Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Stillwater Public Library | FICTION DIC | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Author Notes
Phillip Kindred Dick was an American science fiction writer best known for his psychological portrayals of characters trapped in illusory environments. Born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 16, 1928, Dick worked in radio and studied briefly at the University of California at Berkeley before embarking on his writing career. His first novel, Solar Lottery, was published in 1955.
In 1963, Dick won the Hugo Award for his novel, The Man in the High Castle. He also wrote a series of futuristic tales about artificial creatures on the loose; notable of these was Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which was later adapted into film as Blade Runner. Dick also published several collections of short stories. He died of a stroke in Santa Ana, California, in 1982. (Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Dick, primarily known for his science fiction, produced a number of mainstream novels, but only one of these was published during his lifetime. Since his death in 1982, these fresh, involving books, written in the 1950s, have been appearing at the rate of about one a year; they reveal the author as a keen observer of life and love with an acutely modern sensibility. This narrative centers on the breathtakingly destructive lives of four residents of Northern California in 1956. All are lost souls to some extent, capable of taking almost violent action to assuage feelings of emptiness and meaninglessness. The narrator is Jim Briskin, a radio personality who has jeopardized his job in an act of willful rebellion and now turns to his ex-wife Pat, whom he still loves. Pat is even more willful but less mindful of consequences than Jim; when he takes her to visit two of his fans, a married teenage couple, Pat seduces the husband, setting in motion chaotic forces that almost wreck the lives of all four. A fascinating, totally believable account of life in the age of anxiety. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Like last year's Mary and the Giant, yet another haunting mainstream novel unpublished during Dick's lifetime. Once again, the setting is California during the 50's. The protagonist is popular San Francisco disc jockey Jim Briskin, who does everything from rock to classical on station KOIF, but gets sick and tired of announcing inane commercials for Looney Luke's Used Cars, says so on the air, and is given a one-month suspension by his irate boss. Jim then begins trying to woo back his lovely, alcoholic ex-wife Pat Grayson, who had divorced him when she found out he was sterile, and is now engaged to the shallow station manager at KOIF. Except that meanwhile Pat has gotten drunk and seduced poor Art Emmanuel--a teen-ager with a pregnant teen-age wife (both of them are fans of Jim's)--who refuses to stop at a one-night stand, blackening Pat's eye when she wants to back out of the relationship. By the time Jim rescues her from a motel on the outskirts of town, Pat is a suicidal wreck. Hovering around the edges of this mainstream plot--a kind of Dickian joke--is a weird group of kids, members of a science fiction-fan club called The Beings from Earth, who have hooked up with a truly weird paranoid named Ludwig Grimmelman, who wants to cleanse the world with fire and violence. Dick is never quite able to bring the two plots together; Grimmelman and his charges merely fade out of the action. But Pat and Jim's bittersweet reconciliation--a story of epic forgiveness--makes for a dramatic and even suspenseful close. Basically a love story, then--quirky, alternately hopeful and bleak, sad and funny, quintessentially Philip K. Dick--with a less successful stab at social issues like juvenile deliquency, teen-age pregnancy, and the like. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Dick's death in 1982 ended a prolific but unconsummated career. Best known as a writer of speculative fiction, Dick also ventured into the literary realm outside of the genre, which failed to earn him the attention he deserved. This novel, published 30 years after it was written, successfully evokes an era: the San Francisco of the 1950s. Jim Briskin, a rock 'n' roll disc jockey, refuses to broadcast a crass, used-car commercial, resulting in his suspension. His attempts to reunite with Patricia, his ex-wife, are complicated by the introduction of a teenage couple into their lives and the ambiguous seductions that follow. Subtle yet bold, The Broken Bubble captures the confusion and fears of making life decisions and facing their consequences. A touching and poignant novel. BS. [OCLC] 88-914
Library Journal Review
Set in mid-1950s San Francisco, this truly offbeat tale concerns disk jockey Jim Briskin, his ex-wife Pat, and married teenagers Art and Rachael. Briskin loves his ex-wife, classical music, and rock & roll. Pat loves no one. Art and Rachael idolize Jim because he is a disk jockey. Jim, in turn, sees himself as something of a father figure for Art and pregnant Rachael. After Pat seduces Art, it remains to Jim and Rachael to save both themselves and the other two. Marked by excellent characterization and a strong sense of place and time, this second posthumously published mainstream novel by celebrated science fiction writer Dick should further enhance his growing literary reputation. Highly recommended for collections of serious fiction.James B.Hemesath, Adams State Coll. Lib., Alamosa, Col. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
