The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike


Book Description

The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike was written by Philip K. Dick in the winter and spring of 1960, in Point Reyes Station, California. In the sequence of Dick's work, The Man Whose Teeth was written immediately after Confessions of a Crap Artist; the next book Dick wrote was The Man in the High Castle, the Hugo Award–winning science fiction novel that ushered in the next stage of Dick's career. This novel, Dick said, is about Leo Runcible, "a brilliant, civicminded liberal Jew living in a rural WASP town in Marin County, California." Runcible, a real estate agent involved in a local battle with a neighbor, finds what look like Neanderthal bones and dreams of rising real estate prices because of the publicity. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.




Humpty Dumpty In Oakland


Book Description

Set in the San Francisco Bay area in the late 1950s, Humpty Dumpty in Oakland is a tragicomedy of misunderstandings among used car dealers and real-estate salesmen: the small-time, struggling individuals for whom Philip K. Dick always reserved his greatest sympathy. Jim Fergesson, an elderly garage owner with a heart condition, is about to sell up and retire; Al Miller is a somewhat feckless mechanic who sublets part of Jim's lot and finds his livelihood threatened by the decision to sell; Chris Harman is a record company owner who for years has relied on Fergesson to maintain his cars. When Harman hears of Fergesson's impending retirement he tips him off to what he says is a cast-iron business proposition: a development in nearby Marin County with an opening for a garage. Al Miller, though, is convinced that Harman is a crook, out to fleece Fergesson of his life's savings. As much as he resents Fergesson he can't bear to see that happen and - denying to himself all the time what he is doing - he sets out to thwart Harman.




Vintage PKD


Book Description

A master of science fiction, a voice of the changing counterculture, and a genuine visionary, Philip K. Dick wrote about reality, entropy, deception, and the plight of being alive in the modern world. Through his remarkable career Dick has established himself as a writer of the first order and his dreams of the future have proven to be eerily prophetic and even more prescient than when he wrote them. Vintage PKD features extracts from The Man in the High Castle, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Ubik, A Scanner Darkly, VALIS, and stories including “The Days of Perky Pat,” “A Little Something for Us Tempunauts," and “I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon,” along with essays and letters currently unavailable in book form. Vintage Readers are a perfect introduction to some of the great modern writers, presented in attractive, affordable paperback editions.




Pink Beam


Book Description

A study of the novels and short stories of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick (1928-1982)with presentation of a literary chronology of his career.




Puttering About in a Small Land


Book Description

Written in the late 1950s but unpublished until after his death, this is one of Dick's greatest realistic novels When Roger and Virginia Lindhal enroll their son Gregg in Mrs Alt's Los Padres Valley School in the mountains of Southern California, their marriage is already in deep trouble. Then the Lindhals meet Chic and Liz Bonner, whose two sons also board at Mrs Alt's school. The meeting is a catalyst for a complicated series of emotions and traumas, set against the backdrop of suburban Los Angeles in the early 1950s. As Roger, Virginia, Chic and Liz orbit each other in ever-decaying circles, their lives threaten to run out of control. This is a realistic novel filled with details of everyday life and skilfully told from three points of view. It is powerful, eloquent, and gripping. Winner of both the HUGO and JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARDs for BEST NOVEL, Philip K. Dick is widely regarded as the premiere science fiction writer of his day. The object of cult-like adoration from his legions of fans, Philip K. Dick has come to be seen in a literary light that defies classification in much the same way as Borges and Calvino. With breathtaking insight, he utilizes vividly unfamiliar worlds to evoke the hauntingly and hilariously familiar in our society and ourselves.




How Much Does Chaos Scare You?: Politics, Religion, and Philosophy in the Fiction of Philip K. Dick


Book Description

A series of essays on the writing and ideas of Philip K. Dick presented in eight chapters. This in-depth look at the philosophies behind Dick's SF and mainstream novels is based on Barlow's 1988 doctoral dissertation at the University of Iowa.




Nick and the Glimmung


Book Description

Nick and his family are forced to leave Earth in order for him to keep his cat, Horace - because all pets are now banned, as they use up badly needed resources. They settle on Plowman's Planet, where they discover a variety of strange and wonderful alien lifeforms. But not all of these weird lifeforms are benevolent - and the family is involved in a series of increasingly dangerous mishaps. Can Horace and Nick manage to outwit the Wub, the Werjes, the Trobes - and the most dangerous of all, the Glimmung? Philip K. Dick's only children's book, first published after his death, brings together many of his most famous alien creations in one gently humorous tale.




With Teeth


Book Description

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST, VOGUE, MARIE CLAIRE, READER'S DIGEST, AND GOOD HOUSEKEEPING “A gripping read…Unabashedly queer, probing and unafraid…Exceedingly engaging.” –USA Today “Sublimely weird, fluently paced, brazenly funny and gayer still, and it richly deserves to find readers.” –New York Times From the author of the New York Times–bestselling sensation Mostly Dead Things: a surprising and moving story of two mothers, one difficult son, and the limitations of marriage, parenthood, and love If she’s being honest, Sammie Lucas is scared of her son. Working from home in the close quarters of their Florida house, she lives with one wary eye peeled on Samson, a sullen, unknowable boy who resists her every attempt to bond with him. Uncertain in her own feelings about motherhood, she tries her best—driving, cleaning, cooking, prodding him to finish projects for school—while growing increasingly resentful of Monika, her confident but absent wife. As Samson grows from feral toddler to surly teenager, Sammie’s life begins to deteriorate into a mess of unruly behavior, and her struggle to create a picture-perfect queer family unravels. When her son’s hostility finally spills over into physical aggression, Sammie must confront her role in the mess—and the possibility that it will never be clean again. Blending the warmth and wit of Arnett’s breakout hit, Mostly Dead Things, with a candid take on queer family dynamics, With Teeth is a thought-provoking portrait of the delicate fabric of family—and the many ways it can be torn apart.




The Search for Philip K. Dick


Book Description

Offering an intimate perspective on the life of an important, prolific author, this revealing biography uncovers the inner workings of a cult figure through his tumultuous relationship with his third wife. Brilliant and charismatic, Philip K. Dick was known as a loyal friend, father, and husband, as well as a talented science fiction writer. His six-year marriage to the woman he described as “the love of his life” and his intellectual equal was full of passion—the meeting of soul mates. But behind the façade of an untroubled life was a man struggling with his demons, unable to trust anyone, and reliant upon his charm to navigate his increasingly dark reality and descent into drugs and madness. Exposing personal details of their married life as well as the ways he continued to haunt her even after their relationship collapsed, Anne Dick provides thorough research combined with personal memories of this mysterious man.




More Alive and Less Lonely


Book Description

From the award-winning author of Motherless Brooklyn and The Ecstasy of Influence comes a new collection of essays that celebrates a life spent in books More Alive and Less Lonely collects over a decade of Jonathan Lethem’s finest writing on writing, with new and previously unpublished material, including: impassioned appreciations of forgotten writers and overlooked books, razor-sharp critical essays, and personal accounts of his most extraordinary literary encounters and discoveries. Only Lethem, with his love of cult favorites and the canon alike, can write with equal insight into classic writers like Charles Dickens and Herman Melville, modern masters like Lorrie Moore and Thomas Pynchon, graphic novelist Chester Brown, and science fiction outlier Philip K. Dick. Sharing his infectious love for books of all kinds, More Alive and Less Lonely is a bracing voyage of literary discovery and an essential addition to every booklover’s shelf.