The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike Kindle Edition

I read this book after being very impressed by PKDs Humpty Dumpty in Oakland, which was the first non-science fiction book of the author that I had read. Again I am very impressed by the way the book is written.

The story takes place in the early 60s in a rural community. Interesting as this set-up might be for a European born in 1986 this is admittedly not the most fascinating time and place. However this would not be a PKD book if all of the people living in this rural community wouldn't be paranoid, miserable or, most often, both.

The brilliantly written thought patterns of the characters in this book is so enticing that the main story line about the man whose teeth were all exactly alike is not even that important but more a way by which the author drives the characters into certain thought and action patterns that cause them to be ever more distrustful and destructive to themselves and those around them.

While not the happiest of books (like many of PKDs works) it is wonderfully written and very enticing. The time and place, with for example the pressing idea that women should be at home and men should be earning money made the story all the more interesting.

Highly recommended

Well, it certainly sounds like a science fiction title, but this is not a science fiction novel. Philip K. Dick fans know that the man's dearest professional ambition was to establish a dual career, as a writer of both science fiction and mainstream novels, but that he never quite made it; mainstream titles account for only two of the more than thirty published during his lifetime. The rest of his mainstream work began coming out shortly after his death in 1982, when the success of the movie "Blade Runner" attracted commercial publishers, and this book was published the following year.

So you read PKD's non-sf work and you have to ask yourself the question; If he could not find a place for himself in the mainstream market, was that the market's fault or his? That is, was his mainstream work any good? Based on this novel, the answer is an unqualified Yes.

It concerns the conflicts and struggles of the people of Carquinez, California, a real place north of San Francisco not far from the Pacific coast. And what are they struggling about? Well, pretty much everything, it seems. None of them seem to like each other very much, and that includes the individual members of the two married couples. It's one of PKD's best tricks to make you care about them anyway.

Another of his best tricks is borrowing current events for the issues dividing the people of Carquinez. Unlike some other novels, this one manages to comment on historical movements like civil rights by dealing solely with the lives of its characters. So Leo Runcible, a local real estate broker, runs afoul of Walt Dombrosio, a commercial designer, because Walt invites a black man to dinner and Leo is afraid that people will see and refuse to buy homes in the neighborhood.Read more ›

In Carquinez, Marin County, Jewish realtor Leo Runcible knows he is out of place amidst the WASPS he sells local real estate to. Still he enjoys making money and he actually cares about the community. His neighbor Walter Dombrosio works in San Francisco as a product designer who loves pranks and dreams of a hoax to rival the infamous Cardiff Giant.

Leo and Walter had a spat when the latter brought a colored person to dinner, which the former insists cost him a potential megabucks deal; Leo blames Walter while he knows he was upset with his potential partner's denigration of Negroes. When Leo notices Walter driving erratic; he calls the cops. Walter loses his driving license which means his wife Sherry takes him to and from work. He gets into a fight with his boss who hired Sherry and loses his job. With time on his hands he creates a fake hominid skull "found" in his back yard where some recent artifacts had been uncovered. However, the joke spins out of control as archeologists descend on Western Marin County only to find something dangerous lurks in the water table.

This is a reprint of an intriguing character study that brings to life the mores of Northern California in the 1950s. The story line is totally character driven with little action beyond incidents that enable the audience to fully understand what motivates Leo and Walt. Readers who enjoy a slice of those Happy Days will appreciate Philip K. Dick's insightful realistic look at a somewhat isolated community with its local societal rules.

Harriet Klausner

Fascinating character study explores paradoxes in relationships in a small California town in the early 1960s. Hints and harbingers of tectonic social changes begin to fracture the surface smoothness in the town, all occurring in parallel with sub-plots regarding the safety of the town's water supply and some mysterious skeletons located on town property. A seemingly harmless dinner invitation against racial lines ignites a storm of consequences, all unforeseen and unforeseeable.

Notable in the Dick corpus particularly for the contradictory nature of the characters' motives and for the absence of any real heroes or villains. Hate and affection are intermingled and intermix in complex ways.

Style is lyical and haunting. As is usual for all Dick's novels, the ending feels rushed and inorganic.

The edition I had was quite poor: there was no indication of the publishing provenance of this posthumously published novel, which was presumably written in the early 1960s.

One question I had, which my edition did not discuss: why was this not published in the 1960s, when it would have surely been a bestseller, as it squarely but subtly addressed then controversial politics in race relations, abortion, and marital relations? This seems like the single Dick novel of the most widespread appeal, at least in the 60s and 70s, and it is very peculiar both that it was not published and that the modern republishing does not even discuss the background.

Notable also in Dick's lyrical style is his very subtle insertion of key descriptive characteristics, forcing a close reading. Obviously, few modern authors use that style, preferring instead to hammer home every point multiple times for the benefit of today's careless, uninterested readers.Read more ›