Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency¶
350 words on Books
I 
read Douglas Adams' Hitchiker's Guide a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. Although I mostly don't like science fiction, because I think it's tacky and tends to be all nerdy and crap, the Guide was just hilariously funny and had some sort of style, which I cannot find in other science fiction stories.
Hm, to be correct, of course Douglas Adams' isn't the best science fiction writer as that honour definitely goes to Stanisław Lem, who has less science and more and better fiction in his stories - they're just brilliant. Brilliant enough you may just not want to classify him as science fiction writer but simply as a storyteller. But I digress, this is about Douglas Adams after all.
So liking the Hitchhiker's Guider and even having got the original BBC 4 radio play as a good-bye present from Dan, I thought I might as well try some other of Douglas Adams' writing, hence buying Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.
As expected, the book was quite funny, introducing many absurd situations that the protagonists deal with without suggesting anything uncommon is going on. In this respect it was along the lines of the Hitchhiker's Guide, altough in places the style reminded me of some Kurt Vonnegut books, done less well. So altogether I'd say the book was entertaining and funny, but not as well done as the Hitchhiker's Guide. [And even the fact that the books shows Douglas Adams as being a dedicated Mac user can't change that.]
“[...] May I ask how you arrived at the solution?”
“I have to admit,” said Dirk with rare humility, “that I did not. In the end I asked a child. I told him the story of the trick and asked him how he thought it had been done, and he said, and I quote ‘It's bleedin' obvious, innit, he must've 'ad a bleedin' time machine.’ I thanked the little feloow and gave him a shilling for his trouble. Her kicked me rather sharply on the shin and wend about his business. [...]”
