Dirk Gently #1

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

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What do a dead cat, a computer whiz-kid, an Electric Monk who believes the world is pink, quantum mechanics, a Chronologist over 200 years old, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (poet), and pizza have in common?

Apparently not much; until Dirk Gently, self-styled private investigator, sets out to prove the fundamental interconnectedness of all things by solving a mysterious murder, assisting a mysterious professor, unravelling a mysterious mystery, and eating a lot of pizza – not to mention saving the entire human race from extinction along the way (at no extra charge).

To find out more, read this book (better still, buy it, then read it) – or contact Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. ‘A thumping good detective-ghost-horror-whodunnit-time travel-romantic-musical-comedy epic.’ The author

306 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 15,1987

Series
Literary awards
Places
england

This edition

Format
306 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published
January 1, 2002 by Pocket Books
ISBN
ASIN
B0DLSX9J4K
Language
English
Characters More characters
  • Dirk Gently

    Dirk Gently

    Dirk Gently bills himself as a "holistic detective" who makes use of "the fundamental interconnectedness of all things" to solve the whole crime, and find the whole person. This involves running up large expense accounts and then claiming that every item ...

  • Richard MacDuff
  • Professor Chronotis

    Professor Chronotis

    Salyavin, dubbed the Great Mind Outlaw by Gallifreyan historians, was an infamous Time Lord criminal. Condemned by his fellow Gallifreyans for his unethical use of the uniquely powerful mind-control abilities he possessed, he escaped Shada, created himsel...

About the author

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Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Douglas Noel Adams was an English author, humourist, and screenwriter, best known for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (HHGTTG). Originally a 1978 BBC radio comedy, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy developed into a "trilogy" of five books that sold more than 15 million copies in his lifetime. It was further developed into a television series, several stage plays, comics, a video game, and a 2005 feature film. Adams's contribution to UK radio is commemorated in The Radio Academy's Hall of Fame.
Adams also wrote Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987) and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (1988), and co-wrote The Meaning of Liff (1983), The Deeper Meaning of Liff (1990) and Last Chance to See (1990). He wrote two stories for the television series Doctor Who, co-wrote City of Death (1979), and served as script editor for its seventeenth season. He co-wrote the sketch "Patient Abuse" for the final episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus. A posthumous collection of his selected works, including the first publication of his final (unfinished) novel, was published as The Salmon of Doubt in 2002.
Adams was a self-proclaimed "radical atheist", an advocate for environmentalism and conservation, and a lover of fast cars, technological innovation, and the Apple Macintosh.

Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
34(34%)
4 stars
27(27%)
3 stars
39(39%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
100 reviews All reviews
March 26,2025
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Pročitao sam HOLISTIČKU DETEKTIVSKU AGENCIJU DIRKA GENTLYJA, hrvatski prevod klasika Douglasa Adamsa. Sugestivna američka adaptacija koju ja napravio Max Landis podstakla me je da se vratim literarnom izvoru iako mi humor Douglasa Adamsa nije previše blizak i nisam preveliki ljubitelj SFa pisanog za zasmejavanje. Moram odmah na početku reći da su mi obe ekranizacije, i britanska i američka, bolje od romana, što nije čest slučaj kada se porede dramska i prozna dela. Naime, američka više duguje Pynchonu nego Adamsu, i samo su neki detalji slični u pogledu zapleta, pa i odnosa među junacima. Međutim, sve što je u američkoj ekranizaciji bolje, upravo nadoknađuje nedostatke romana. Naime, obe ekranizacije su efektnije jer su građene na dramskoj strukturi i kompoziciono su zrelije postavljene od romana. Recimo, Dirk Gently lično se pojavljuje u romanu negde posle trećine teksta, a tamo se pojavljuje odmah.

Ono što su ključne postmoderne reference, međutim prepoznaju obe ekranizacije. Osnovna je naravno Sherlock Holmes, i ta matrica superdarovitog detektiva koji ima "običnog čoveka" kao svedoka i saradnika, i na tome se bazira britanski DIRK GENTLY, čiji kratak život sasvim sigurno možemo pripisati i pohjavljivanju Moffatovog SHERLOCKa. Međutim, to je i DOCTOR WHO, serija sa kojom Adams ima intenzivan odnos, i njenu atmosferu umnogome prepoznaje i razrađuje Landis.

Elem, vratimo se samoj knjizi.

Adams preuzima strukturu detektivskog romana, ali u jednoj zapravo najrudimentarnijoj formi, sa sve tom postavkom povratne opruge gde se na kraju sve razjasni prema početku, i onda na nju gradi slojeve SF imaginacije, društvene i svake druge satire. Za razliku od najboljih primera ovakve literature gde roman funkcioniše na svakom nivou, GENTLY iznad svega moramo posmatrati kao humoristički roman. i ko voli ovakav humor, kao takav je prilično solidan.

Ono što ga sprečava da se razvije u nepšto više i da u potpunosti iskoristi sve elemente koje uvodi jeste pre svega strukturalna svedenost. Bolji roman bi za početak morao biti duži sa većom razradom pojedinih elemenata. To se u ovom rukopisu nije desilo.

Ipak, pojedina rešenja iz ovog romana, koji za nekoliko dana puni trideset godina, nastavila su da žive u nizu kasnijih dela. Otud, Adamsov roman pored efektnosti u jednom segmentu sasvim sigurno možemo smatrati i izuzetno uticajnim.
March 26,2025
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I just love this book. Not only is it personally evocative of my 80's childhood, but I think it really is the most enjoyable of Douglas Adams works (perhaps only Hitchhikers surpasses it). The plot is nicely twisty, unfolds at its own pace and in some odd ways (you can really see British SF/F techniques of cold opens and asides that make no sense until much later in the story that are meant to set you questioning and draw you in), and hangs together well. The characters are all likable: while the Hitchhikers stories take place in a universal culture that is sardonically indifferent bordering on hostile, the Doctor Who antecedents of the Dirk Gently stories gives Adams a softer and more compassionate humor. Dirk himself is a fascinating character (and again, shares a lot of the Doctor's DNA). The story is very much set in 80's London, but I don't think that harms it - of course, I read it in the 80's and know that time, if not that place. Your mileage may vary.

If only Adams wrote faster... I would have loved 5 or 6 Dirk Gently books rather than the 2.5 we got.
March 26,2025
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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.”
March 26,2025
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Мене зачаровують світи Адамса, я можу "проковтнути" його книжку за день-два, бо мене настільки вона захопила, що я не можу відірватися. Я б хотіла розуміти одразу всі жарти і увесь контекст без приміток перекладача і ґуґлу. В цій книжці цього звісно не сталося, але це ніяк не завадило мені насолоджуватися кожною сторінкою.
March 26,2025
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Disappointed!
My fault certainly. After the "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy", I was expecting something.... else.
March 26,2025
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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...
March 26,2025
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Given how huge a Douglas Adams fan I have always thought myself as, I was surprised at how little I liked this book. And guilty, I feel guilty. One star is added on for the guilt.
But, in truth, in retrospect, I don't remember liking this one anywhere near as much as Hitchhikers. The humor is a little flat and often forced, nothing has aged well (the ga-ga'ing over computers seems childish these days) and the plot, rehashes of two episodes of Doctor Who that Adams wrote, is too confusing and uninteresting to have any kind of effect. Plus, Dirk Gently shows up literally only halfway through the book and since he is the only really interesting person around we end up with only half of a book of interesting characters.
I guess they can't all be zingers.
March 26,2025
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A weird mystery mixed with paranormal and crazy events.

I came to the book from the brilliant and crazy TV show so it was a strange read. It was very different from the TV show, Dirk wasn't a really likable guy (the other characters were new) and the story had nothing in commun with the show. Nevertheless, Adams' style was easy to spot, with some humor and several descriptions that could be shared with Pratchett, giving the read an easy going and pleasant tone. I found the characters interesting, even if we never had the chance to know them well, but most of all, the story kept me engaged with all the strange events. I enjoyed the mix between weird mystery and paranormal, and some moments were pretty funny. Overall, a nice read, especially for its weird side.
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