Confessions of a Crap Artist is one of Philip K. Dick's weirdest and most accomplished novels. Jack Isidore is a crap artist -- a collector of crac...
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Nov 08, 2007
Logan
rated it: 
This is not a sci-fi novel, despite the hip, design-centric, adroid-esque cover. That cover is complete fucking bullshit.
Anyway, this one's more of a relationship/ family drama. I felt that it was readily apparent in this book that its author was trying to work things out. I don't know if that means it was heavy-handed, or if I've been influenced by what I've heard about PK Dick, but that's that.
There's lots of introspection, and false epiphanies, as well as real epiphan More...
Anyway, this one's more of a relationship/ family drama. I felt that it was readily apparent in this book that its author was trying to work things out. I don't know if that means it was heavy-handed, or if I've been influenced by what I've heard about PK Dick, but that's that.
There's lots of introspection, and false epiphanies, as well as real epiphan More...
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Dec 19, 2008
melydia
rated it:
Jack Isidore is a "crap artist" who collects crackpot theories and lives his life as though a scientific observer instead of an active player. Fay and Charley (Jack's sister and brother-in-law) decide he is not capable of supporting himself in normal society, so take him in to live with them in their giant house in the country. Fay and Charley have problems of their own. While no single character in genuinely sympathetic, Jack's naive observations of dramatic events entertained me in a
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Nov 19, 2011
Felix
rated it: 
Он уже в возрасте Христа, но продолжает верить в летающие тарелки и пришельцев из космоса. Любой неодушевленный предмет может показаться ему разумным и заслуживающим самого пристального внимания. Именно поэтому окружающие уверены, что Джек Изидор – недоумок и умственно отсталый. Разумеется, все они абсолютно правы, потому что, на самом деле, он такой и есть. Недоумок и умственный отсталый.
Эта история начинается с того момента, когда Джек переселяется в особняк своей сестры Фэй Хьюм. Эт More...
Эта история начинается с того момента, когда Джек переселяется в особняк своей сестры Фэй Хьюм. Эт More...
Jun 19, 2011
Greg
rated it: 
Confessions of a Crap Artist, Philip K. Dick (1959). 9/10. Jack is a little crazy. He retreads tires during the week in California, drives to Reno on Friday night, stays up all night at the casinos, and dresses up in fancy duds to get layed. His sister becomes concerned when Jack is arrested stealing chocolate-covered ants, in the scientific belief he may be able to resuscitate them. His sister and brother-in-law put Jack up in their northern California rural estate in hopes of getting him off t
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May 24, 2011
Wolverina
rated it: 
ctually managed to read a book! That wasn't on my uni course list! Unfortunately it was Dick!
Confessions of A Crap Artist was bought at Elizabeth's cheap, because it had an entertaining title and cover. Now I haven't read any Dick in ages, but the book left me feeling a bit confused, and like I should be high. Basically, the same feeling as every other Dick book. It's not that I don't like the books, it's that I just I guess that I lack patience when someone is writing while very obviously More...
Confessions of A Crap Artist was bought at Elizabeth's cheap, because it had an entertaining title and cover. Now I haven't read any Dick in ages, but the book left me feeling a bit confused, and like I should be high. Basically, the same feeling as every other Dick book. It's not that I don't like the books, it's that I just I guess that I lack patience when someone is writing while very obviously More...
Aug 24, 2010
Cameron
rated it:
Philip K. Dick is one of the most creative and endlessly fascinating writers of the 20th century. Yet many criticisms of his science fiction novels do have a factual basis. In particular, he is not usually very adept at creating multifaceted, deep, interesting characters in his science fiction novels.
"Confessions of a Crap Artist" was a revelation. PKD can create very real, living, memorable, multifaceted characters. This is an excellent tale, a sort of psychological po More...
"Confessions of a Crap Artist" was a revelation. PKD can create very real, living, memorable, multifaceted characters. This is an excellent tale, a sort of psychological po More...
May 01, 2010
Pavel
rated it:
I've never read a book about so many irredeemable assholes before. There really isn't a single character anyone in their right mind would care about here. Children, maybe, but PKD pretty much completely ignores them, milking the assholes instead for all they are worth. It got really hard to read towards the middle, not so much because it was tedious or badly written, but because I wanted to rip the book to shreds every couple of minutes after something some asshole said or thought. I can't imagi
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Dec 17, 2009
Diana
rated it:
I loved this book - I think I may have read it at least 5 times. I have read almost all of Philip K. Dick's novels and this is by far my favorite.
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Aug 25, 2011
Jermaine
rated it:
Jack Isadore is a crap artist. He collects conspiracy theories and newspaper clippings, scientific minutiae and childhood souvenirs. When he loses his job as a tire re-groover, (an odd profession shared with a few other PKD characters,) he is forced to move in with his sister, brother-in-law and their children, in suburban Northern California and finds the daily realities of suburban living just as bizarre and terrifying as alien visitation or invasion from the forces of the hollow Earth.
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Feb 01, 2012
Nick
rated it:
I had not read this Dick novel previously, and found myself experiencing cognitive dissonance since much of it takes place in rural Marin county, a real place, and much of that action is surreal without being science fictional: no Mars, no radioactive dust, no androids, and yet somehow this is of a piece with novels like "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and "Martian Time Slip". As I read and reread Dick, I am becoming persuaded that he is one of the most significant Ame
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Dec 30, 2009
Nate
rated it:
I've heard that PKD wrote some straight realist contemporary fiction back in the 50s, before he went full-on into science fiction, and this book seems like an echo of that period, written in the 70s but set in the late 50s. There's plenty of reference to UFO cults and telepathy, but here it's just a part of the real cultural context of northern California in that era and thoroughly plausible. As such, this is more or less a social satire, and a decent one at that. Almost takes on a Vonnegut-like
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Jul 03, 2010
Kushal
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Jan 29, 2008
Rachel
rated it:
(written 4-05)
I saw the movie based on this book first - "Barjo" - it was in French I think. It was a strange movie, of course, but I still remember the music because Greg and I sang along. Fay is the crazy controlling sister of Jack, who is also crazy. In the movie I thought she had homoerotic moments with Gwen, but in the book it is just Nat she has an affair with. This story is so unique it is really worth reading.
"Can we know our own motives? He More...
I saw the movie based on this book first - "Barjo" - it was in French I think. It was a strange movie, of course, but I still remember the music because Greg and I sang along. Fay is the crazy controlling sister of Jack, who is also crazy. In the movie I thought she had homoerotic moments with Gwen, but in the book it is just Nat she has an affair with. This story is so unique it is really worth reading.
"Can we know our own motives? He More...
May 25, 2010
zetetic
rated it:
the first non sci fi PKD book i have read and i enjoyed it. very easy to read, a few characters that he regularly uses in his novels. excellent comparison of a 'not normal' person with some so called 'normal' people. i really enjoyed the chapters that were told from the perspective f the brother, very detailed and often OCD view of the world. i much liked how he described people driving on the roads that they were familiar with.
Mar 01, 2009
Alex
rated it:
At this point I've read enough Dick books to want to read them all. I decided to just pull one off the library shelf at random and Confessions of a Crap Artist was a nice surprise: no androids, no time travel, and no telepathic powers (well, at least any that work). What do we get instead? Spousal betrayal, sibling manipulation and neighborhood intrigue. This is Dick presenting the "real" world. However, which world is more real? The science fiction space we fantasize about or th
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Apr 24, 2011
David
rated it:
One of PKD's best, this is a straight mainstream novel narrated in turn by four people: a Marin County husband and wife, a neighbor the wife seduces and the wife's dimwit brother (the "crap artist" because he's full of it), whose tone is Holden Caulfield-as-idiot. The wife is an especially vivid, multidimensional character. A pleasant surprise.
Apr 10, 2011
Matthew
rated it:
Philip K. Dick wrote tons of stuff. TONS. A lot of it has been made into movies. Even though he is known mostly as a "sci fi" dude, this book, about regular people living the kind of regular soul crushing lives that we tend to slip into, is one of my favorites. If you like his Sci-Fi stuff, check this out for something completely different.
Oct 06, 2010
John
rated it: 
Why: It reflected my mood last night, and it had been on my to-red shelf for a few months.
The book has an uneven start, because Dick drops you into an interesting portrayal of a certain type of obsessive compulsive conspiracy mind. The book falls apart after the beginning, with inconsistent and incomplete characterization, pedantic writing that drags on the story without adding anything to the narrative, and lots of lecturing by characters about the other characters.
The book has an uneven start, because Dick drops you into an interesting portrayal of a certain type of obsessive compulsive conspiracy mind. The book falls apart after the beginning, with inconsistent and incomplete characterization, pedantic writing that drags on the story without adding anything to the narrative, and lots of lecturing by characters about the other characters.
Jan 26, 2012
Mnava
rated it:
Come per la svastica sul sole si tratta di un romanzo molto carino. Uno bella storia, divertente e con colpi di scena. Ma no, non un romanzo di fantascienza. Se cercate questo tipo di letteratura allora cercate altrove nella bibliografia dell'autore.
Aug 12, 2011
Jason
rated it:
This is Dick's first attempt at writing contemporary fiction. It is NOT science fiction in any way though he theme of characters with major mental health problems is ever present. It is an absolute bore from cover to cover & it pains me to say this about P.K. Dick since I'm an ardent fan. I completely understand why he wrote it--trying to prove he can write more than just sci-fi--but it is a weak attempt. The reader feels nothing for the characters &, soon, wants the whole novel to be over w
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Jan 16, 2010
Bryan
rated it:
fun 1950s romp, like an episode of the twilight zone that's not so twilighty, more on the realism-is-stranger-than-fantastical-sometimes tip. i liked it. antiquated, but in a fun way, like a dated movie that still packs its charm.
Jun 07, 2011
Anna
rated it:
All the characters were unlikeable, and I thought this would be a science-fiction book, but I really enjoyed it. Parts were disturbing, parts were frustrating, and the ending left me with no piece of mind. Amazing book.
Nov 22, 2009
Tmarly
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Une histoire partagée par 4 protagonistes, chacun avec son point de vue. Ce qui est intéressant est que chacun analyse de manière assez lucide sa propre situation, sans pouvoir empêcher la dérive ...
Dec 30, 2011
Raimo
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Atypical of Dick's work. He, no doubt, was feeling bitter about women and this is the manifestation of that bitterness. Lacking in the humour and sci-fi elements of his classic novels.
Dec 08, 2009
Brian
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Made me laugh, even if it a bit bleak. There is no sci-fi in here apart from a crappot organisation that believes in aliens. However it is an interesting disection of complex relationships. If you have read other PK Dick, its not really about the sci fi, but what happens between people.
Mar 12, 2011
David
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I was really surprised by this book, I was expecting some wacky Dick sci-fi (which I love btw) and it turned out to be a fascinating character study of the protagonist's (Jack Isidore) sister (Fay Hume). Her personality dominates the lives around her (and this book). Her husband (Charley Hume) comes to see her as psychopathic and comes to the realization that he has to do something about it to save everyone. Charley's confrontation with his wife's boyfriend (Nathan Anteil) and then Fay is bri
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Dec 24, 2008
Paul
rated it:
I liked the PKD novels I read in college, but I loved Confessions of a Crap Artist. It's quirky, *not* science fiction, and empathetic to a fault.
Jan 03, 2011
Geoff
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This and Scanner Darkly are probably my two favorite. Valis and Flow My Tears and the We Can Build You would be the top five.
May 12, 2009
Chelsea
rated it:
The discription of the text was very misleading, but overall, I did enjoy the story. The characters were very vivid and distinct.
