Paperback, 254 pages
Published April 18, 2006 by Anagrama, Editorial Anagrama.
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is a humorous detective novel by English writer Douglas Adams, first published in 1987. It is described by the author on its cover as a "thumping good detective-ghost-horror-who dunnit-time travel-romantic-musical-comedy-epic".
The book was followed by a sequel, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. The only recurring major characters are the eponymous Dirk Gently, his secretary Janice Pearce and Sergeant Gilks. Adams also began work on another novel, The Salmon of Doubt, with the intention of publishing it as the third book in the series, but died before completing it.
More quality writing. Somehow manages to weirder than Hitchhikers Guide, but HG is my favourite of the two
Saw the TV show come by, and shrugs while I rather like the TV show on its own merits, the book is a different beast entirely - and an excellent read, ideally before watching the show.
Or: Somewhat less manic than THHGTG, but very rewarding, and really well constructed.
I'd wanted to read this one for a long time. Enjoyable, if not as effervescent and sublimely funny as the first few Hitchhiker books. I will say that it struck me as very odd that Douglas "Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe there are fairies at the bottom of it too" Adams would be trucking with ghosts, and I expected him to really skewer the "holistic" end of things as well... but there you have it. Having most of the story set in the ordinary humdrum world, aside from the flashes of... well... other stuff... was a bit of a disappointment as well- it made things much more serious for me, which wasn't really what one picks up Adams for. Or perhaps I should say that the balance of funny and serious leaned much more heavily to serious here than I would …
I'd wanted to read this one for a long time. Enjoyable, if not as effervescent and sublimely funny as the first few Hitchhiker books. I will say that it struck me as very odd that Douglas "Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe there are fairies at the bottom of it too" Adams would be trucking with ghosts, and I expected him to really skewer the "holistic" end of things as well... but there you have it. Having most of the story set in the ordinary humdrum world, aside from the flashes of... well... other stuff... was a bit of a disappointment as well- it made things much more serious for me, which wasn't really what one picks up Adams for. Or perhaps I should say that the balance of funny and serious leaned much more heavily to serious here than I would have expected for something other than "Last Chance to See." I will also say that it annoyed me quite a lot that there's only one female character of consequence, and especially to have her role be to nag her boyfriend, one of the protagonists, about his childish and inconsiderate behavior... but take him back unquestioningly, especially when he all but abandons her after a truly traumatic loss! The other female characters are a little girl and someone so inconsequential she can't even get her boss to notice she's quit. It made me want to go back to the Hitchhiker series and see if there are any female characters at all aside from Trillian (again, whose role is mostly to be desirable and also to nag and suffer through the male characters' antics) and the girl Arthur ends up with. Oh, and the daughter, I suppose. I guess everyone in Adams books is either a bit of a putz or a nag... but still.
With all of that said, this really was enjoyable at times- that sparkling humor and unmistakable eye for the absurd that made me love his other work is still here, and I truly and longingly wish he had been around longer to work out some of the kinks.
It's not that this book is bad - it's just that there are better ones in the series.
I love Douglas Adams. And even though I think the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is among the best books I've read, I find this one equally good, but at the same time a bit closer to my heart. I'm not sure why.
I just finished re-reading this; I usually read it about once a decade or so. The Dirk Gently books are by far the best works of Adams, though I love all of them. Just Dirk Gently more.
