Time Out of Joint [Paperback]

Philip K. Dick (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 14, 2002

Time Out of Joint is Philip K. Dick’s classic depiction of the disorienting disparity between the world as we think it is and the world as it actually is. The year is 1998, although Ragle Gumm doesn’t know that. He thinks it’s 1959. He also thinks that he served in World War II, that he lives in a quiet little community, and that he really is the world’s long-standing champion of newspaper puzzle contests. It is only after a series of troubling hallucinations that he begins to suspect otherwise. And once he pursues his suspicions, he begins to see how he is the center of a universe gone terribly awry.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Written in the late 1950s and early 1960s, these titles follow Dick's familiar theme that things and people are not quite what and who they seem, basically challenging reality. Though dead for 20 years now, Dick still is hugely popular among sf readers and Blade Runner nuts, so pop for these.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“Dick was one of the genuine visionaries.... His best novels constitute as significant a body of work as that of any writer in this country in the last thirty years.”– L.A. Weekly

“Dick was sf’s greatest extrapolator of modern angst.” --New York Daily News

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (May 14, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 037571927X
• ISBN-13: 978-0375719271
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.5 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #842,911 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars SF NOVELS OPUS SIX January 22, 2001

By Daniel S.

Format:Paperback

As a former reviewer has pointed it out, Philip K. Dick's TIME OUT OF JOINT has greatly inspired the authors of the screenplay of Peter Weir's THE TRUMAN SHOW. Ragle Gumm, the hero of TIME OUT OF JOINT, is questioning the reality he is living in, like in fact the majority of the characters created by Philip K. Dick during his literary career.

Ragle Gumm's efforts to discover the "hidden" side of the world he has been thrown into is, in my opinion, the most interesting aspect of the novel. The science-fictional explanation of the reasons why Ragle Gumm has to play everyday is not very convincing and the analysis of the origin of the war between Lunatics and Terrians way too simple for an author such as PKD.

However, TIME OUT OF JOINT provides the kind of pleasure the Philip K. Dick fan searches in vain in today sci-fi production. So don't hesitate to add this book to your collection if you are already familiar with the world of this writer.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Disguise Is the Nature of Nature July 17, 2002

By miles@riverside

Format:Paperback

Somewhere I read Philip K. Dick say that the one most important piece of knowledge he had picked up from philosophy is that, "The nature of reality is to disguise its true nature" (which he claimed to have read in Heraclitus, though it's difficult to be sure if Heraclitus actually said that).

TIME OUT OF JOINT is one of Dick's earlier novels that treats the theme of "The World Is Not What We Think It Is" explicitly. It's a novel about knowledge and recognition. The characters play parts in a detective story where the mystery involves piecing together missing parts of the world. Some of the clues include finding light switches on the wrong side of the door, finding a note where a lemonade stand used to be, finding pictures of some actress nobody's ever heard of, and seeing visions.

A number of PKD's later books involved more significant permutations of this theme of Nature-In-Disguise. This story is like a one-trick pony in comparison to books like PALMER ELDRITCH, NOW WAIT FOR LAST YEAR, UBIK, MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE, MAZE OF DEATH, or VALIS. But the gradual accumulation of evidence, the dawning of recognition in the main characters, makes for pretty fascinating reading.

For good or ill, several modern film makers have really taken this motif to heart (e.g., Dark City, The Matrix, The 13th Floor, The 6th Sense, etc.).

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book, but watch out for the summary on the back... June 8, 2002

By Damion Pisacane

Format:Paperback

I suppose I should begin this review by stating that I did genuinely enjoy reading this book. I felt it had highly readable prose and a gentle narrative style that eased you into some of the more bizarre happenings which occur later in the story. My one gripe, and I suppose this is just as much my fault as the publisher's, is the summary on the back of the book. Let me explain.

Usually when I read a novel, I do my best to avoid reading the notes on the flap of a hardcover or on the back of a paperback. The reason is simple, I don't want the story to be spolied. Now with this particular novel, I am reading at work during my lunch break, revelling in the peculiarities that befall poor Ragle Gumm (the protagonist) when I realize that lunch is almost over and I have to stop reading. I place the book down on my desk face down and while glancing down simply to pick up a pen I inadvertently read two short sentences on the back of the book which ruined all of the suspense and mystery of the story. (They were the second and third sentences of the summary, which is the same as the summary here at Amazon.com, if you are interested.)

I still enjoyed the book, although the last couple of chapters seemed very rushed to me. Yet, now whenever I think about "Time Out of Joint" all I can think of is the gradual dawning of understanding that might have been. The sublime joy of slowly, over time, figuring out what is going on... just as Ragle Gumm does. All spoiled by a poorly written summary on the back of the book.

If you are the kind of person who hates when movie trailers give away the entire story of a film, avoid reading this summary before reading the book itself.