Puttering About in a Small Land (Paperback)

by Philip K. Dick (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 290 pages
• Publisher: Academy Chicago Publishers (September 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0897333845
• ISBN-13: 978-0897333849
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,458,217 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Favorite Mainstream PKD, November 3, 2000

By	David Kleist - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have a soft spot for this bleakly realistic novel about California life in the 1950's. The main characters are little people, anti-heroes, average Joes, but Dick's psychological insights are superb and singular. I remember one character's description of being popular in elementary school for two days because of making ears from breadcrusts and causing everyone to laugh; and a brilliantly believable internal monologue about getting caught in the act of adultery. Dick's evocations are haunting. He truly was capable of finding the unique and the universal in the quotidian realities of modern life, even when disguised by a wacky SF alternative-realm framework (not here, though). PUTTERING is straight slice-of-life.

I wish someone would make this one into a movie. It's bittersweet, evocative--filled with character like an aged burgundy. Read it.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of PKD's best mainstream novels, January 25, 1999

By	Eric M. Van (Watertown, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Eight of the mainstream novels PKD wrote in the fifties have now been published. Everyone agrees that CONFESSIONS OF A CRAP ARTIST is the best; after that, opinions vary quite widely. I'd put this in the top three, but, really, you have to try them and see. This one's an often funny tale of adultery, with terrific characterizations, including one of the most positively portrayed females in all of PKD's work. Like a lot of Dick novels, it explores why we sometimes knowingly and willfully act to bring about our own downfall.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insights into human relationships not usually expressed, February 22, 2001

By	A. G. Plumb "Greg Plumb" (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I loved this novel. The reactions the adulterers experience after their one 'affair' are so atypical of drama, film, TV but I suspect so accurate of human life. We can all learn many things from reading Dick's novels - both SF and otherwise. Somehow - even in extreme environments (which this novel does not show) - he shows everyday reality of the human mind.