The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick (1987)

Philip K. Dick. The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. Volume 1. (1987) Subtitled The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford.

Philip K. Dick is one of my favourite authors in any genre. His ability to develop a what-if that can be stated in a simple sentence amazes with every reading and re-reading. Such as the subtitle story, which is exactly what its title states.

His take on life is that the universe a huge and scary place. It’s a miracle that each one of us survives, and it will or would be a miracle if humankind survives any contact with any aliens we might encounter or who might wish to visit us. But humans are inventive enough to mess up and with their own and other people’s lives. Three examples:

Beyond Lies the Wub: The Captain of the spaceship discovers too late that the wub they’re transporting is more than a sentient blob of jelly.

The Builder: Elwood builds a boat with the help of his son Toddy. Neither he nor we readers know why until a few moments after he’s finished.

Colony: A terrifying riff on shape-shifting.

Recommended. ****

Age of Folly (Lapham, 2016)

Lewis H. Lapham.  Age of Folly (2016) Subtitled America Abandons Its Democracy. Published before Trump won the 2016 election, with essays from 1990 to 2015.

But depressingly relevant. And essential for making sense of what’s happened since 2016.

And I think that’s about all that needs to be said about this book. Recommended.

****

Footnote: In the Atlantic Magazine of January 2025, David Brooks has published an acute analysis of how the attempt to create a meritocracy has had unexpected consequences, one of them being the rage against elites that’s translated into the populism that elected Trump. Brooks spends a couple of pages explaining how the failed experiment could be transformed into a winning one, but I think he’s a tad naive politically. 

When Blood Lies (Richards, 2016)

 Linda L. Richards. When Blood Lies (2016) A nicely done puzzle that begins when Nicole Charles buys an old desk and finds some ancient wine in a secret compartment. There’s more: money-laundering, attempted murder, etc, and a handsome young man. Charles is a gossip columnist who wants to be promoted to real reporting; this provides a subplot that points to a series. I haven’t found any other of Richards’s books.

This book was on of an easy-reading series published by Orca Book Publishers. The style makes for a quick read. Good for when you haven’t much energy for close attention. **½

Leacock: Literary Lapses (1910)

Stephen Leacock. Literary Lapses (1910/1957) With an Afterword by Robertson Davies. Leacock’s first published work, displaying a range from nonsense to witty comment to slice of life to sharp satire. I think his reputation as the friendly, slyly comic uncle is superficial, based on his mastery of absurdly logical nonsense. Maybe it’s my curmudgeonly disposition, but I think that his satire is underrated. It’s delivered in the kind of deadpan style that disguises its bite, but his hatred for greed, hypocrisy, economic malfeasance and social cruelty is more than clear enough. I think that Sunshine Sketches and Arcadian Adventures are his greatest and most enduring works.

Davies provides an interesting account of the book’s publishing history. I enjoyed his notes on the range of Leacock’s humour.

I enjoyed this reread. This reissue is part of McClelland & Stewart’s New Canadian Library, now out of print. M&S featured Canadian art on the covers, David Milne’s “Billboards” here. Recommended. ** to **** 

Dick Whittington - What Really Happened (Sitwell, 1945)

 Osbert Sitwell. The True Story of Dick Whittington (1946) My great-aunt Dolly gave me this book in 1949. I wonder whether she read it first. The rhyme of Dick Whittington and his cat was one of our favourites, and she no doubt thought that this version would suit us. Sitwell has used the story to satirise the rise of the money economy and the worship of money. It’s not a children’s book, although an alert middle schooler would understand it well enough, and perhaps shape his economic and political attitudes accordingly.

Sitwell tells how Whittington advances in his career, selling arms to foreign nations so that they can liberate each other. The cat figures prominently in his first successes. He marries well, but his social-climbing wife finds the cat an inconvenient appendage to the household, especially after Dick is appointed Lord Mayor of London. She (sweetly) encourages Whittington to send the cat to a series of old cat homes, at ever greater distances from London. The cat finds its way back to its beloved master every time.

The story does not end happily. I can’t recall reading it in1949, but if I did, it must have had its intended effect, since I too deplore the monetising of every aspect of our economy. 

Recommended, if you can find a copy. Mine is missing the dust jacket shown in the illustration. Online offers range from at round $15 to well over $100. The few blurbs refer to the “charming” folktale, not Sitwell’s version. It seems few booksellers actually read what they sell. ****

When Things Go Bad (Saramago, The Live Of Things, 2012)

 Jose Saramago. The Lives of Things (2012) Saramago is a Nobel Prize winner. I have mixed feelings about the Nobel Prize for Literature. By its very nature it tends to reward translatable literature,  which usually means literature that’s heavy on theme and thesis and light on language and style.

Saramago wrote during the Salazar dictatorship in Portugal. His stories are fantasies; their ambiance and tone is claustrophobic, stifling. There’s a sense of a fate that can be neither evaded nor comprehended, only endured. The “things” are both actual objects that turn on their owners, and people that have become objects, lacking the autonomy that would make them free agents..

An oddly unengaging read for the most part. I don’t know if that’s the effect of translation. I suspect that in Portuguese there are allusions, puns, verbal effects etc that add nuance, scope, and satirical point, but which would be difficult to render in English. But another book that drew me in despite its flaws, which testifies to the power of theme. ***

Esther's Gift (Karon, 2002)

 Jan Karon. Esther’s Gift. (2002) A “gift book”, really a Christmas greeting card in hard covers. Esther has decided to forgo her annual gift of orange marmalade cakes. But when she muses about the recipients, she changes her mind.

Good for Jan Karon fans, a bit sticky-sweet for everybody else I think. Recipe included. **