“DIRK GENTLY’S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY We solve the whole crime We find the whole person Phone today for the whole solution to your problem (Missing cats and messy divorces a specialty)”
Douglas Adams has to be one of the most wacky and brilliant writers to have graced us with his talents. Dirk Gently is one of the characters created by this magnificent madman.
Who is Dirk Gently? Genius. Lunatic. Psychic. Bat. Detective. While there doesn’t seem to be a real definition to what a holistic detective agency is, in full, this much can be said. The interconnectedness of all things. And Douglas Adams is a writer of such. When I first read Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, I was younger and probably had a much more difficult time finding the idiosyncrasies of British Humor, but none the less fell in love with the characters and the story. Adams mashes up words and phrases and ideologies and creates complex new ideas which seem like old ideas with perfectly reasonable explanations to everything from tea to the meaning of life. Not sure how he manages to make the mundane fanciful, while keeping it mundane, but that’s a good writer for you.
The story itself is hard to explain. A series of time traveling conundrums, murder by monk, communications from the spirit world and a seriously stuck sofa. But to try and give a real explanation of such a unique story does it injustice and so I won’t. One must read the novel in order to understand what it is about.
This being the second go around with this novel I found myself laughing much more, most likely (as stated) due to my age and experience. I wanted to refresh myself of the characters before the BBC America series started later this year. When I first heard it was going to be turned into a television series I was ecstatic! Who wouldn’t be? A series about ghostly phenomenon and unknowns of time travel and world saving escapades by a fumbling, sarcastic and thoroughly self absorbed genius. That might not come across as everyones cup of tea, and so be it. Though the series is to be set within the states the writing looks to be keeping a gently British tone and so the dry wit should still be there. I look forward to the series and also look forward to visiting Dark Tea Time of the Soul once more.
The shame here is that we only got two Dirk Gently novels by Adams himself. Clearly those two novels have made impressions on a great deal of people however, and so the character Dirk lives on through other people’s eyes and imaginations. Thank you, Douglas Adams!
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