Humpty Dumpty in Oakland Kindle Edition

The last of Dick's early realist novels, written in 1960 but not published in 1986, this is an excellent book, full of ambiguities. We view its events mostly from the point of view of Al Miller, a used-car salesman who is discontented with his life. When Jim Fergusson, an older man who is like a father figure to him, sells the property Al's lot is on, Al becomes unhinged. He becomes convinced that Fergusson's friend Harman is a big-time crook and tries to warn Fergusson and his wife Lydia to avoid a real estate deal with the man. We are so involved with Al's perspective that it is not clear until the end of the novel that the only con being perpetrated is Al's own deception of himself. We may see through his stupidities and misperceptions, but we are not inclined to judge him harshly. For Dick has not let us be complacent about what reality really is: there is no absolute certainty about how to interpret the novel's events.

Philip K. Dick died in 1982 on the cusp of science fiction fame, but his real ambition when he began writing more than thirty years prior was to become a successful and acclaimed mainstream writer. To this end he wrote about half a dozen contemporary realist novels through 1960, the rejection of which led him to turn full time to SF. Only one of these works (Confessions of a Crap Artist) came out during his life, and he surely died thinking they would never see light. However, the immense rise in his commercial and critical reputation that began almost immediately after his death has led to the eventual publication of all his fiction. Humpty Dumpty in Oakland, his last realist novel, was published in the United Kingdom in 1986, where it got almost notice. American publication finally came in 2007, where it received renewed attention by the ever-growing legion of Dick fans and critics.

Its publication is something of a mixed blessing. On the one hand, of course, it is a treasure for fans and scholars who want to read everything the master wrote. It also helps further move Dick beyond the science fiction stereotype, showing his range and an important point in his writing development. Conversely, it is a very minor work that adds little to his canon artistically. Unlike some of his other recently published realist work, which were among his first novels, this was finished in 1960 - after Dick had several science fiction novels and many SF stories. The last of several in a row, his continuing to write mainstream novels despite a growing SF reputation shows his determination. Humpty was in fact written just before The Man in the High Castle, which established his reputation as an SF master though it really had no SF elements other than being alternate history.Read more ›

When I first started reading Philip K. Dick in the early 1980s, he was just on the cusp of fame, the result of the movie Blade Runner as much as anything. Now, in fact, he is considered one of the greatest science fiction writers (and maybe writers in general) of his era. Unfortunately, Dick - who had lived a rather unhealthy lifestyle - would die just as his writing was being noticed outside the narrow confines of the science fiction community. This new-found fame would not only result in re-releases of his science fiction novels, but also the first-time publication of some of his early, mainstream fiction.

This is both a service and disservice to Dick's fans. On the one hand, for someone like me who's read practically everything he's written, this is a chance to read something new. On the other hand, there's often a reason that this work is unpublished. Humpty Dumpty in Oakland, one of his posthumously released works, is not bad, but I'm not sure if it would have been published if not for who wrote it.

The novel focuses on two men: Jim Fergesson is a successful auto mechanic who is selling his shop due to a heart condition (Jim is constantly described as old, though he is only in his late fifties; this must have seemed elderly to the young PKD who wrote this, and ironically, he would never reach the age of his protagonist). Al Miller is the young used car dealer who rents space from Jim and whose livelihood is threatened by the garage sale.

One of Jim's customers, Chris Harman, is an entrepreneur who turns Jim onto a business opportunity, but the resentful Al suspects Chris is a con man and passes on his suspicions. The relationship between Jim and Al gets more and more strained which threatens Jim's fragile health.Read more ›

Philip K. Dick's Humpty Dumpty in Oakland is classic PKD. It tells the intertwined stories of used-car-lot operator Al Miller and garage owner and mechanic Jim Fergusson. When the aging Fergusson decides to sell his garage, and the adjoining lot leased by Miller, Miller's life is thrown into turmoil. When Fergusson then considers investing the sale proceeds in a new and uncertain venture, Miller inserts himself into the process in a way that brings into focus the delusions of both Fergusson and Miller and that perhaps unearths a tremendous conspiracy.

The book is devoid of SF elements and is both subtle and nuanced. While it contains many familiar PKD elements--psychological realism, paranoia, conspiracy, religion, and ethics--in Humpty Dumpty Dick tickles with the feather rather than pounding with a hammer. Other reviewers have commented that this is the popular PKD in nascent form. Upon my reading, it appears rather that popular PKD is the equivalent of Humpty Dumpty with all subtlety deleted. Successor PKD books read almost as if the author threw up his hands and said to himself, "Look, they're not getting it--I'm going to have put these ideas in the future and in the foreground." The closest "popular" PKD book to Humpty Dumpty would, in my opinion, be The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, 90% of which is pure social-psychological realism and 10% of which is self-debunking SF and/or supernaturalist--if you liked Transmigration, you'll find a similar style in Humpty Dumpty.

Symbolically, Humpty Dumpty is about the tiny push that it takes to shove the ordinary person off the perch of the everyday, creating a shattering effect that neither the kings horses nor the kings men will remedy again.