Brace yourself. When a writer like Philip K. Dick uses our real world as the setting for a novel, you might not like the unflattering picture he paints. Despite PKD’s many early attempts to break out of the so-called “SF ghetto,” he was never known for his literary/mainstream/realist novels (the ones that couldn’t be marketed as science fiction or fantasy), and actually, there are some good reasons for that.
To put it simply, I’d say that Dick’s greatest strength as a writer was always the originality of his ideas. In his Exegesis, he said that when preparing to write a novel, he’d begin with the idea, which he then sketched out into a plot. (Then he’d throw all that away and only later revive it by combining it with a second totally separate idea/plot.) It’s these really out-there, mind-bending ideas that Hollywood has been drawn to over the years, his plots and characters often failing to survive adaptation.
With a few possible exceptions, these realist novels are more slices of life than big-idea novels. I personally love these books (some more than others, of course), but I can understand how Phil tying one arm behind his back like this wouldn’t help with sales—or in most cases, with getting the thing published at all during his lifetime. On average, these ten realist novels languished in draft form a full 28 years before finally getting published. Do what you will with that information, but if you’re at all interested in Philip K. Dick as one of the most fascinating minds of the 20th century, then you’ve got to read at least a few of these, if not all ten.
With the notable exception of Transmigration, the settings of these novels don’t span a big range (basically just the decade of the 1950s), so instead of ordering them chronologically as I did in my first PKD post, I’ve arranged them by how many years elapsed between when they were written and when they finally got published (what I’m calling the “lag” here). This amounts to a decent suggested reading order because the better novels tended to get picked up before the not-so-great ones. For example, Transmigration was published immediately after it written, and that’s a must-read for any PKD fan, a truly great novel.
I have to warn you that there’s a lot of harshness and cruelty in these books, including overt sexism and racism. How does that square with the PKD we know and love, the egalitarian philosopher who valued empathy and agape/caritas above all else? Just bear in mind that the characters are not the author. Even when a character draws heavily from the author’s life, it’s still a character, and Phil was a lot more likely to focus on the negative than the positive, as evidenced in his SF work. Just as his more fantastical stories evoked fear and dread and disgust, so do these, though this time in all too human form.
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer
Written: 1981. Published: 1982. Lag: 1 year.This is far and away my favorite of PKD’s realist novels. It follows Angel Archer, the widowed daughter-in-law of recently deceased Episcopal bishop Timothy Archer (based on Phil’s real-life friend James Pike, who died while exploring the Judean Desert). The story begins in 1980 on the day John Lennon died, and most of the action takes place in flashbacks of the late sixties and seventies. It focuses on the radical implications of the newly discovered Gnostic Zadokite scroll fragments, which would seem to indicate that Christianity sprang from a psychedelic mushroom cult. Before meeting his death while seeking that mushroom in Israel, Timothy Archer was being investigated for his allegedly heretical views about the Holy Ghost. To make matters worse, his son Jeff committed suicide because of a romantic obsession with a woman named Kirsten, who also meets a tragic end. Years later, Angel is reunited with Kirsten’s son Bill, who claims to have Timothy’s reincarnated spirit within him.
Confessions of a Crap Artist
Written: 1959. Published: 1975. Lag: 16 years.This was the first realist novel Dick was able to published, a mere 16 years after he wrote it. The titular “crap artist” (something like a bullshit slinger) is Jack Isidore, a socially awkward and obsessive-compulsive tire regroover (one of Dick’s favorite occupation, it would seem) who has an interest in debunked scientific theories. Jack moves in with his sister’s family in rural California and joins a small religious group that believes in ESP and UFOs. Jack spends most of his time writing a meticulous journal of life on the farm, including his sister Fay’s marital issues. After Jack reports Fay’s extramarital affair to her husband Charley, all hell breaks loose. This dynamic of a naive young man, an older more cynical man, and a woman between them repeats itself quite a bit in Dick’s work, particularly in these realist novels. I’ll call this the “fool-cynic love triangle.”
The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike
Written: 1960. Published: 1984. Lag: 24 years.The novel depicts a feud between real estate man Leo Runcible and his neighbor Walt Dombrosio. They live in a “lily-white” suburb, and when potential buyers ask Leo about a Black visitor to Walt’s house, Leo winds up forcefully defending Walt and losing the sale. Frustrated with the whole situation, Leo blames Walt and starts the feud by reporting Walt for drunk driving, which leads to the loss of his driver’s license. Things escalate quickly from there. Leo finds what he thinks are Neanderthal remains, but it turns out Walt planted them as a sort of prank, which starts a whole other strange thread of the story. I really enjoyed this one, so I’m glad it appears so early in the list.
Humpty Dumpty in Oakland
Written: 1960. Published: 1986. Lag: 26 years.Jim Fergesson decides to retire and sell his auto repair business, which inconveniences his business tenant Al Miller, who rents a lot from him to sell old cars. Entrepreneur Chris Harmon advises Jim to invest in a new garage, but Al believes Chris is corrupt, leading to a lot of friction in their relationships. I don’t want to give away too much here, so I’ll just say that this one is pretty bleak. The name “Humpty Dumpty” in the title sounds kind of fun until you remember that Humpty Dumpty fell apart and couldn’t be put back together again.
In Milton Lumky Territory
Written: 1958. Published: 1985. Lag: 27 years.Bruce Stevens visits his hometown and begins an unexpected relationship with his former elementary school teacher, Susan Faine, who hires him to manage her typewriter shop. From traveling salesman Milton Lumky, Bruce learns of a warehouse full of imported typewriters, which he tries to unload quickly after realizing they’re not worth as much as he’d thought. Bruce and Susan’s relationship is strained by business matters, leading to such a bleak ending that it’s not even shown directly. Instead, we end with Bruce’s daydream of living happily ever after with Susan.
Puttering About in a Small Land
Written: 1957. Published: 1985. Lag: 28 years.In 1944, Virginia Watson and Roger Lindahl meet and marry in Washington DC after Roger divorces his first wife and abandons his daughter. They move to Los Angeles and make a fortune working in a munitions factory, but Roger spends their money recklessly. In 1953, Virginia wants to enroll their son Gregg in an expensive boarding school in Ojai, which Roger opposes. However, another parent named Liz Bonner persuades him to agree to the enrollment by sharing the driving duties. Drama ensues, both professional and romantic, and it doesn’t end well for Roger, or anyone really.
Mary and the Giant
Written: 1955. Published: 1987. Lag: 32 years.This was the first of Dick’s realist novels that I read, and it left quite an impression with its delicate characterization and unexpected twists. Even though it’s pretty far down on this list, it’s well worth a read. A young woman named Mary Anne Reynolds moves to Pacific Park, California, to escape her abusive father and make a new life for herself. There she encounters Joseph Schilling, who runs a small music shop and makes at pass at her during her interview. Mary instead starts a relationship with Carleton Tweaney, a Black lounge singer. Things go south with Carleton after a lot of drama, and Mary actually moves on to Joseph for a while despite their forty-year age difference. PKD called this one a retelling of Mozart’s Don Giovanni where Joseph is seduced and ultimately destroyed by Mary.
The Broken Bubble
Written: 1956. Published: 1988. Lag: 32 years.I felt a little bit dirty reading this one. In mid-1950s California, the lives of two couples of very different ages intersect as they get to know each other and decide to swap partners, with mixed results. The title refers to a plastic enclosure used by a stripper named Thisbe Holt at a rowdy optometrists’ convention and serves as a metaphor for the irreversible effects of certain events involving the main characters.
Gather Yourselves Together
Written: 1950. Published: 1994. Lag: 44 years.This is Dick’s first full novel to eventually get published. It’s often criticized for being slow and uneventful, but I really enjoyed it myself. The story is actually realistic and contemporary to when it was written, but he’s chosen such a surreal setting that it feels post-apocalyptic. An American company is preparing to leave China after the Communist Revolution has made doing business there impossible. Only three employees have been left behind to manage the transition: Carl, Verne, and Barbara. Verne and Barbara have had a previous romantic relationship, but Barbara is more interested in Carl, who is pretty oblivious and busy expounding his personal philosophy. This is the first (and probably the purest) example of the fool-cynic love triangle; all other examples of it we see are echoes of this novel.
Voices From the Street
Written: 1953. Published: 2007. Lag: 54 years.If you’ve made it this far, this one will give you some déjà vu from Humpty Dumpty in Oakland, which was actually completed seven years later in 1960. Dick had likely given up on Voices ever getting published and decided to cannibalize it a bit. This much less mature (though every bit as bleak) novel follows Stuart Hadley, a young radio electronics salesman in 1950s Oakland, California, who is going through a difficult time in his life. He doesn't apply himself in his job, is pretty horrible to his wife, and complains about everything. Stuart is an artist and a dreamer, but he's also an angry young man who’s trying to fill the void in his life with drinking, sex, and religious fanaticism. The story begins with Hadley in a jail cell after going on a bender the previous night, and it’s all downhill from there.
It’s totally up to you which of these you choose to read, of course. As a PKD mega-fan, I was always going to read them all, no matter how much I may have disliked the experience at the time, but if you find yourself in need of a break, I’d suggest going through a few of Dick’s amazing short stories before soldiering on through his bitter, gloomy take on 1950s America.