Customer Reviews

Cardboard Universe, The: A Guide to the World of Phoebus K. Dank (P.S.)

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4 star:		(1)
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This book is a terrific read! Once I started it, I couldn't stop. The short entries, like from an encyclopedia, make the pace really move, and before I knew it, I was very wrapped up in the plot, which unfolds slowly and beautifully. Also the book is just hilarious -- and the ending, though I don't want to give anything away -- is quite sad. All in all, a complete winner, end to end. Bravo!

In Cardboard Universe, Chris Miller tells the gloomily yet hilariously believable tale of three no-talent writers: Bill Boswell, the story's narrator; Phoebus K. Dank, its ostensible subject; and Owen Hirt, Boswell's nemesis. But, as anyone familiar with Miller's earlier novel, Simon Silber, should expect, things are not as they seem. The characters may not be what or even who (or is that whom?) they say they are, or even think they are.

Phoebus K. Dank is a science fiction writer modeled on Philip K. Dick, but living half a century later. Though moderately successful, he is not particularly talented - both of the other characters point out the weaknesses of his work, Boswell smarmily and Hirt viciously. Unlike Boswell (who can't get his fiction published) and Hirt (who can't get anything published) Dank makes a decent living as a writer. It's obvious that Miller knows Dick: Every detail of Dank's life is set out in deliberate imitation of or contrast to some element of Dick's. And Dick's oeuvre - especially Valis - is mercilessly parodied. At this point Philip K. Dick's fans may be stirring uneasily, not certain whether Miller loves Dick or hates him. Dank seems drawn from the unflattering portrait in Thomas M. Disch's The Dreams Our Stuff is Made of rather than the more hagiographic portraits of Rest assured: Such obsessive attention to detail can only come from true devotion; as G.K. Chesterton said, parody is the worshipper's half-holiday. And just to dispel any doubts, Miller praises Dick in an afterword.

Including a character based on a fairly well-known real person can be dealt with in several ways; Miller, happily, chooses the path of humor. Throughout the novel he pokes fun at the conceit, whether mocking the book's own disclaimer that "any resemblance to any persons living or dead is purely coincidental," or mocking himself for choosing to write the book this way, or playing post-structuralist games: Dank lives in an alternate universe in which Philip K. Dick never existed, but Dank begins to suspect Dick's and by extension Miller's existence, choosing at the end to go on strike. (In another, comical afterword, he interviews Miller, disdainfully.) Many other such games can be found throughout the book: Spot the lipogram! Watch it disappear beneath another!

This isn't to say Miller has written a collection of obscure egghead in-jokes, though. For instance, I'm not much of a Philip K. Dick fan, and haven't read half the works parodied or referred to in The Cardboard Universe. I'm sure jokes by the dozens sailed over my head, but there were enough, from the crudely physical to the airily cerebral, to keep me smiling throughout.

I can't say too much about Boswell or Hirt without giving away too much of the story, but here are the basics: Boswell is a sycophant and failed novelist who becomes, as his name would suggest, Dank's biographer, which Dank himself finds "not plausible." At least one of Boswell's novels, described but never presented, seems to be a burlesque of the structure of the aforementioned Disch's 334 - another Oulipo reference. Hirt is a boyhood friend of Dank, as much of a failure as a poet as Boswell is as a novelist. Naturally, the two detest each other.

While all three characters are as cluelessly inept as the two protagonists of Simon Silber, Miller is up to something darker here; Bill Boswell is made from something more sinister than Norm Fayreweather Jr. And now I've said as much as I can without unforgivable spoilers...

As in Simon Silber, the influence of Nabokov and John Kennedy Toole is clearly visible; here there's a third influence equally present - a novel about Philp K. Dick must, at least some of the time, be Dickian. The Cardboard Universe will make you laugh, and possibly cry, while reading, and it will make you think afterward. Ultimately there's something serious being said here about the relationship between writers and those who study them; this deserves a place on the shelf of literature about literary criticism alongside David Lodge's Rummidge College trilogy.

Finally, some innovative fiction with a sense of humor! This novel is the real deal and Christopher Miller is a genius. Unlike much of the innovative stuff out there, this isn't selfish esoterica you have to pretend to like; this is intelligent and groundbreaking in its narrative structure, but it's also hilarious. Best book I've read in a long while. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

The late Phoebus K. Dank was a copious author of mostly science fiction. His collective work was not highly regarded by critics as his plots were simplistic proof that the shortest distance between two points was his storylines from start to finish. Yet somehow anything Dank wrote was published and his loyal fan base would have bought his copying the Hemlock phonebook.

After his death, an encyclopedia of all things Dank and dirty appears. Primarily two men debate the merit of Dank. Professor Bill Boswell who did his thesis on Dank conducts a class in Dank Studies at Hemlock in California; Dank's housemate Owen Hirt is renowned in Dank circles for more than rooming with the author as he is famous for murdering him. They represent the polar opposites with both sharing the thought that Dank would have abbreviated them.

This is an odd brilliant premise that satirizes the self proclaimed experts on the works of a writer, but could be any topic like TV business and financial reporters. The book has an encyclopedia feel to it as it serves in many ways more like a biography than a novel in spite of the clever murder mystery that runs throughout. Although at times the tale is difficult to read as "encyclopedia" sections require filler to insure the concept remains valid, fans will enjoy this often amusing lampoon summed up with the ironic twist that Phillip K. Dick appears in a Phoebus K. Dank story.

Harriet Klausner

I had high hopes for this book, being a fan of Philip K. Dick and open (erroneously) to more "post-modern" styles of writing, I was greatly disappointed. The writing isn't terrible, but is also far from stellar.

The plot is laughable and transparent, and obviously took a backseat to the author's improve upon the age-old narrative style of regular prose and dialog. I knew exactly what was going happen around 1/3 of the way through, and the rest was just (arduously) watching the pieces fall into their boringly predictable order.

I really have no idea why modern authors feel the need to improve on narrative styles. The normal narrative has been very successful, and has been used since before Gilgamesh with great results. Only one author has been successful in fixing that which isn't broke, and that was probably a fluke. House of Leaves is the only time this has worked, though some might argue that Nabokov could also pull it off, though I disagree. Both Danielewski and Nabokov, though, could actually write well enough to cover for their experimentation. Miller can't.

This is also another case of the frightful modern trend of "Lit porn", books written by literature or English proffessors for literature or English students and professors, which a focus on the details that only really matter to literature or English professors or students. I suppose this is because the only people who consistently read or buy books are now stuck in college English departments. I am not, and therefore I don't care about the plight of the writing process, or teaching undergrads about books. Sadly this was the point of this book. You, unless you are embedded in an English department somewhere, are not the target of this book.