I don’t know if it’s me, but I found it very difficult getting immersed in the book. It took me reading about half of it before I was invested in the story and the characters. But now, I can’t wait to read what’s next!

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

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.

It's all about the couch.

Allow me to elucidate. Doug Adams book. Funny? Sure. Satirical? Check. But would you have guessed intricately plotted?

Adams, who practically invented the vein of British literary humor now being minted hand-over-fist by Terry Pratchett, is in fine form with this novel, his major work outside the Hitchhiker's universe. We get the same bumbling protaginsts, the gently affable quasi-villain, the apocalyptic-threat-which-is-not-a-threat, the deft one-sentence-paragraph narratorial asides. Check, check, and checkeroo.

But we also get something we can't have gotten in Hitchhikers, which was written in sometimes lightning-round single drafts, sometimes mere minutes before the radio-plays would hit the air. Under those circumstances, there was no way for Adams to think too far in advance. It had to be joke, bang, plot, joke, action, joke, exposition...and it shows in the number of times he wrote himself into a corner and then had to pull a Deus-ex-Machina out of the sky to save the narrative.

Not so in Dirk Gently, where tiny throw-away details become massively essential plot points late in the book, and all of the little details together topple into a eperfect, crystalline structure by the end of the story. The perfect example is the bit about the couch. At the beginning of the story, we see our poor schlepp of a protagonist working his way over a couch which has gotten wedged in his stairwell. Cute bit of physical humor, and in a lesser book, that would be the end of it. Instead, long about the penultimate chapter, the couch problem becomes a part of the solution to the whole messy apocalyptic threat mentioned earlier. It's a breathtaking bit of plotting, and I can't help but think Adams revelled in the chance to prove that his gift was not just the ability to make up rapid-fire absurdity, but to really master a novel, show it who'se boss, in a way which is entirely satisfying to the reader.

I first read this book quite a while ago, probably not long after it came out. A time we could look forward to a Douglas Adams book instead of having to look back to the past. He is missed.

I don't think I got anything more out of Dirk Gently than I did twenty years ago, but that's just fine.

It's funny without being silly, wry without being mean. I love Adams's humor, his turns of phrase, and how everything comes together in the end. Or the beginning. Or both.

I truly love this and Tea time - more so than the HH 'trilogy'.

Such wonderful characters and story-telling. DNA was truly a master craftsman.

You are missed!

Edit and update: listened to the audiobook. Magical. 10 stars. At least.

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

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

As a reread I prefer these to, "Hitchhiker." Funny well done.

I first read this within a year of this coming out in paperback for the first time, so I didn't remember much about it - except the Regius Professor of Chronology, who was based on an idea Adams had for the 1980 Dr Who story Shada, which never initially aired because of a BBC strike (it eventually saw the light in 2003, with voice-overs to fill in the bits that were missing).

Rereading it now, almost thirty years later, bits of it stand up very well, although it is dated in places, notably where computers and car phones are concerned. However, it still has the weirdness and whimsy I associate with Douglas Adams, and I'm glad I've reread it, and my inner musician really likes the idea of Bach's music being the music of the spheres.

"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.

Basic Plot: Dirk Gently (holistic private detective) proves how the world is interconnected by solving a murder and saving the entire human race, among other things.

The concept is hilarious- a detective who makes the most random connections possible to solve mysteries. His method of getting places (follow someone who looks like they know where they're going and you'll end up where you need to be eventually) is hysterical, and I must admit I've used it on a few occasions when lost. Only Douglas Adams could have created this madness and actually made it work. If you're a fan of the Hitchhiker books, it's a variation of the wackiness there, in a slightly (if that is even possible) more focused (though still very scattered) way.