After Wellington Stout is shot in the head in Milan, he finds himself dealing with a world turned upside down, encountering an ancient conspiracy of dentists, an extraterrestrial shoe salesman, and pieces of his own past.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
The former editor of Orbit, the influential series of hard-cover anthologies of science fiction that flourished from 1966 to 1980, Damon Knight is a distinguished writer, editor, and critic of science fiction. In his latest work the hero, Wellington Stout, wakes up with a bullet in his head and a distorted perception of the world. Strangely, others seem to think he holds the answers to the questions that confound him. With Stout threatened by forces he only dimly understands, Knight offers an inspired and fast-paced race towards enlightenment.
From Publishers Weekly
Writing in a less linear fashion than usual, Knight (Why Do Birds?) plunges into the surreal in this novel replete with alien shoe salesmen, a deeply underground society of dentists, mafiosi and sly observations about appearances and reality on this planet. Wellington Stout, a sales manager specializing in ladies' undergarments, awakens in an Italian hospital to discover a bullet lodged in his skull. As a previously unknown planet appears near Earth, and craters open across North America, Stout's new third eye makes him the monkey-in-the-middle of a multidimensional contest for dominance of Earth, catapulting him from subterranean radioactive chambers to museums filled with hollow men, to the heart of an alien future. Anchoring the madcap plot is Stout's bedrock integrity, as the salesman stoically faces indignities ranging from suffering the banality of hospital bedpans to being force-fed hash brownies. Knight's observations about the human condition?which dwell at length on the sociological and sartorial consequences of our sex organs?are frequently dead-on, and the narrative abounds in wry moments. The chaotic nature of the plot and the emphasis on description over action may confuse some fans of old-style SF (including of Knight's own work), but others will find it happy evidence that, 41 years after the publication of his first novel, Knight can still surprise and delight.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
if you like Philip K Dick,
By A Customer
This review is from: Humpty Dumpty: An Oval (Paperback)
It's been tough to find a book in the "mind" of Philip K Dick since his death, except for Michael Bishop's ".. Alas" it seemed the mind-game genre was done and then I found this. Mr. Knight's previous had never floored me (except his true hisotry book "The Futurians") but this is something else. I see lower scores here and figure that the type of story is just "quirky" or "cute" to many readers but if you're really into reality-questioning fiction then this is one not to miss.If you like it, do try the later PKD novels (starting with Maze Of Death) and, this may sound odd but it's true, go back and re-read Socrates for fun.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
did I miss something?,
This review is from: Humpty Dumpty: An Oval (Paperback)
I must have either missed a whole bunch of allusions and metaphors in this book, otherwise I simply can't understand what the previous reviewers were thinking. I found the story incredibly disjointed, becoming more so towards the conclusion. Perhaps owing to my own obtuse nature I failed to understand anything concerning the plot or the characters. One the whole, nothing was resolved to my satisfaction. I can only hope that other readers will have a more satisfying experience that my own. Please - don't hesitate to fill me in if you can figure this one out! cheers
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I LOVED "why I don't want to be a woman" paraaagrah,
By A Customer
This review is from: Humpty Dumpty: An Oval (Paperback)
I don't remember much about the book except that one paragraph detailing "why I don't want to be a woman." I have had to check out the book from the libaray again just to read that one paragraph. I remember enjoying the book, but that one paragraph. When DID I sign up for the beauty contest, anyway? I don't remember.
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