donn@utah-cs (08/09/85)
From: donn@utah-cs (Donn Seeley) (I hope you won't mind seeing a review of a non-sf book here, but it IS by Philip K Dick, who has many rabid fans in the sf community, crazy people who might actually take the time to read a few of his mainstream novels... Like me.) IN MILTON LUMKY TERRITORY (Dragon Press: c1985, 213 pp) is one in a series of mainstream novels by Dick to reach the public in recent years. When Dick's career was beginning he wrote some 11 mainstream novels, none of which he succeeded in publishing at the time they were written. (More information about the unpublished novels can be found in Kim Stanley Robinson's PhD dissertation, THE NOVELS OF PHILIP K DICK.) In 1975 Dick's novel CONFESSIONS OF A CRAP ARTIST was published, and it proved to be as good and as interesting as his best science fiction. THE MAN WHOSE TEETH WERE ALL EXACTLY ALIKE, Dick's last mainstream novel (written after CONFESSIONS and immediately before THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE) was next to appear. TEETH provides a wonderful view of the psychological anatomy of Dick's characters, and is possibly the clearest example of his favorite theme, which is that all human beings live in their own separate realities. TERRITORY is the story of Bruce Stevens, a young man who knows he can make it in the commercial world. Over the course of the book we see how his confidence and arrogance affect those around him, and how he in turn is affected by circumstance in ways that are beyond his control, until he reaches a point when his reality begins to crumble. I don't want to give the impression that Dick wanders away on one of his head trips in this novel -- the style is concrete, grittily realistic, placing the reader squarely in the middle of Stevens' misaligned relationships, putting you behind the wheel of his Merc as he drives around the West of the 1950s looking for deals on electric typewriters and falling in love, making mistakes, laughing and crying. But the people are unmistakably Dick people, and out of the context of his sf novels we get to see just how excruciatingly real these people are. TERRITORY's theme, I think, is like that of TEETH, but the books are distinct. Although I prefer TEETH, if you are a Dick fanatic it will be well worth your time to get both books and compare them. TERRITORY has the advantage that it concentrates on a single character and has a very nearly linear plot with a coherent ending. I think it is less well written than TEETH -- there are places which seem to need trimming and polishing, and there are stretches of the book that are a bit dull. According to the blurb on the flap of TERRITORY, Kim Stanley Robinson declares that TERRITORY is a 'bitter indictment of the effects of capitalism,' but Dick himself says in his foreword: 'This is actually a very funny book, and a good one too, in that the funny things that happen happen to real people who come alive. The ending is a happy one. What more can an author say? What more can he give?' I side with Dick, but you may disagree. Like most Dick novels, the story is open to interpretation... 'People have to face reality sometime,' says Milton Lumky, Donn Seeley University of Utah CS Dept donn@utah-cs.arpa 40 46' 6"N 111 50' 34"W (801) 581-5668 decvax!utah-cs!donn PS -- More detail on how to get TEETH and TERRITORY: THE MAN WHOSE TEETH WERE ALL EXACTLY ALIKE is published by Mark V Ziesing, PO Box 806, Willimantic CT 06226; ISBN 0-9612970-0-X; $19.50, hardcover with a jacket illustration by Dell Harris. IN MILTON LUMKY TERRITORY is published by Dragon Press, PO Box 78, Pleasantville NY 10570; ISBN 0-911499-09-1; $29.95, hardcover with a jacket by Barclay Shaw. Apparently one orders Dragon Press books from Ultramarine Publishing Co., PO Box 303, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. (I saved some time and confusion by getting both books from Mark Ziesing...)