Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book
Rate this book
WHIM

One of the great comic novels of the decade, (WHIM) is pure delight, a book with a smile built into just about every line.

--Peter Tennant, reviewing all Luke’s
books in The Third Alternative.



WHIM tells the story of a very Magical Indian boy who finds that he has been sent to earth by his Father Lord Chance to discover the Big U.T.—ultimate truth. As a high school football star just discovering sex, Whim is distracted from his quest by being in love with the brainy, sexy but very moral Dawn, and also by his rival Billy Best, who wants to discover u.t. so he can market it and make a bundle. The novel is filled with Zen-like encounters between Whim and his Montauk mentor Grain-of-Sand; Narsufin, the great black Sufi sage famous for his hook shot; and the Abominable Snowman Sage of the Himalayas. In the end Whim finds his u.t., saves the Montauk nation, and wins the heart (and all other bodily parts) of his beloved Dawn.


“One of my favorite reads of the year,”

“Ingenious, hilarious,”

“Anarchic, hip, subversive and comic.”

330 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1986

2 people are currently reading
197 people want to read

About the author

Luke Rhinehart

31 books437 followers
Luke Rhinehart was the pen name of the author George Cockcroft.

He was born in the United States, son of an engineer and a civil servant. He received a BA from Cornell University and an MA from Columbia University. Subsequently he received a PhD in psychology, also from Columbia. He married his wife, Ann, on June 30, 1956. He has three children.

After obtaining his PhD, he went into teaching. During his years as a university teacher he taught, among other things, courses in Zen and Western literature. He first floated the idea of living according to the casting of dice in a lecture. The reaction was reportedly of equal parts intrigue and disgust, and it was at this point he realized it could become a novel. Cockcroft began experimenting with dice a long time before writing The Dice Man, but this made progress on the novel rather slow.

In 1971, London-based publisher, Talmy Franklin, published The Dice Man, Cockcroft's first novel as Luke Rhinehart. Soon afterwards, Cockcroft was engaged in the creation of a dice center in New York City.

In 1975, he was involved in a round-the-world voyage in a large trimaran ketch. Later, he spent some time in a sailboat in the Mediterranean, where he taught English and from there moved to a former Sufi retreat on the edge of a lake in Canaan, New York.

On 1 August 2012, at the age of 80, Cockcroft arranged for his own death to be announced, as a joke.

Cockcroft passed away (for real) at the age of 87 on November 6. 2020.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
40 (18%)
4 stars
64 (29%)
3 stars
68 (31%)
2 stars
27 (12%)
1 star
16 (7%)
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
Profile Image for Kamer.
68 reviews15 followers
August 26, 2012
It's kinda good but nothing like The Dice Man.
I mean you can't even campare them and the thing is i don't think this is kinda sequel of the Dice Man.

It was a normal best-seller novel, enjoyed reading it.
That's it.
Profile Image for Annette Abbott.
104 reviews24 followers
April 25, 2011
If you read and liked "The Dice Man," chances are you'll like this - or at least you'll have a better appreciation of it. Having recently finished re-reading Dice Man, I decided to read "Whim," followed by "Book of the Die." Being a huge Dice Man fan, I naturally loved the other Rhinehart titles -- however, had I not read the former, I think the latter would lose 1-2 stars.
51 reviews
September 9, 2009
Hilariously great book! This "follow-up" to The Dice Man is great and if you liked "Lamb" by Christopher Moore, you won't be able to resist turning page after page. The only sidenote is the warning that this never actually talks about how Whim starts the Chance religion.
Profile Image for Zeynep Çiçek.
290 reviews1 follower
May 13, 2022
Başladığım için bitirmek istedim.Hic beğenmedim uzun zaman elimde süründü ve nihayet bitti diyorum.Bir daha da ilk etapta ilgimi çekmeyen bir kitaba şans vermeyeceğim.
Profile Image for Lastsitdiga.
10 reviews
March 6, 2017
Cevabını biliyordum ama yazarım cevabı ne olacak diye okudum. Benim verdiğim cevabı kitabı bitirmeden 2 sayfa önce verdi. Sinirim bozuldu. Sevmedim. Saygılar sevgiler.
Profile Image for Ferio.
703 reviews
June 29, 2016
Dice el prefaciodel autor a esta edición que es, de sus obras, la que mayor cariño le produce y que por eso la revisó para reeditarla y actualizarla. Esto me deja estupefacto tras leerla, ya que su primera parte espiritual (The Dice Man) me pareció superior y la disfruté bastante más: el histrionismo de aquella partía de una premisa más original, mientras que esta parte de un deus ex machina que sirve de excusa a unas aventuras surrealistas de los protagonistas que no tienen excesiva gracia, y eso por no hablar de la fijación obsesiva del autor con la sexualidad, que es bastante cansina, y la abundancia de lugares comunes sobre razas y nacionalidades. No sabe uno si está leyendo una novela americana o el guión de una actuación de Bertín y Arévalo.

Prometía mucho y me ha dejado frío, es un poco decepcionante; confío en que el libro final de la saga recupere también el espíritu. En este se perdió en un mar de complejidades poco efectivas.
Profile Image for Canan .
1,091 reviews72 followers
Read
January 11, 2012
yazarıda tarzınıda hiç sevmedim...bana hitap etmiyor...
kitabın türkçedeki ismi P*ç Fantazi...
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.