt "Der lange dunkle Fünfuhrtee der Seele" und Band drei "Lachs im Zweifel. Zum letzten Mal per Anhalter durch die Galaxis" Dieser Band ist unvollendet. Er beinhaltet lediglich eine Sammlung von Zeitungsartikeln, Vorträgen, Notizen und Interviews.
(Holistic bedeutet übrigens ganzheitlich.)
Ich lese Douglas Adams Bücher immer wieder, da stets noch was zu entdecken oder verstehen bleibt.

I read the prologue in a bookstore when it came out in 1987 and had to have it immediately. Adams just has a way with words that produces great comedy and irony.

This is a wacky romp with so many plotlines and ideas, very few authors would be able to tie it all together. But Adams does it with style and humor, and you will be left with a true awe of "the interconnectedness of all things".

Reread 1/30/2014: Just as brilliant as I remember. I actually had forgotten that some of the themes regarding regret/closure and music/beauty were actually quite moving. A hilarious and stunning 5 stars.