Feb 27, 2004 10:18 AM
2234 Views
(Updated Mar 01, 2004 01:57 PM)
Dirk Gently (a.k.a. Svlad Cjelli) happens to be one of those perpetually broke detectives, specializing into messy divorces and missing felines. He employs an absolutely farcical & crazy (nonetheless, successful) theory of The Fundamental Interconnectedness of all Things to solve the whole crime, and find the whole person. The theory propounds that the infamous cause and effect relationship is often much more subtle and complex than what it's naturally supposed to be, with the rough and ready understanding of one's physical world.
His quirky tiffs with his belligerent secretary, his convincing of his clients of the significance of holisticness in his exploration of fundamental interconnectedness of all things, his final exam-clairvoyance scandal at St. Cedd (where all of his mysteriously prognosticated questions find place in the question paper, just because they become so popular that even the professor simply copied them while setting the paper) sets forth a trigger on the hilariously chaotic explosion.
A (trivial) death in mysterious & murky circumstances followed by a break-in into an apartment, Quantum theory & Scrodinger's cats simply leave the reader wonderstruck on how to actually probe among all these events, some interconnectedness for himself (however fundamental or farcical it maybe). But the plot swings and twists and turns all the more crazily & funnily.
The other characters include a Professor of Chronology, Urban Chronotis, also called ``Reg'' at St. Cedd who has a predisposition for childish conjuring tricks and an extremely bad memory; his erstwhile student and now a promising young computer software developer in form of Richard MacDuff; Gordon Way, Richard's boss and his deatched sister, Susan Way who also happens to be Richard's neglected girlfriend.
Numerous events and objects - like an irreversibly stuck sofa on the staircase in Richard's apartment which according to his simulations, had no way for to even get there in the first place; Gordon's (pathetic?) state of affairs as a spectre; an Electric Monk whose job is to believe things for you so as to save you from the increasingly becoming onerous task of believing - drive one into peals of laughter. As a basic theme of his novel, Adams takes a mild literary swipe at S.T. Coleridge's capabilities of writing while in trance & his poem ``The Rime of Ancient Mariner'' in a very intricate but humorous manner.
Now, in case my review isn't (convincing) enough, I'm sure the book's blurb (pasted down below) would surely tickle you down there and make this novel an irresistible read..........
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 very much;
until Dirk Gently, sets out to prove fundamental interconnectedness of all
things, just to save entire human race from extinction (at no extra charge)
I personally find this as one of the most entertaining reads in recent times & whole heartedly recommend this sci-fi thriller, romantic comedy all rolled into one - to be read not once, not twice but as many times as possible, simply because it keeps on getting funnier........
