Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"Divine Invasions" is the first full-scale biography of Philip K. Dick, a brilliant writer who, working inside the science fiction field, created some of the most powerful and lasting visionary fiction of this century. This biography chronicles the story of a man whose life was truly as interesting as his own enduring work.

""Divine Invasions" is a perceptive introduction to Philip K. Dick's amazing talent. In Europe and Japan, Dick is regarded as a major American writer, without regard to genre. This new biography takes a large step toward earning Dick that same respect in his native country." -San Francisco Chronicle

"A century from now, two or three of Dick's novels are likely to be among the books by which people will understand this era and its fascination with subliminal manipulation of consciousness and the general origins and limits of consciousness... Lawrence Sutin's biography is a highly informative and fascinating attempt at establishing the fundamentals of Dick's life and work... Extremely useful... is a twenty-page chronological guide to the novels... This biography makes you like Philip K. Dick and makes you want to read his books." -Hungry Mind Review

"It is difficult to praise this book highly enough... Philip K. Dick is finally being accorded the same depth and detail as subjects far less deserving. As scholarship and research, Sutin's efforts are impeccable. As literature, the book is at once absorbing, intelligent and eminently readable... A must-read book for anyone interested in the psychology and art of this fascinating figure." -Trajectories

"An incisive, conscientious biography. Bravo." -Art Spiegelman

"The only biography I've ever read that's as exciting as a spy novel... Phil Dick's life was as weird and mysterious as any of his science fiction books." -Robert Anton Wilson

About the Author

Lawrence Sutin is an award-winning memoirist and biographer. His books include JACK AND ROCHELLE: A HOLOCAUST STORY OF LOVE AND RESISTANCE, A POSTCARD MEMOIR, and DO WHAT THOU WILT: A LIFE OF ALEISTER CROWLEY. Sutin teaches in the MFA program at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details Paperback: 380 pages Publisher: Citadel; Reprint edition (March 3, 2003) Language: English ISBN-10: 0806512288 ISBN-13: 978-0806512280 Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies) Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews) Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,965,662 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Lawrence Sutin Page

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Look Inside This Book

Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover

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Citations (learn more)

32 books cite this book:

• Philip K. Dick: Contemporary Critical Interpretations (Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction and Fantasy) by Samuel J. Umland on 8 pages
• Transrealist Fiction: Writing in the Slipstream of Science (Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction and Fantasy) by Damien Broderick on page 107, page 149, and Back Matter
• How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics by N. Katherine Hayles in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
• Writing of America: Literature and Cultural Identity from the Puritans to the Present (Cultural History of Literature) by Geoff Ward in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
• The Postmodern Adventure: Science, Technology, and Cultural Studies at the Third Millennium by Steven Best in Back Matter

See all 32 books citing this book

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	75% buy the item featured on this page: Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick 4.2 out of 5 stars (16) $12.95
	13% buy I Am Alive and You Are Dead: A Journey into the Mind of Philip K. Dick 4.0 out of 5 stars (19) $12.00
	5% buy The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick: Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings 4.8 out of 5 stars (9) $11.16
	4% buy The Philip K. Dick Reader 4.5 out of 5 stars (29) $10.85

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Customer Reviews

16 Reviews 5 star:  (8) 4 star:  (5) 3 star:  (2) 2 star:  (1) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 4.2 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews 18 of 18 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Only Apparently Real, April 2, 2002 By  Miles (Phoenix, AZ United States) - See all my reviews This is Lawrence Sutin's best book (well, of the three that I've read). It's also the best book on Dick I've found, and it's about as engrossing as some of Dick's better novels. There's a lot of stuff in here, but I wolfed it down pretty quickly. The various troubled relationships, paranoid experiences (and attitudes), drug experimentation, and transcendental experiences are discussed here in some detail. We get lots of stories from Dick's ex-wives and such discussing his writing habits and nervous behavior. I found particularly helpful the bibliography (with plot summaries) at the end of the book. It's depressing how much of Dick's work is still out of print. A great book on a great American writer. Anyone who wants to go further might look at IN SEARCH OF VALIS, also by Sutin. 14 of 14 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars The truth about PKD., December 21, 1999 By  Michael (Missouri, USA) - See all my reviews Sutin's comprehensive literary biography of PKD is a godsend, because it clears up so many loose ends of his life and work. The background about his lost twin, who died as a baby (he was buried with her in Colorado), and his father's abandonment of the family, does much to clarify a lifetime of driven insecurity. Dick's failure to break out of the genre category with his "quality novels" (most of them published after his death in small editions) in the late 1950s led to a revolution within science fiction itself, where he had to continue publishing. In fact Dick was a fantasist at heart, and ahead of his time in working through genre categories. Unfortunately the pay and prestige for even brilliant genre writers were so limited that his spirit was finally broken. Moreover, he made several bad decisions about relationships that gradually led him into his own strange world of cosmic paranoia. When acclaim and success finally came his way, his life was over. He died at age 53 in March 1982. Sutin adds a very helpful "Chronological survey and guide" that establishes the actual order of the books he wrote, their publication history (which has altered a bit since 1989, when the book was publshed), and summary and evaluation of each book. Strongly recommended for anyone seriously interested in this author's work. 17 of 20 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars MORE THAN YOU WANTED TO KNOW?, December 1, 2001 By  Worldreels (MANKATO, MN) - See all my reviews    DIVINE INVASIONS is a herculean attempt to put the life of Phil K. Dick between the covers of one book. That Dick wrote too many words is the problem for any biographer. Which of the many millions of words to select from revealed the truth and which disguised it? The additional problem is that Dick described himself not as a novelist but as a "fictionalizing philosopher." In his search to reveal his own reality Dick describes one reality that surrounded him everyday, another reality that framed the everyday reality, and also his personal mental reality enclosing the everything, existing only in his mind that could not be shared. Paul Williams' Forward gives Sutin the ultimate testimonial, "this is the man I knew." Yet Sutin, like Paul Williams, was "too close to the subject matter," and had difficulty separating the wheat from the chaff. Whether his story is about Dick the man or about the plethora of fictive characters in Dick's works becomes clouded. What becomes clear is that Sutin did pass judgment on Dick in referring to him as "a hidden treasure of American literature." I doubt that Dick's many readers, after all, those who the tortured writer wanted to reach, would agree with this assessment. The portrait of Sutin painted was not pretty. The author pulled no punches is showing Dick as a wife beater, adulterer, cradle robber, lech, suicide, hypochondriac, child abandoner, doper, tax evader, malingerer, fabricator and snitch. What became clear was that when a relationship no longer fueled the fires of his personal solipsistic hell, Phil moved on. But a nagging question remains: did the reader learn more about Phil K. Dick than he/she wanted to know?		Most Recent Customer Reviews 3.0 out of 5 stars Many facts, few answers Divine Invasions presents a detailed account of the life of sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick, but left me unsatisfied. Read more Published 13 months ago by Jake Barnes 5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent literary biography I happened upon the writing of Philip K. Dick many years before the Blade Runner fame. I was profoundly impressed by the raw paranoia, the questioning of what is real, and the... Read more Published 16 months ago by Ted Byrd 2.0 out of 5 stars mixed feelings I have mixed feelings about this book. Sutin gives the impression that he interviewed me extensively, but he actually used quotes from other interviews and never met me, although... Read more Published 18 months ago by Tessa B. Dick 4.0 out of 5 stars A "Fat" Lot of Good All of His Talks with the "Divinity" Did for Dick Philip K Dick (PKD) was one of the most prolific and seminal science fiction writers of the sixties and seventies. Read more Published on August 19, 2007 by Grey Wolffe 4.0 out of 5 stars Very good biography of enigmatic often contradictory writer Phil Dick was a difficult person. Sutin's book takes great pains to point out Dick's flaws as a human being but also his strong qualities as a person and writer. Read more Published on May 19, 2007 by Wayne Klein 5.0 out of 5 stars Useful book for serious PKD readers Sutin's sometimes sarcastic style might surprise the reader at first, but this is a very insightful look at the life and work of Philip K. Read more Published on September 8, 2002 by Platonism 3.0 out of 5 stars Philip K. Dick, Self-Devourer By the time of his premature death in 1982, Philip K. Dick had shrewdly submitted and withdrawn so many hypothetical explanations for his chaotic life and unusual experiences that... Read more Published on September 4, 2002 by J. E. Barnes 5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Reading for Philip Dick Fans Sutin does a wonderful job of creating a literary biography. The factual details of Philip Dick's life, and how they relate to his fiction, are spliced together insightfully. Read more Published on July 30, 2001 by Ralph Rainwater 4.0 out of 5 stars Simply Divine Author Sutin does a marvelous job of conveying the real Philip K. Dick. He conducted interviews with each of Dick's five wives and his contemporaries in the SF field, including... Read more Published on December 20, 1999 by Fosky Bob 5.0 out of 5 stars interesting read about an interesting author I thought that this was one of the best author bios I've ever read. It's a very comprehensive account of PKD's complicated life. Very readable and entertaining. Read more Published on March 7, 1999 by [e-mail] Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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Product Details

• Paperback: 380 pages
• Publisher: Citadel; Reprint edition (March 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806512288
• ISBN-13: 978-0806512280
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,965,662 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Only Apparently Real, April 2, 2002

By	Miles (Phoenix, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This is Lawrence Sutin's best book (well, of the three that I've read). It's also the best book on Dick I've found, and it's about as engrossing as some of Dick's better novels. There's a lot of stuff in here, but I wolfed it down pretty quickly.

The various troubled relationships, paranoid experiences (and attitudes), drug experimentation, and transcendental experiences are discussed here in some detail. We get lots of stories from Dick's ex-wives and such discussing his writing habits and nervous behavior.

I found particularly helpful the bibliography (with plot summaries) at the end of the book. It's depressing how much of Dick's work is still out of print.

A great book on a great American writer. Anyone who wants to go further might look at IN SEARCH OF VALIS, also by Sutin.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The truth about PKD., December 21, 1999

By	Michael (Missouri, USA) - See all my reviews

Sutin's comprehensive literary biography of PKD is a godsend, because it clears up so many loose ends of his life and work. The background about his lost twin, who died as a baby (he was buried with her in Colorado), and his father's abandonment of the family, does much to clarify a lifetime of driven insecurity. Dick's failure to break out of the genre category with his "quality novels" (most of them published after his death in small editions) in the late 1950s led to a revolution within science fiction itself, where he had to continue publishing. In fact Dick was a fantasist at heart, and ahead of his time in working through genre categories. Unfortunately the pay and prestige for even brilliant genre writers were so limited that his spirit was finally broken. Moreover, he made several bad decisions about relationships that gradually led him into his own strange world of cosmic paranoia. When acclaim and success finally came his way, his life was over. He died at age 53 in March 1982. Sutin adds a very helpful "Chronological survey and guide" that establishes the actual order of the books he wrote, their publication history (which has altered a bit since 1989, when the book was publshed), and summary and evaluation of each book. Strongly recommended for anyone seriously interested in this author's work.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars MORE THAN YOU WANTED TO KNOW?, December 1, 2001

By	Worldreels (MANKATO, MN) - See all my reviews

DIVINE INVASIONS is a herculean attempt to put the life of Phil K. Dick between the covers of one book. That Dick wrote too many words is the problem for any biographer. Which of the many millions of words to select from revealed the truth and which disguised it? The additional problem is that Dick described himself not as a novelist but as a "fictionalizing philosopher."

In his search to reveal his own reality Dick describes one reality that surrounded him everyday, another reality that framed the everyday reality, and also his personal mental reality enclosing the everything, existing only in his mind that could not be shared. Paul Williams' Forward gives Sutin the ultimate testimonial, "this is the man I knew." Yet Sutin, like Paul Williams, was "too close to the subject matter," and had difficulty separating the wheat from the chaff. Whether his story is about Dick the man or about the plethora of fictive characters in Dick's works becomes clouded. What becomes clear is that Sutin did pass judgment on Dick in referring to him as "a hidden treasure of American literature." I doubt that Dick's many readers, after all, those who the tortured writer wanted to reach, would agree with this assessment.

The portrait of Sutin painted was not pretty. The author pulled no punches is showing Dick as a wife beater, adulterer, cradle robber, lech, suicide, hypochondriac, child abandoner, doper, tax evader, malingerer, fabricator and snitch. What became clear was that when a relationship no longer fueled the fires of his personal solipsistic hell, Phil moved on. But a nagging question remains: did the reader learn more about Phil K. Dick than he/she wanted to know?