Customer Reviews

The Dice Man

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

According to Time Out, this book was one of the most fashionable novels of the early 1970s; and Anthony Burgess, the author of the unsettling "A Clockwork Orange" (1962), graced it with the comment "touching, ingenious and beautifully comic."

"The Dice Man" is a dark comedy, violent and hilarious at the same time; an upbeat precursor to the much grimmer "American Psycho" (1991) by Bret Easton Ellis, and the similarly satirical "The Elementary Particles" (1998) by the French author Michel Houellebecq. With a light touch and in mischievously entertaining fashion, the book plays with the fundamentals of the way we understand ourselves: rationality, identity, reality; in sum, all the ways in which we construct coherence from chance, or something from nothing.

Luke Rhinehart, the author (in fact, the real author's pseudonym) and narrator of the book, is the ultimate unreliable narrator. Luke's actions are largely dictated by chance. He writes down alternative actions and then tosses dice to determine which action to take. The result, he claims, is freedom to live different sides of his personality. As an author, for example, he lets the dice decide what he should write in his fictional autobiography with the title "The Dice Man" and what not; and the dice decide when he should lie and when not. Consequently, he announces on page one that he is the author of "the lovely first-rate pornographic novel, Naked Before the World" only to reveal much later in the book that the dice ordered him not to write about this piece of fiction in "The Dice Man." Too bad, dear reader.

The book works not only as a send-up of the psychoanalytic profession and the counter-culture of the late 1960s, it also succeeds at creating its own twisted reality - as attested by all the readers who felt that their view of the world had been profoundly changed by this novel.

It is ironic that "The Dice Man" has a cult following while the book makes fun of the cult of Dice Living created by the fictional Luke Rhinehart. In a sense the cult following includes the real author himself who produced a couple of sequels to this book. The irony should not come as a surprise, though. Authors who are seriously unserious run a high risk of creating ironic side effects. One of the earliest examples is the Daoist philosopher Lao-Tse (born BC 604). He blissfully ignored the irony in his "Dao De Jing," a book that declares in the first sentence "the Dao that can be told is not the real Dao" and then goes on for some 5,000 words to explain what the Dao is.

In sum, "The Dice Man" is recommended for readers who are willing to suspend the sense of their own importance for the sake of enjoying a fictional world, and to tolerate an alien system of morality for the time it takes to read this original and amusing satire.

As usual, the dice said I should tell you what I thought about this book. There are several me's, and each one has a different opinion, or at least would like to say some things to you.

So I take a pen and a piece of paper and write down the options. If I roll...

1-4) I play around a little, and say this book was terrible, no explanations. There's that little part of me that likes to do a few pranks. 1 star.

5-6) I choose to take a civilized and wannabe-pro approach and use a lot of difficult words describing how intelligent and witty The Dice Man was. 5 stars.

7-17) I say that I really loved this book. I go to the extremities and use a whole lotta superlatives and exclamation marks. It was hilarious at most times, and thought-provoking at all times. The thing about giving your every side a chance to live it's life, to deliberately submit to a sort of a schitzophrenia being a good thing...interesting, most interesting. 5 stars, absolutely!

18-29) I take a very dice man-ish approach and choose to tell you my opinion on this book by describing the selection process. 5 stars.

30-32) I give up and never say an opinion on The Dice Man.

33) I "accidentally" write about a wrong book.

34-35) I write my review always one key stroke to the right. Q is W, W is E, E is R and so on.

36) I write my review in the same manner as described in one part of the The Dice Man.

Then I take two green dice, say a little prayers for the Die and throw them. 21. The Dice have ruled that I should write about my decision-making experience.

Although I'm here violating the laws of all uncertainty, I'd suggest you don't leave whether you read this novel or not to the whims of the dice. It might open up many doors. And change your life.

Or offer a new way of having fun, at least. 1) Read it. 2) Read it. 3) Read it twice. 4) Read it. 5) Read it. 6) Read it.

I feel about "Dice Man" a bit like I feel about Ayn Rand's novels: Both begin in our real world and proceed to carry us towards an alternate (superior?) life structure envisioned by the author. I can't see either vision as a complete blueprint for re-forming my life, and yet the ideas are extremely thought-provoking and powerfully expressed. I'm glad I read "Dice Man"; it's unique. It's also very enjoyable, if you have a taste for dark and absurd humor.

Interestingly, the story is told from the first person point of view of a New York psychologist named Luke Rhinehart. That's the name of the actual author of the book (a pen name). There is also a sequel, "Search for the Dice Man", although that is only in print in England. You can get it from Amazon's United Kingdom store, www.amazon.co.uk.

This is the book about Luke Rhinehart, he's in his thirties and tired of his life and the everyday routines "life is islands of extacy in an ocean of boredom, and when you reach your thirties you rarely see land...", one evening, after a poker evening with some of his collegues, when the collegues has left he finds a dice is missing, it's hidden under a card in the bookshelves, he believes, if this indeed is the dice and it shows the snake-eye I will go downstairs and rape Arlene, he thinks for himself. He lifts the card and finds the dice showing...the snake-eye. Thus The Dice Man is born, he starts letting the dice making all decicions for him. The first chapters in the book he describes what goes on in the mind of a depressed person, and he does it in a great way, you can't read these chapters without feeling some amount of recognition, though, after the first dice is thrown the homour takes over, and the book in a way looses some of the initial touch, though it's still great. This is concidered a cult classic, and is actually one of the few that holds for that pressure, for instance the british band Earthling is inspired by this book and uses "the dice technique" for writing their lyrics, for me this is a must-read

Shocking, revelatory, hilarious and pornographic novel about a square New York psychiatrist who turns a dice tossing experiment into a lifestyle and ultimately a revolutionary movement.

A self-confessed unreliable memoir with the tart flavour of 1970's hippie, free-love (sex sex sex), anti-establishment ethos (you can just sense Nixon in the background). It may not, as the cover claims, change your life but the odds are you will never look at a die the same way again. Luke Rhinehart shares a literary cell with Fight Club's Tyler Durden. You decide whether it should be padded.

Looking deep inside yourself, you might be surprised to find a romantic, murderer, trainspotter and adulterer all rolled into one.

Don't believe me? "The Dice Man" argues that these characteristics should be available simply at the roll of a dice. And if you are not sure what you are going to do after reading this review, why not leave it to chance. Roll a (1), make a cup of tea; (2) watch TV; (3) have a kip; (4) go for a walk; (5) do some work; (6) shoot your pet dog.

Anyone who has a urge towards spontanaety and keeping an open mind on life should certainly read this book.

One gripe, though, is that the book seemed to drag a bit. But heh, when you have to finish only when the die tells you to, I guess there's no choice.

This is a classic subversive book from the early 70s, banned in several countries (but I managed to smuggle it into South Africa).

There are strong links to the anti-psychiatry sentiments of the time, but it's not a book to be taken literally, and definitely not as a guide for sensible living.

It's funny, outrageous and moving. It's a catalyst for deeper-than-normal thought. It'll always have a cult following.

If you don't read "The Diceman", your life will be poorer for it.

I read this book over 10 years ago, yet recommended it to someone I met in a bar in Oslo 2 weeks ago ! Such was its effect.

When meeting strangers this is one book that I mention that will always make for a cracking conversation. The central idea is so delicious - to be ruled by the dice.

One of life's "must read" books.

The Diceman is brilliant. Premised on the idea that within each human is the capacity for multiple personalities, Rhinehart urges us to seek out those which are otherwise oppressed- through randomness.

The plot twists and turns as the die take the hero through a life of randomness. Most of the time, its insightful, if a bit far-fetched, and witty, if a bit predictable. There are scenes where graphic depiction of sex stands for genuine plot, occaisonally causing the book to drag.

All in all, a great read. Reads pretty quickly, keeps you thinking, and engrosses you with a small cast of deep characters.

Highly recommend.

This is a must read.... all the reviews are good... I should like this book.

But I'm going to be honest here.... I did not like it. For one thing it could have been shortened a great deal without anyone noticing or missing anything. I felt some explicit scenes were inserted simply to liven up a boring narrative. Writing is like painting you need to know when enough is enough to make a masterpiece and this author, apparently, did not receive that memo.

The funny thing is, I was recommended this book by a friend who thought it hilarious that I sometimes make decisions randomly by drawing pieces of paper out of a salad bowl- all with different options written on them. Which eliminates the possibility that I'm just a super rigid freak, right? This also wasn't required reading for school. That brings me to the point- what exactly did I miss? What is that thing that everyone loves so much about this book? In comparison to this Slaugher-house Five really is a masterpiece- if your in the market for new ideas to mull over. This rating thing I guess its all relative to what else you've just read.

**If you disagree with my review plz refrain from voting on it... this is my opinion which is subject to change at any given moment.... place a persuasive argument inducing that change, intstead. :)

EDIT: I just realized something, a few days after reading this book. This book is a look at alternative to suicide. Main character contemplates physical suicide. At the last minute comes across a different method of suicide that will allow him to commit his suicide and still live.... he lets the die govern and commits social suicide. So basically, this book may be a statement on "if your miserable why not seek change instead of death." Thought I'd share that with you all.