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14th out of 48 books
—
8 voters
The Broken Bubble
Hardcover, 246 pages
Published
July 1988
by Arbor House Publishing
(first published 1956)
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Most people know Philip K. Dick (if they know him at all) as a science fiction author. his stories and books and have been made in to some top sci-fi movies (Blade Runner and Total Recall being two of the more famous). Those who really get in to his work, also know that he wrote a number of non-sci-fi books which have only recently been published. This is one of those non-sci-fi books.
I think it was Phil Dick who once wrote: "The short stoy is about things people do, the novel is about people wh...more
I think it was Phil Dick who once wrote: "The short stoy is about things people do, the novel is about people wh...more
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PKD's characters have a way of being... not flat, never flat, not exactly, but subdued, I suppose, just, very collected in their knowledge of their ultimate failure, which I find fascinating.
This novel is not horror (at least not in the typical way) and it isn't science fiction. PKD wrote a bunch of novels that were sort of slice of life, and this is truly a slice of trippy, strange life, though I was forced to admit as weird and crazy as the things going on were, we actually lead lives much mo...more
This novel is not horror (at least not in the typical way) and it isn't science fiction. PKD wrote a bunch of novels that were sort of slice of life, and this is truly a slice of trippy, strange life, though I was forced to admit as weird and crazy as the things going on were, we actually lead lives much mo...more
My Philip K. Dick Project, #12
Well, here is the third of Dick’s mainstream novels to feature people wrecking their lives in the San Francisco bay area. This time the action takes place in San Francisco itself, and when I say action, I do mean it, in a way. More than Voices From The Street or Mary and the Giant, The Broken Bubble is a marriage of Dick’s mainstream prose-style and his sci-fi storytelling. As if alluding to this, Bubble has as a minor character a nerdy president of a sci-fi fan clu...more
Well, here is the third of Dick’s mainstream novels to feature people wrecking their lives in the San Francisco bay area. This time the action takes place in San Francisco itself, and when I say action, I do mean it, in a way. More than Voices From The Street or Mary and the Giant, The Broken Bubble is a marriage of Dick’s mainstream prose-style and his sci-fi storytelling. As if alluding to this, Bubble has as a minor character a nerdy president of a sci-fi fan clu...more
**SOME SPOILERS AHEAD**
UGH. Worst PKD book I've read thus far and I've read a lot. It reads like it was lifted from a bad soap opera that needed one more storyline for filler, only in that context, it would have been tolerable since you'd also have 6 other storylines running parallel so you'd only have to deal with the boredom for a few mins at a time. Listening to this straight through was painful and I almost gave up. If I'd been actually reading this in print, I would have but it doesn't take...more
UGH. Worst PKD book I've read thus far and I've read a lot. It reads like it was lifted from a bad soap opera that needed one more storyline for filler, only in that context, it would have been tolerable since you'd also have 6 other storylines running parallel so you'd only have to deal with the boredom for a few mins at a time. Listening to this straight through was painful and I almost gave up. If I'd been actually reading this in print, I would have but it doesn't take...more
Philip K. Dick will never be known as more than a master Sci-Fi author. For some, that would be enough. But Dick strove to write mainstream novels as well, and for the most part they were quite good. That didn't stop publishers from refusing to publish anything of his that weren't Sci-Fi, so many of his novels sat around collecting dust until after his death, when they were finally released.
The Broken Bubble, one such novel, is set in 1950s San Francisco and seems to foretell the coming change i...more
The Broken Bubble, one such novel, is set in 1950s San Francisco and seems to foretell the coming change i...more
This was a very interesting book. I loved part of the book that has a story within this story about questioning reality, god and the purpose of life thrown in there. PKD just couldn’t help himself I think and just had to include that science-fiction story in the book.
I still don’t know what to think about the Thisbe Holt parts in the book, ha. It was crazy and loved it!
I still don’t know what to think about the Thisbe Holt parts in the book, ha. It was crazy and loved it!
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Circa 1952 (?) a burned out radio host, still recovering from a divorce, and trying to make some sense of his life after he is fired, falls in with a young couple, and reconnects with his ex-wife. The characters are all non-standard (in that typical PKD way), and there are some interesting (non-standard) glimpses of San Francisco too. An early, realist novel, definitely worth a read, even if it is not one of his most captivating books.
PKD's non-fiction novels were written mostly for theraputic purposes and considered unpublishable at the time of writing (with the exception of Confessions of a Crap Artist). Only after his death when the post-Blade Runner cult following kicked in were these very bleak, very beautiful books made available to the public. This tale of two couples in San Francisco is a drag to read, very depressing, and fans will recognise all of Dick's usual hangups, even characters & plot elements from other...more
Mais que s'est-il passé dans la tête de Philip K. Dick lorsqu'il a écrit ça?!
Chez cet auteur, c'est particulièrement les romans de SF que l'on connaît. Blade Runner, Total Recall, Substance Mort, etc.
Ici, nous sommes face à un "simple" roman, se situant dans les USA des années 50. Un animateur radio qui a la loose, son ex-femme un peu fragile et aux penchant alcoolique, un jeune couple en situation précaire : voilà la situation initiale à partir de laquelle l'auteur fait tourner son roman.
Cha...more
Chez cet auteur, c'est particulièrement les romans de SF que l'on connaît. Blade Runner, Total Recall, Substance Mort, etc.
Ici, nous sommes face à un "simple" roman, se situant dans les USA des années 50. Un animateur radio qui a la loose, son ex-femme un peu fragile et aux penchant alcoolique, un jeune couple en situation précaire : voilà la situation initiale à partir de laquelle l'auteur fait tourner son roman.
Cha...more
Reminded me, sadly, that I love Philip K. Dick for the depth of his imagination, not necessarily the style of his writing. Give the man a future dystopia and he'll blow your mind. Give him a slice of then-contemporary social realism, and you'll want to blow your own brains out.
One of Dick's "mainstream" novels. Like a lot of his writing, way before its time. The characters in this were all extremely complex, and I was fascinated by the kamikaze way they interacted with one another, all hell bent on self-destruction.
Maybe there's some OTHER 'Phil Dick', trying to get his (or her?) books published under PKD's name, without having to write tension or ideas or plot.
I read more than a third of the book before giving up.
I read more than a third of the book before giving up.
I remember this one more than most of the science fiction, but i love farm animals. i am really impressed with dick's understanding of personality types, must come with the schizophrenia.
I was going through all the Philip K. Dick books in my local library and came to this one. It wasn't science fiction but it was a good story like Mary and the Giant. It dealt with a lot of good themes like growing up and destiny. Though I didn't get one worthy quote from it, that's rare when I read a book. I usually find at least one quote I can put in my collection. Though not all stories contain philosophy of one sort or another, some are just good stories to be read and forgotten.
It's Dick, therefore it's good. Like all of his non-sci-fi, it's probably actually weirder than his sci-fi. This guy sure wrote lots. Lots and lots.
Bien mais pas Top.
San Francisco dans les 50s
San Francisco dans les 50s
Jun 13, 2013
Andrew Crain
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King Felix
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Philip K. Dick was born in Chicago in 1928 and lived most of his life in California. He briefly attended the University of California, but dropped out before completing any classes. In 1952, he began writing professionally and proceeded to write numerous novels and short-story collections. He won the Hugo Award for the best novel in 1962 for The Man in the High Castle and the John W. Campbell Memo...more
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