Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

The start was rather difficult as I had a hard time understanding the accents of the actors and some of the references weren't known to me. About half way thru I was more comfortable with the accents but now wondering where the plot was going. The rest of the story I enjoyed, as the plot started to untangle and resolve.

This book was such a wild ride I'm still not sure what to think of it. The ending confused me so I looked the references up, and after that I loved it. I've decided I will not only read a Douglas Adams book, because they are such hard reads that don't hook me fast enough. I ended up in a book slump (not reading cause i did in fact keep reading for months, just no the book)

This is one of my favourite books, and I think it's the best thing Douglas Adams ever did.Some readers seem disappointed because they expected another volume of [b:The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 11 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1) Douglas Adams https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1531891848l/11.SY75.jpg 3078186]. Well, the Hitchhiker's Guide was written as a radio comedy series, and this was written as a novel: not the same thing at all.Furthermore, although this novel has frequent humorous touches, at which you may laugh, it's not primarily a comedy. It's a kind of mystery-fantasy-science-fiction novel, the main mystery being how the author is going to tie together so many strange and disparate characters and events that don't seem to go together. The marvel is that he does it in the end.I can think of two features that this novel has in common with the Hitchhiker's Guide: the protagonist, Richard MacDuff, is a relatively normal man, not very different from Arthur Dent; and the existence of the human race comes under threat. Oh, and there is a spaceship involved; but it makes only a brief appearance in the story, and the characters don't travel anywhere in it.Dirk Gently is of importance to the story, he serves to tie it all together; but it's not told from his point of view. He's an eccentric and unique character, who seems intelligent and yet barely capable of earning a living, such is his eccentricity. An interesting creation.I've met one person who avoided this book because he doesn't like detective stories. Well, Dirk Gently claims to be a detective, and does succeed more than anyone else in understanding what's going on; but to describe it as a detective story would be seriously misleading. Some people have observed that you have to read the book more than once to understand it, and I suppose this is true. Anyone reading the early chapters for the first time (as I did in 1987) can only be bewildered by the apparently pointless and disconnected fragments of story that are initially revealed. Indeed, when I gave it to my mother to read, she abandoned it in disgust. However, if you like fantasy/science-fiction mysteries, continue reading, and your patience will be rewarded.The book references and quotes from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, two poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834). Some familiarity with these poems may be helpful in understanding the story, although I don't think it's essential.

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.)

It's probably more a result of a a cozy rainy Sunday after a busy Friday and Saturday, but I found myself nodding off repeatedly while reading this. There was a plot, not too much nonsense, and some sharp satire about faith without reason...I can deal with a con man that is relatively harmless or possibly psychic, I can get into a computer programmer who likes mapping the world in music, and I love a little old professor who does conjuring tricks and has an unusual relationship with time. There was a spot of violence and violent intentions I wasn't expecting, the ghost lore feels more introduced than explored, but where it all really falls down is that my copy had a cat on the front cover and a mention of a cat on the back and very little cat content, no actual cat characters present, in the book. Bad advertising, for shame! I think Adams wanted it to be something a little more than silly, and I was looking for silly, and I'm not sure either of us got what we wanted. If I approach the rest of the series as sci-fi-fantasy-mysteries with a surrealist satirical twist I'll probably have a better time of it.