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Les Voix de l'asphalte
Stuart Hadley a tout pour être heureux : une belle maison, une femme aimante, un travail épanouissant. Et pourtant, heureux, il ne l’est pas. Ce rêve américain tant vanté, nourri aux mamelles du consumérisme triomphant et de l’anticommunisme, ne suffit plus à le satisfaire. Alors, les extrêmes, peut-être… Sa rencontre avec Theodore Beckleim, leader de la société des Gardiens de Jésus, puis celle de Marsha Frazier, rédactrice en chef d’un journal ne cachant pas ses sympathies fascistes, vont combler son vide intérieur. Mais les réponses apportées sont-elles vraiment celles qu’il cherche ?
495 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2007
54 people are currently reading
929 people want to read
About the author
Philip K. Dick
1,996 books22.6k followersPhilip Kindred Dick was a prolific American science fiction author whose work has had a lasting impact on literature, cinema, and popular culture. Known for his imaginative narratives and profound philosophical themes, Dick explored the nature of reality, the boundaries of human identity, and the impact of technology and authoritarianism on society. His stories often blurred the line between the real and the artificial, challenging readers to question their perceptions and beliefs.
Raised in California, Dick began writing professionally in the early 1950s, publishing short stories in various science fiction magazines. He quickly developed a distinctive voice within the genre, marked by a fusion of science fiction concepts with deep existential and psychological inquiry. Over his career, he authored 44 novels and more than 100 short stories, many of which have become classics in the field.
Recurring themes in Dick's work include alternate realities, simulations, corporate and government control, mental illness, and the nature of consciousness. His protagonists are frequently everyday individuals—often paranoid, uncertain, or troubled—caught in surreal and often dangerous circumstances that force them to question their environment and themselves. Works such as Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, and A Scanner Darkly reflect his fascination with perception and altered states of consciousness, often drawing from his own experiences with mental health struggles and drug use.
One of Dick’s most influential novels is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which served as the basis for Ridley Scott’s iconic film Blade Runner. The novel deals with the distinction between humans and artificial beings and asks profound questions about empathy, identity, and what it means to be alive. Other adaptations of his work include Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and The Man in the High Castle, each reflecting key elements of his storytelling—uncertain realities, oppressive systems, and the search for truth. These adaptations have introduced his complex ideas to audiences well beyond the traditional readership of science fiction.
In the 1970s, Dick underwent a series of visionary and mystical experiences that had a significant influence on his later writings. He described receiving profound knowledge from an external, possibly divine, source and documented these events extensively in what became known as The Exegesis, a massive and often fragmented journal. These experiences inspired his later novels, most notably the VALIS trilogy, which mixes autobiography, theology, and metaphysics in a narrative that defies conventional structure and genre boundaries.
Throughout his life, Dick faced financial instability, health issues, and periods of personal turmoil, yet he remained a dedicated and relentless writer. Despite limited commercial success during his lifetime, his reputation grew steadily, and he came to be regarded as one of the most original voices in speculative fiction. His work has been celebrated for its ability to fuse philosophical depth with gripping storytelling and has influenced not only science fiction writers but also philosophers, filmmakers, and futurists.
Dick’s legacy continues to thrive in both literary and cinematic spheres. The themes he explored remain urgently relevant in the modern world, particularly as technology increasingly intersects with human identity and governance. The Philip K. Dick Award, named in his honor, is presented annually to distinguished works of science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. His writings have also inspired television series, academic studies, and countless homages across media.
Through his vivid imagination and unflinching inquiry into the nature of existence, Philip K. Dick redefined what science fiction could achieve. His work continues to challenge and inspire, offering timeless insights into the human condition a
Raised in California, Dick began writing professionally in the early 1950s, publishing short stories in various science fiction magazines. He quickly developed a distinctive voice within the genre, marked by a fusion of science fiction concepts with deep existential and psychological inquiry. Over his career, he authored 44 novels and more than 100 short stories, many of which have become classics in the field.
Recurring themes in Dick's work include alternate realities, simulations, corporate and government control, mental illness, and the nature of consciousness. His protagonists are frequently everyday individuals—often paranoid, uncertain, or troubled—caught in surreal and often dangerous circumstances that force them to question their environment and themselves. Works such as Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, and A Scanner Darkly reflect his fascination with perception and altered states of consciousness, often drawing from his own experiences with mental health struggles and drug use.
One of Dick’s most influential novels is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which served as the basis for Ridley Scott’s iconic film Blade Runner. The novel deals with the distinction between humans and artificial beings and asks profound questions about empathy, identity, and what it means to be alive. Other adaptations of his work include Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and The Man in the High Castle, each reflecting key elements of his storytelling—uncertain realities, oppressive systems, and the search for truth. These adaptations have introduced his complex ideas to audiences well beyond the traditional readership of science fiction.
In the 1970s, Dick underwent a series of visionary and mystical experiences that had a significant influence on his later writings. He described receiving profound knowledge from an external, possibly divine, source and documented these events extensively in what became known as The Exegesis, a massive and often fragmented journal. These experiences inspired his later novels, most notably the VALIS trilogy, which mixes autobiography, theology, and metaphysics in a narrative that defies conventional structure and genre boundaries.
Throughout his life, Dick faced financial instability, health issues, and periods of personal turmoil, yet he remained a dedicated and relentless writer. Despite limited commercial success during his lifetime, his reputation grew steadily, and he came to be regarded as one of the most original voices in speculative fiction. His work has been celebrated for its ability to fuse philosophical depth with gripping storytelling and has influenced not only science fiction writers but also philosophers, filmmakers, and futurists.
Dick’s legacy continues to thrive in both literary and cinematic spheres. The themes he explored remain urgently relevant in the modern world, particularly as technology increasingly intersects with human identity and governance. The Philip K. Dick Award, named in his honor, is presented annually to distinguished works of science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. His writings have also inspired television series, academic studies, and countless homages across media.
Through his vivid imagination and unflinching inquiry into the nature of existence, Philip K. Dick redefined what science fiction could achieve. His work continues to challenge and inspire, offering timeless insights into the human condition a
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 153 reviews
August 7, 2020
while reading this book, i developed an actual hatred for the main character, stuart hadley. he's an arrogant asshole. a terrible human being. he has a pregnant wife (and later, a little son) and can't get his priorities straight, so he basically ruins his life. he does dumb thing after dumb thing (i won't list them lest i spoil the story), and these things contribute and lead to his eventual descent into a huge mental breakdown/temporary madness.
the reason that i did like this book, though, is because like all of us, he scrapes bottom, learns from his mistakes, and makes up for them. for his betterment? i think so. you have to walk before you run, blah blah blah, etc.
another good thing about this book is the language. i'm very attracted to authors who are extremely descriptive. dick is one of those authors.
the reason that i did like this book, though, is because like all of us, he scrapes bottom, learns from his mistakes, and makes up for them. for his betterment? i think so. you have to walk before you run, blah blah blah, etc.
another good thing about this book is the language. i'm very attracted to authors who are extremely descriptive. dick is one of those authors.
August 29, 2022
The first novel ever written by Philip K Dick, which was published posthumously. On one hand, this book felt like a bit of a drag especially at the start. On the other, I thought it was a very good and surprisingly modern-feeling representation of a young disenfranchised man clearly having a breakdown as he struggles to find his place in the world. The man hates his job, struggled with alcohol addiction, doesn't seem to much like his wife and periodically has anti semitic and racist thoughts (unsure how much this is of the time, but it's clear we're not meant to agree with it).
At times the character started to feel pretty irredeemable towards the end, and I'm not sure I liked how the book wrapped up.
I'd recommend this for any Dick completionists... it isn't as bad as some of the other reviewers make out, however I do agree it does lack a certain umph. An example of a similar kind of book done better (in my opinion) is Something Happened by Joseph Heller.
At times the character started to feel pretty irredeemable towards the end, and I'm not sure I liked how the book wrapped up.
I'd recommend this for any Dick completionists... it isn't as bad as some of the other reviewers make out, however I do agree it does lack a certain umph. An example of a similar kind of book done better (in my opinion) is Something Happened by Joseph Heller.
Read
March 13, 2015This is a UFD. Let me explain.
Almost before he could read, Lloyd Spiegel wanted to play blues. As a precocious youngster he went on tour of the US. Bo Diddley came to see him and then went backstage and asked Spiegel what he wanted to be. Lloyd beamed up at him. ‘Don’t you get it, Mr Diddley? I’m a blues man.’ Whereupon Bo Diddley looked down at him and said ‘Son – you’ll be a blues man when I say you’re a blues man’.
Late in life Dick opined that he hadn’t been told early and often enough when his work was no good. I guess it’s too late, but if you are listening from whatever bizarre possie you might have elsewhere now: this book here? Voices from the Street? Absolutely bar none the worst written thing I’ve ever seen in print.
Rest here:
https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpre...
To make it clear, I have not forgotten to add stars.
Almost before he could read, Lloyd Spiegel wanted to play blues. As a precocious youngster he went on tour of the US. Bo Diddley came to see him and then went backstage and asked Spiegel what he wanted to be. Lloyd beamed up at him. ‘Don’t you get it, Mr Diddley? I’m a blues man.’ Whereupon Bo Diddley looked down at him and said ‘Son – you’ll be a blues man when I say you’re a blues man’.
Late in life Dick opined that he hadn’t been told early and often enough when his work was no good. I guess it’s too late, but if you are listening from whatever bizarre possie you might have elsewhere now: this book here? Voices from the Street? Absolutely bar none the worst written thing I’ve ever seen in print.
Rest here:
https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpre...
To make it clear, I have not forgotten to add stars.
July 10, 2013
Voices from the street is quite the curious book if you take into account all of PKD's other books as many ideas are explicitly recycled in his later novels. Opening the first few pages anyone whose read Dr. Bloodmoney or Humpty Dumpty in Oakland will instantly have recognized blatant similarities: a boss named Jim Fergusson and an everyday salesman/repairman named Stuart and in all three books the characters Jim and Stuart play similar roles; guilty boss and disgruntled employee. For this reason seeing how both Voices From the Street and Humpty in Oakland were unpublished during PKDs lifetime and the former has bits that makes it feel unfinished, I'll get to that in a moment, it's safe to assume that these books were incredibly early drafts of Dr. Bloodmoney. That being said if you have the choice of reading any of the three and you aren't a hardcore PKD fan whose reading for completion read Dr. Bloodmoney, it's the 'superior' version and the others fail by comparison.
Now regarding the unfinished business; there's points in the novel that show the book never got properly edited but was close to being done. On page 56 when a salesman is describing products in a store this happens, "Famous name brands (we can't tell you what it is but you'd recognize it instantly), fifty bucks under trade." In context this is quite odd seeing as PKD could have just come up with a fake brand name making it seem like this was a placeholder of sorts to create his own inner universe brand tech. The section that this is also written in has frequent ellipsis which is another indicator that it wasn't quite finished. Later on page 76 there's an omission of an insult from one of the main characters during dialogue, "Come on you ----!". One might think that this is just PKD censoring himself but it isn't: words such as "motherfucker","chink", "nigger", and "kike", all appear on the surrounding pages and throughout the novel so that rules out the possibility of him trying to be 'clean' and avoiding vulgar dialogue.
Now even if the novel was unfinished as I believe it was still published and I read it. That being said how does it hold up at least compared to PKDs other books? Not well against his scifi but better than some of his other nonscifi. Though I said the book copies (or has copied sections) it still has originality. The plot is about a disgruntled salesman who has no idea what to do with his life even though its supposed to be getting better and seeks out a society of Christians and their black leader* Theodore Beckeim for advice and help. Along the way you've got some typical PKD tropes including infidelity, misogyny and misanthropy. There's a lot discussed throughout the novel regarding religion and how it's hard for someone raised in a non religious background to believe even if they want to and from my own personal experiences I'd say its handled pretty accurately. No doubt some of this stems from PKDs own religious ideas and thoughts. There's also later on some good tense scenes involving violent sexual behavior and towards the end of the novel there's nearly the type of reality breaking that occurs in PKDs later scifi. However, none of this occurs until much later in the novel and you have to trudge through the first 50 or so pages to get to it. Still even then there's redundant and uninteresting events that occur that could be omitted. There's also a slew of characters who show up and interact with the characters and then mysteriously disappear and are never mentioned again, like some of Stuarts relatives, which ties back into the idea of the novel being unfinished. This is also by far, if you couldn't tell by all the vulgarities mentioned earlier, PKDs most discriminatory novel. Many white characters insult minorities harshly especially a lot more in comparison to his other books. Not only is there racist but there's also a lot of antisemitism. I can't say any of this is PKDs own inner thoughts, I should hope that, but in defense of him many of these characters who are racially targeted are in some fashion trying to help the protagonist making the impression that its the main characters fault for being racist, which isn't even quite clear either, it's possible that he's just got a bad temper and says the completely wrong things at the wrong time.
I gave the book a 3 but it really deserves a 2.5. If you can get past the first 100 or so pages it picks up but again you could just read the vastly better version Dr. Bloodmoney.
A side more is that this might be PKDs longest novel. It's 300 pages and sure it's short page wise than Gather Yourselves Together but the pages are significantly larger and as a result could be stretched out a lot more of it was given the same treatment.
*I realized this is also maybe the origin of other PKD characters like the big black religious movement leader in Counter Clockworld and the presidential candidate in The Crack in Space". The characters don't share that much though other than being black, calm, and having lots of power over others; this might not seem like much now but during the 50s and 60s Im sure it was uncommon for white male writers to include characters like that. Its also pretty possible that all these characters are based upon the civil rights leaders and Black religious leaders that appeared during this time including MLK, though I think he came too late to be the inspiration of Theodore Beckheim. Another interesting sidenote is that PKD seems to also balance out between having respectable black characters and then having racist caricatures. This might be him just having characters who are racist but its an interesting thought nonetheless.
Now regarding the unfinished business; there's points in the novel that show the book never got properly edited but was close to being done. On page 56 when a salesman is describing products in a store this happens, "Famous name brands (we can't tell you what it is but you'd recognize it instantly), fifty bucks under trade." In context this is quite odd seeing as PKD could have just come up with a fake brand name making it seem like this was a placeholder of sorts to create his own inner universe brand tech. The section that this is also written in has frequent ellipsis which is another indicator that it wasn't quite finished. Later on page 76 there's an omission of an insult from one of the main characters during dialogue, "Come on you ----!". One might think that this is just PKD censoring himself but it isn't: words such as "motherfucker","chink", "nigger", and "kike", all appear on the surrounding pages and throughout the novel so that rules out the possibility of him trying to be 'clean' and avoiding vulgar dialogue.
Now even if the novel was unfinished as I believe it was still published and I read it. That being said how does it hold up at least compared to PKDs other books? Not well against his scifi but better than some of his other nonscifi. Though I said the book copies (or has copied sections) it still has originality. The plot is about a disgruntled salesman who has no idea what to do with his life even though its supposed to be getting better and seeks out a society of Christians and their black leader* Theodore Beckeim for advice and help. Along the way you've got some typical PKD tropes including infidelity, misogyny and misanthropy. There's a lot discussed throughout the novel regarding religion and how it's hard for someone raised in a non religious background to believe even if they want to and from my own personal experiences I'd say its handled pretty accurately. No doubt some of this stems from PKDs own religious ideas and thoughts. There's also later on some good tense scenes involving violent sexual behavior and towards the end of the novel there's nearly the type of reality breaking that occurs in PKDs later scifi. However, none of this occurs until much later in the novel and you have to trudge through the first 50 or so pages to get to it. Still even then there's redundant and uninteresting events that occur that could be omitted. There's also a slew of characters who show up and interact with the characters and then mysteriously disappear and are never mentioned again, like some of Stuarts relatives, which ties back into the idea of the novel being unfinished. This is also by far, if you couldn't tell by all the vulgarities mentioned earlier, PKDs most discriminatory novel. Many white characters insult minorities harshly especially a lot more in comparison to his other books. Not only is there racist but there's also a lot of antisemitism. I can't say any of this is PKDs own inner thoughts, I should hope that, but in defense of him many of these characters who are racially targeted are in some fashion trying to help the protagonist making the impression that its the main characters fault for being racist, which isn't even quite clear either, it's possible that he's just got a bad temper and says the completely wrong things at the wrong time.
I gave the book a 3 but it really deserves a 2.5. If you can get past the first 100 or so pages it picks up but again you could just read the vastly better version Dr. Bloodmoney.
A side more is that this might be PKDs longest novel. It's 300 pages and sure it's short page wise than Gather Yourselves Together but the pages are significantly larger and as a result could be stretched out a lot more of it was given the same treatment.
*I realized this is also maybe the origin of other PKD characters like the big black religious movement leader in Counter Clockworld and the presidential candidate in The Crack in Space". The characters don't share that much though other than being black, calm, and having lots of power over others; this might not seem like much now but during the 50s and 60s Im sure it was uncommon for white male writers to include characters like that. Its also pretty possible that all these characters are based upon the civil rights leaders and Black religious leaders that appeared during this time including MLK, though I think he came too late to be the inspiration of Theodore Beckheim. Another interesting sidenote is that PKD seems to also balance out between having respectable black characters and then having racist caricatures. This might be him just having characters who are racist but its an interesting thought nonetheless.
February 2, 2011
If you're interested in reading this book because you're intending to read all of Philip K. Dick's novels, then I recommend that you do so. If this is going to be your first book by him, I recommend that you read some of his other work, otherwise you might never want to after reading this.
Voices From the Street is one of Dick's earliest works and was just recently published for the first time. Maybe that explains why I found this book to be so terrible. It is not too often that I have to actually force myself to finish a book, as was the case with this one.
All the characters are one-dimensional with almost no personality, the dialogue is forced, and much of the interaction between characters seems random and unexplained. Nothing new or remotely interesting happens until about the last 50 pages. The story is just very bland and full of cliche conceptions. It's difficult to enjoy a book when one is unable to stay engaged with the story and feel empathetic toward characters.
The 'voices from the street' might be warning one against the banality of the masses, but I think what they're really warning against is the reading of this book. (N.Miller 2007)
Voices From the Street is one of Dick's earliest works and was just recently published for the first time. Maybe that explains why I found this book to be so terrible. It is not too often that I have to actually force myself to finish a book, as was the case with this one.
All the characters are one-dimensional with almost no personality, the dialogue is forced, and much of the interaction between characters seems random and unexplained. Nothing new or remotely interesting happens until about the last 50 pages. The story is just very bland and full of cliche conceptions. It's difficult to enjoy a book when one is unable to stay engaged with the story and feel empathetic toward characters.
The 'voices from the street' might be warning one against the banality of the masses, but I think what they're really warning against is the reading of this book. (N.Miller 2007)
July 31, 2012
"...it's tempting to read this early book as a Dickian urtext." There is something to this observation from the "Los Angeles Times" at the top of the 'Reader's Guide' in "Voice from the Street" (1952).
The story of Stuart Hadley, a talented 25-year-old television salesman, slated to become store manager, who is not content with his work, and not happy with his marriage looks like it could be Richard Deckard from "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" (1968) [also titled "Blade Runner"]. The difference is that Stuart Hadley's story is not told from the technologically wild place of the science fiction future.
Stuart Hadley is artistic. He wants to build something authentic. And running a television store isn't enough. He looks for ways to fill the void in his life--through marriage and new fatherhood and by seeking the approval of the sister he adores. These aren't enough and he flirts with joining a doomsday evangelical religious group. He has an affair. Everything has to fall apart before he can put himself back together again.
Richard Deckard in "Do Androids..." is ambivalent about his job of "retiring" androids. He throws himself into the task of retiring 6 androids that have come into his jurisdiction because he wants to use the bounty money to fulfill his longing to own a living animal (nuclear war has made most animals extinct). But he will only have enough money to fulfill this goal when he collects after completing the entire job. His ambivalence becomes more and more of an issue as he tracks down and guns down the androids. Finally, he has an affair with an android.
Richard Deckard completes the big order, collects his windfall of cash, and buys a sheep. Still his life falls apart due to the very actions he took to find fulfillment. Like with the story of Stuart Hadley, we are left believing Richard Deckard will put himself back together with scaled back ambitions and the help of his faithful wife.
In my opinion "Voices" is one of the two best of Philip K. Dick's main stream literary novels (the other is "The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike"). The characters are fleshed out and believable, the conflict flows organically from the nature of the characters. This as opposed to his other mainstream novels that are always forced or cobbled together to one extent or another.
Yet, it is fun to watch many themes or other approaches to story telling that we love in PKD's science fiction to make an appearance in this early novel.
The story of Stuart Hadley, a talented 25-year-old television salesman, slated to become store manager, who is not content with his work, and not happy with his marriage looks like it could be Richard Deckard from "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" (1968) [also titled "Blade Runner"]. The difference is that Stuart Hadley's story is not told from the technologically wild place of the science fiction future.
Stuart Hadley is artistic. He wants to build something authentic. And running a television store isn't enough. He looks for ways to fill the void in his life--through marriage and new fatherhood and by seeking the approval of the sister he adores. These aren't enough and he flirts with joining a doomsday evangelical religious group. He has an affair. Everything has to fall apart before he can put himself back together again.
Richard Deckard in "Do Androids..." is ambivalent about his job of "retiring" androids. He throws himself into the task of retiring 6 androids that have come into his jurisdiction because he wants to use the bounty money to fulfill his longing to own a living animal (nuclear war has made most animals extinct). But he will only have enough money to fulfill this goal when he collects after completing the entire job. His ambivalence becomes more and more of an issue as he tracks down and guns down the androids. Finally, he has an affair with an android.
Richard Deckard completes the big order, collects his windfall of cash, and buys a sheep. Still his life falls apart due to the very actions he took to find fulfillment. Like with the story of Stuart Hadley, we are left believing Richard Deckard will put himself back together with scaled back ambitions and the help of his faithful wife.
In my opinion "Voices" is one of the two best of Philip K. Dick's main stream literary novels (the other is "The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike"). The characters are fleshed out and believable, the conflict flows organically from the nature of the characters. This as opposed to his other mainstream novels that are always forced or cobbled together to one extent or another.
Yet, it is fun to watch many themes or other approaches to story telling that we love in PKD's science fiction to make an appearance in this early novel.
September 23, 2011
Up until around page 233 reading about Stuart Hadley, seeing him, was like looking in a mirror. His life was mine. We had different jobs but the same thoughts, questions, and concerns. Luckily after page 233 the mirror shattered. I sometimes think I'm still Stuart stuck in between pages 1 - 233. I've often questioned what we really do. I used to watch suited men carrying briefcases filled with papers and wondered about the necessity of such endeavors. I was one of them. I was a landscape archtitect working for greedy property developers that looked at potential purchasers as just food, suckers, revenue. They cut every corner possible to construct their properties and made empty promises. The sad thing is people ate it up, they were gullible. I could no longer be a part of that. So, yeah, Stuart... I'm with you... until you crossed the line with Marsha.
Like you Stuart, I've been chased by pipe and crowbar wielding men simply because I had enough. I realize now that i searched for physical conflict as a release, a way to feel life... even pain is an affirmation of life. I never got caught thankfully. But Stuart, I did move on. There is more to life, I'm sure... I think. Maybe, just maybe, I've found it.
If you want a plot summary read it above. PKD's pre-sci-fi books still intrigue me. I love the characters he molds them in such intricate and sometimes disturbing detail. These are real people. I know. I'm one of them.
Like you Stuart, I've been chased by pipe and crowbar wielding men simply because I had enough. I realize now that i searched for physical conflict as a release, a way to feel life... even pain is an affirmation of life. I never got caught thankfully. But Stuart, I did move on. There is more to life, I'm sure... I think. Maybe, just maybe, I've found it.
If you want a plot summary read it above. PKD's pre-sci-fi books still intrigue me. I love the characters he molds them in such intricate and sometimes disturbing detail. These are real people. I know. I'm one of them.
August 2, 2023
Philip K. Dick is one of my all time favorite authors, but I do have to say that you should read everything else he wrote before this one (including the unfairly maligned "Gather Yourselves Together" which was another early novel also published posthumously).
The fascinating thing with this book though is that there are so many fantastic ideas everywhere in this book that Dick will dive into later throughout his entire career: work disillusionments, people losing their identities to technology, spirituality versus blind following in fast moving times, and the basic idea that capitalism and our "improvements" in the world are making us lose touch with a bigger purpose. It is still wildly relevant and prophetic throughout. I was reminded of "Fight Club" themes multiple times reading this. However, the characters are almost all so awful and cynical and bleak that it's near impossible to really get behind any single one of them. The brilliant parts are there amidst the negativity of all this writing, but it takes work to get to it and is probably not worth the effort to most readers.
The racism and misogyny get beyond tiresome without enough counterpoints though they are trickled in there. Dick very soon switching to science fiction writing makes all the sense as he tries to tackle so many complex issues around him in a drama form here. You need more counterbalance for all the despicable scenes and characters and descriptions you get throughout. One scene towards the end is just something I did not want/need to read ever. Then again, there are some scenes of absolute brilliance particularly when Dick is writing pure satire about capitalism (a curmudgeonly boss in pure love and bliss with all his appliances in great detail is hilarious), and the spirituality dialogue of the traveling cult of personality preacher has lots of depth and layering.
In fact, this little segment reminds me of Dick predicting himself as a prophet once he would soon create his "sci-fi worlds": "Do you understand what the prophets were? They were men gifted with this exceptional insight, this special sense, an ability to perceive future occurences, to remember them as we remember events of the past. The impact of great things yet to come impinged on their minds. Everything they saw will come about; but these events were of such foreign and awesome nature that only by rendering them in elaborate poetic imagery could they translate them into the diction of the times, and represent the events to themselves."
The seeds of all his prophetic ideas are all over this book so I don't regret reading "Voices..." at all. The moments of genius are worth it to me, and there is an unexpected almost horror-like ending quarter that deserves a slow hand clap. Alas, I was horrified for other bleaker reasons for the majority of the book as shameful characters and conversations are a lot to slog through as Dick vents his life-long themes for one of the first times. Read a different one first, but I still praise the genius ideas that are waiting to be explored better by Dick himself coming right up.
The fascinating thing with this book though is that there are so many fantastic ideas everywhere in this book that Dick will dive into later throughout his entire career: work disillusionments, people losing their identities to technology, spirituality versus blind following in fast moving times, and the basic idea that capitalism and our "improvements" in the world are making us lose touch with a bigger purpose. It is still wildly relevant and prophetic throughout. I was reminded of "Fight Club" themes multiple times reading this. However, the characters are almost all so awful and cynical and bleak that it's near impossible to really get behind any single one of them. The brilliant parts are there amidst the negativity of all this writing, but it takes work to get to it and is probably not worth the effort to most readers.
The racism and misogyny get beyond tiresome without enough counterpoints though they are trickled in there. Dick very soon switching to science fiction writing makes all the sense as he tries to tackle so many complex issues around him in a drama form here. You need more counterbalance for all the despicable scenes and characters and descriptions you get throughout. One scene towards the end is just something I did not want/need to read ever. Then again, there are some scenes of absolute brilliance particularly when Dick is writing pure satire about capitalism (a curmudgeonly boss in pure love and bliss with all his appliances in great detail is hilarious), and the spirituality dialogue of the traveling cult of personality preacher has lots of depth and layering.
In fact, this little segment reminds me of Dick predicting himself as a prophet once he would soon create his "sci-fi worlds": "Do you understand what the prophets were? They were men gifted with this exceptional insight, this special sense, an ability to perceive future occurences, to remember them as we remember events of the past. The impact of great things yet to come impinged on their minds. Everything they saw will come about; but these events were of such foreign and awesome nature that only by rendering them in elaborate poetic imagery could they translate them into the diction of the times, and represent the events to themselves."
The seeds of all his prophetic ideas are all over this book so I don't regret reading "Voices..." at all. The moments of genius are worth it to me, and there is an unexpected almost horror-like ending quarter that deserves a slow hand clap. Alas, I was horrified for other bleaker reasons for the majority of the book as shameful characters and conversations are a lot to slog through as Dick vents his life-long themes for one of the first times. Read a different one first, but I still praise the genius ideas that are waiting to be explored better by Dick himself coming right up.
March 19, 2012
This is written from my perspective as a newcomer to PKD. This is my first novel, all I have read is the first volume of the short stories.
And now for something completely different. This was quite a surprise after having read the first volume of the short stories. This is Dick’s second novel (the first, Gather Yourselves Together, is out of print until July, so I won’t be reading it until then). Dick initially aspired to be a mainstream literary author, publishing his SF short stories to support himself. However, most of these novels, including Voices on the Street, were rejected. One wonders how his career would have differed had this been published in 1952.
Certainly this is much darker than most of the trippy little SF stories in Volume 1 of the Collected Stories. It’s hard to believe this is the same guy who wrote “The Variable Man”. The structure of the book is a little loose. Characters show up and disappear, or they reappear without serving any real purpose. Some of the dialogue is a little ridiculous. I’m thinking especially of any scene involving Stuart’s wife explaining her husband, or the really bizarre quasi-incestuous dialogue between Stuart and his sister, the most glaring example of a character who suddenly appears, seems to be a major element of the story, and then abruptly leaves, never seen nor mentioned again.
The main character, Stuart Hadley, is interesting. Dick pulls off the feat of having a frankly unlikable protagonist who you can still sympathize with, at least until he goes off the deep end and does some pretty horrible things. His wife is really a saint for putting up with his bullshit the way she does. In fact, that’s pretty much all she is, as her character is pretty one-dimensional and underdeveloped. But I at least could identify with Stuart while still wanting to slap him in the face. Egotistical and narcissistic, idealistic and well-meaning. He embodies all the contradictions we all live with but keep hidden to ourselves. He thinks he is destined for greatness and so grates under the soul-crushing repetition of electronic sales. Anyone who’s worked retail and wondered what the hell you’re doing every day can relate. And yet, like so many, he thinks he’s destined for something, but is just waiting for it to come to him. And it does, in a way, when Stuart gets involved in a religious cult, The Society for the Watchmen of Jesus, and its charismatic “negro” leader Thomas Beckheim. Stuart is looking for someone he can trust completely, and it might as well be Beckheim.
Of course, this goes bust for Stuart, as do one idea after another, because he just can’t hold it together, until things get ugly.
A lot of the plotting and characterization is scattershot, but Dick succeeds in bringing to vivid life a sleepy California town in the 50s. I really felt like I was there. In that respect, at least, the book is a fascinating time capsule of a specific time and place. When Dick wrote it, he was just writing the time and place he knew, but now, sixty years later it is one of the most compelling aspects of the book. Of course, the character’s attitudes toward race reflect the times as well. Casual bigotry is rampant, and Stuart’s musings on his Jewish friends the Golds can frankly be difficult to read. Even if these aren’t Dick’s views himself, he still wrote some pretty disturbing things. Of course, Cold War paranoia is rampant, as is the Korean War, which informs much of the cult’s rhetoric in the beginning.
Unfortunately, this being my first Dick novel, I can’t really put this into context, but I would recommend it with some reservations. That being said, it’s fairly impressive considering Dick was only twenty-four at the time. An interesting contrast to his sci-fi shorts.
And now for something completely different. This was quite a surprise after having read the first volume of the short stories. This is Dick’s second novel (the first, Gather Yourselves Together, is out of print until July, so I won’t be reading it until then). Dick initially aspired to be a mainstream literary author, publishing his SF short stories to support himself. However, most of these novels, including Voices on the Street, were rejected. One wonders how his career would have differed had this been published in 1952.
Certainly this is much darker than most of the trippy little SF stories in Volume 1 of the Collected Stories. It’s hard to believe this is the same guy who wrote “The Variable Man”. The structure of the book is a little loose. Characters show up and disappear, or they reappear without serving any real purpose. Some of the dialogue is a little ridiculous. I’m thinking especially of any scene involving Stuart’s wife explaining her husband, or the really bizarre quasi-incestuous dialogue between Stuart and his sister, the most glaring example of a character who suddenly appears, seems to be a major element of the story, and then abruptly leaves, never seen nor mentioned again.
The main character, Stuart Hadley, is interesting. Dick pulls off the feat of having a frankly unlikable protagonist who you can still sympathize with, at least until he goes off the deep end and does some pretty horrible things. His wife is really a saint for putting up with his bullshit the way she does. In fact, that’s pretty much all she is, as her character is pretty one-dimensional and underdeveloped. But I at least could identify with Stuart while still wanting to slap him in the face. Egotistical and narcissistic, idealistic and well-meaning. He embodies all the contradictions we all live with but keep hidden to ourselves. He thinks he is destined for greatness and so grates under the soul-crushing repetition of electronic sales. Anyone who’s worked retail and wondered what the hell you’re doing every day can relate. And yet, like so many, he thinks he’s destined for something, but is just waiting for it to come to him. And it does, in a way, when Stuart gets involved in a religious cult, The Society for the Watchmen of Jesus, and its charismatic “negro” leader Thomas Beckheim. Stuart is looking for someone he can trust completely, and it might as well be Beckheim.
Of course, this goes bust for Stuart, as do one idea after another, because he just can’t hold it together, until things get ugly.
A lot of the plotting and characterization is scattershot, but Dick succeeds in bringing to vivid life a sleepy California town in the 50s. I really felt like I was there. In that respect, at least, the book is a fascinating time capsule of a specific time and place. When Dick wrote it, he was just writing the time and place he knew, but now, sixty years later it is one of the most compelling aspects of the book. Of course, the character’s attitudes toward race reflect the times as well. Casual bigotry is rampant, and Stuart’s musings on his Jewish friends the Golds can frankly be difficult to read. Even if these aren’t Dick’s views himself, he still wrote some pretty disturbing things. Of course, Cold War paranoia is rampant, as is the Korean War, which informs much of the cult’s rhetoric in the beginning.
Unfortunately, this being my first Dick novel, I can’t really put this into context, but I would recommend it with some reservations. That being said, it’s fairly impressive considering Dick was only twenty-four at the time. An interesting contrast to his sci-fi shorts.
September 13, 2019
Although very much an early work (and he cannibalised it later for characters and ideas, so he wouldn't have wanted it published) this does give us a full immersion into the paranoid, violent, insecure world of California in the early 50s. If you think PKD was just some old acid priest who wrote weirdie sci-fi for dudebros, check out the early novels. You'll find plenty of material to plagiarise for your own novel about Trump's America, and you'll get away with it as not many people bother reading the non-sf titles.
January 5, 2025
I finished this book a couple of months ago, and it's sort of difficult to find words to articulate it, but I think I found it, which is compelling. This is a part of my journey to read every Philip K. Dick novel, as I’m utterly fascinated by the man's mind, and this is the 2nd novel he wrote and was the last to be published posthumously. It makes sense why this wasn’t deemed not suitable for publication due to its unrefined qualities, yet there is a lot to enjoy. I do think Gather Yourselves Together is a better narrative altogether, which is heightened by its hypnotic nature with the writing and having this wonderful atmosphere. This, on the other hand, feels a lot rougher. There are still gems, and I genuinely thought it was quite solid. I really liked exploring 50s-60s California and the general scepticism of the government after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The general distrust of government is very apparent and for very valid reasons. The philosophical musings, especially by the preacher, are utterly fascinating and remind me of PKD at his best.
The book is unfortunately a bit aimless and distracted; part of this is definitely intentional, expressing that existential crisis that protagonist Stuart Hadley is suffering, but part of it is just PKD hasn’t refined his craft compared to his later writings like Ubik. Certain sections don’t feel properly edited, plotlines are sort of mentioned and not really addressed, a ton of potential, but PKD didn’t have the writing capacity at the end to make it truly great. Despite that I actually thought the ending to be quite good, its theme it touches upon is interesting. Some conversations definitely read as PKD's personal thoughts on the political climate, as it's literary fiction; you see a side of PKD you probably don't see in his science fiction, and it's really interesting. I do have to say one thing, this definitely feels intentional, but man, I completely loathe this protagonist. Like sure, I’ve read more evil protagonists, but something about Stuart Hadley really frustrates you. Part of it maybe an examination of the American Dream? It would fit, but regardless, the protagonist is one of the most unlikable men I’ve ever read.
In conclusion, I thought it was very solid, just unrefined and so close to being considered good. one pro is its somewhat a reflection of his youth and curious to read his first science fiction book he composed which is Vulcan's Hammer next! The first in this journey where it isn’t published posthumously.
6.5/10
The book is unfortunately a bit aimless and distracted; part of this is definitely intentional, expressing that existential crisis that protagonist Stuart Hadley is suffering, but part of it is just PKD hasn’t refined his craft compared to his later writings like Ubik. Certain sections don’t feel properly edited, plotlines are sort of mentioned and not really addressed, a ton of potential, but PKD didn’t have the writing capacity at the end to make it truly great. Despite that I actually thought the ending to be quite good, its theme it touches upon is interesting. Some conversations definitely read as PKD's personal thoughts on the political climate, as it's literary fiction; you see a side of PKD you probably don't see in his science fiction, and it's really interesting. I do have to say one thing, this definitely feels intentional, but man, I completely loathe this protagonist. Like sure, I’ve read more evil protagonists, but something about Stuart Hadley really frustrates you. Part of it maybe an examination of the American Dream? It would fit, but regardless, the protagonist is one of the most unlikable men I’ve ever read.
In conclusion, I thought it was very solid, just unrefined and so close to being considered good. one pro is its somewhat a reflection of his youth and curious to read his first science fiction book he composed which is Vulcan's Hammer next! The first in this journey where it isn’t published posthumously.
6.5/10
May 29, 2024
I can see why this wasn't published while he was alive. There are flashes of his brilliance, but the characters are almost uniformly terrible.
October 18, 2012
This is a PKD book unlike any other. Written before he found fame as the "voice" for a dystopian future (but only published posthumously in 2007), this work of fiction starts off rather mundane.
About 50 pages into the story of Stuart Hadley - a TV sales & repairman in the suburb of Oakland in the post-war 50's - i was still searching for the "voice" that i was accustomed to.
Stuart is a young man who has seemingly everything - good looks, a beautiful wife, a new baby on the way and a new managerial position opening up at work - yet he's dissatisfied. Constantly asking himself, "is there more to life than this?" That is a chord that still resonates with most of us now, decades later.
But once u stop expecting a sci-fi twist, only then do u start noticing the undercurrents of the early PKD "voice" - post-war / nuclear paranoia, a disillusionment with government, the search of new religions and a metaphysical higher order - a familiar theme in all his later legendary novels.
As Stuart delves deeper into his dilemma and crosses paths with the strange Society of the Watchmen of Jesus, its leader and one of the female left-wing members, the seeds of his breakdown seem imminent.
Combined with the added expectations at work and impending fatherhood, Stuart spirals increasingly out of control and his breakdown becomes complete. Although he does survive, but not without great cost to his psyche as well as his body.
Overall, the book did become engrossing as it progressed, and PKD's writing remains timeless. If u negated the name of the town and year, it could happen in any suburb right now.
At some parts tho, it almost seems autobiographical. It resonates in certain parts with PKDs troubled childhood, his anti-war sentiments, and his early attempts at being accepted as a literary writer - never really appreciated until after his death in the 80s.
PKD remains a voice far beyond a man of his time, and in this book u can catch a glimpse of where it began.
About 50 pages into the story of Stuart Hadley - a TV sales & repairman in the suburb of Oakland in the post-war 50's - i was still searching for the "voice" that i was accustomed to.
Stuart is a young man who has seemingly everything - good looks, a beautiful wife, a new baby on the way and a new managerial position opening up at work - yet he's dissatisfied. Constantly asking himself, "is there more to life than this?" That is a chord that still resonates with most of us now, decades later.
But once u stop expecting a sci-fi twist, only then do u start noticing the undercurrents of the early PKD "voice" - post-war / nuclear paranoia, a disillusionment with government, the search of new religions and a metaphysical higher order - a familiar theme in all his later legendary novels.
As Stuart delves deeper into his dilemma and crosses paths with the strange Society of the Watchmen of Jesus, its leader and one of the female left-wing members, the seeds of his breakdown seem imminent.
Combined with the added expectations at work and impending fatherhood, Stuart spirals increasingly out of control and his breakdown becomes complete. Although he does survive, but not without great cost to his psyche as well as his body.
Overall, the book did become engrossing as it progressed, and PKD's writing remains timeless. If u negated the name of the town and year, it could happen in any suburb right now.
At some parts tho, it almost seems autobiographical. It resonates in certain parts with PKDs troubled childhood, his anti-war sentiments, and his early attempts at being accepted as a literary writer - never really appreciated until after his death in the 80s.
PKD remains a voice far beyond a man of his time, and in this book u can catch a glimpse of where it began.
September 16, 2015
This is one of Philip K. Dick's earlier stories that was unpublished until a few years ago. I found this in one of those giant book-overstock stores that's open for a while until they run out of inventory or money to rent the storefront. Fitting, considering certain elements of this story.
Except for the fact that the story is set in 1952, the characters and the plot of this book could just as well be found today. In fact, there were moments where conversations between characters seemed like something one might overhear on the streets right this very moment. It's fascinating how little has changed since the 50s in regards to religion, politics, and especially the mixture of the two.
The story itself is the descent of a young man, typical of the age, or any age, into animalistic fury. He's a dreamer, stuck in a salesman job he hates, looking for meaning in his life while feeling stuck by the trappings of society. He starts to look for another way, tries out the big new religion sweeping through town, tries to drown himself in drink, even tries to become the most perfect everyday citizen; but it all leads him deeper and deeper into the hole of unfulfillment he digs for himself. Things get dark, incredibly, wickedly dark.
That's the genius of Dick's writing. He creates this vividly descriptive world and pulls you in, then takes you into the darkest workings of the human mind. He would later use science fiction to explore these emotions, playing with allegory and metaphor, but early on he wrote bleak, starkly contrasting reality, and it's terrifying.
Except for the fact that the story is set in 1952, the characters and the plot of this book could just as well be found today. In fact, there were moments where conversations between characters seemed like something one might overhear on the streets right this very moment. It's fascinating how little has changed since the 50s in regards to religion, politics, and especially the mixture of the two.
The story itself is the descent of a young man, typical of the age, or any age, into animalistic fury. He's a dreamer, stuck in a salesman job he hates, looking for meaning in his life while feeling stuck by the trappings of society. He starts to look for another way, tries out the big new religion sweeping through town, tries to drown himself in drink, even tries to become the most perfect everyday citizen; but it all leads him deeper and deeper into the hole of unfulfillment he digs for himself. Things get dark, incredibly, wickedly dark.
That's the genius of Dick's writing. He creates this vividly descriptive world and pulls you in, then takes you into the darkest workings of the human mind. He would later use science fiction to explore these emotions, playing with allegory and metaphor, but early on he wrote bleak, starkly contrasting reality, and it's terrifying.
April 12, 2013
I really wanted to hate the characters in this book. But in the end I really couldn't, there is just too much I have had in common with Stuart Hadley. And I've known my share of Fergusson's and this book serves as a great balancing act between those character types. It is amazing to me that this book was written in the 50s about life then and that despite all of our modern technologies and increased "awareness" you could transplant the plot of this book into the modern world and have it not lose any of its punch. Dick really is a master with words and I love how he plays with perspective, identity, and the livingness of the inert things in our reality. I would criticize this book for it's most shallow character, Hadley's wife, whose name I can't even remember now. She was the character I wish I could have been more connected with.
December 10, 2011
Though this isn't the type of book I usually enjoy, or even read, there is something about Phillip K. Dick that always gets me, no matter the genre or subject matter. The main character is at once relatable and hatable. There was a certain point in the book where I was relating so strongly to the character, and he became so completely detestable (for a short time, and I won't give away how or why), that I rather hated myself. Which seemed to be how the character was feeling...
Anyway, any book that can move me so strongly as to inspire an existential crisis (albeit a short-lived one) gets 5 stars. So there.
Beyond that, the writing is detailed in that special Dick way, and the characters deep and beautifully/hideously fleshed out, and the settings alive. An excellent read.
Anyway, any book that can move me so strongly as to inspire an existential crisis (albeit a short-lived one) gets 5 stars. So there.
Beyond that, the writing is detailed in that special Dick way, and the characters deep and beautifully/hideously fleshed out, and the settings alive. An excellent read.
December 5, 2009
i am not familiar with philip k. dick's more popular science fiction. this book went by so fast by the time i finished it i felt like i was still catching up. there's a message here, i'm just not quite sure what it is. set back in san francisco in the 50's, existential angst encountered by the main character, stuart hadley, who is apparently stuck throughout the book within his cruel mind. a myriad of other characters buzz around him. the most interesting part was hearing about the 1950s version of a health food store.
December 19, 2018
One of the most striking features of Philip K. Dick's "Voices from the Street" are the many parallels it shares with Kurt Vonnegut's 1973 novel "Breakfast of Champions," parallels which are coincidental, given that Dick's novel, although written in 1952, was not published until 2007. Both books center around a protagonist who is slowly losing his mind. In both cases that protagonist is a salesman, an occupation which, due the empty materialism of its nature, helps apply steady heat to the slow boil of the plot. In both cases, the protagonist harbors buried resentments towards many of those around him, resentments which gradually bubble to the surface as the novel progresses. Both books present an ostensible messianic figure who turns out to fall far short of fulfilling that role (albeit for very different reasons). Both books climax in a violent rampage. And both novels end with a denouement which strikes an unexpected, although welcome, note of hope.
Having been very sorely disappointed by Dick's first novel, "Gather Yourselves Together," I found this second attempt far superior. I am frequently skeptical of post-WWII realist fiction, since it so often presents characters who are self-absorbed, aimless, and shallow. In this novel, Dick manages to expose the inner motivations of his characters -- revealed from an omniscient point of view -- in such a way as to generate genuine sympathy for all of them. Without this exploration of their inner lives, many of these characters would appear to lack depth and self-awareness, while others would come off as mean-spirited caricatures. But Dick ably sidesteps this pitfall: even the TV shop owner, Jim Fergusson, whose gruff machismo sets him up as the perfect "square" and bastion of the establishment, is rendered in terms which help the reader make sense of why he is the way he is. Far from hating Fergusson, we end up recognizing the forces which have molded him into who he is, and we're repeatedly rooting for him to experience a moment of awakening, of self-awareness, which, in fact, he does experience at the novel's climax.
The same is true of Stuart Hadley, the book's central protagonist. Without Dick's insightful treatment, Hadley might have come off as infantile, insufferably self-indulgent, harshly judgmental, boorish, and bullying. But we see, almost from the start, that something fundamental is eating at him, and the pieces which contribute to this disenfranchisement slowly coalesce as the novel plays out. These elements include the loss of his father at a relatively early age; a strongly-implied incestuous relationship with his older sister; spiritual rootlessness coupled with a brooding intellect; and artistic ambitions cut short by his conformity to the constraints of the "real world," particularly marriage and family.
Although Hadley's behavior, as his psychological meltdown accelerates, is truly abominable (including rape, grand larceny, child abduction and neglect, assault, and attempted robbery), we somehow never entirely lose sympathy for him, because we understand all of it to be the result of a genuine mental breakdown. Just as with Dostoyevsky's Raskolnikov, we want Hadley to pay the price for his crimes, but we also want him to learn from his mistakes and come out a better person on the other side. It would have been easy for Dick to end this story with Hadley going down in a hail of bullets, or winding up in a psychiatric ward for the rest of his life. But instead, the author chooses a more remarkable, and satisfying, conclusion, in which Hadley is fundamentally transformed. In the final chapter we see him adopting, and identifying with, much of the ethos of Fergusson, an ethos which he not only ridiculed and held in contempt, but which helped to drive him over the edge of madness to begin with.
There are, to be sure, a number of things in this novel which will be distasteful to any reader of good conscience. The rape scene, in particular, is very difficult to get through. And Hadley's casual racism and anti-Semitism are also painful, especially to readers in 2018. Yet it is clear from the manner in which these events are presented that it is the character, not the author, who is misogynistic and bigoted. It is no wonder that Dick could not find a publisher for this work in 1952, and it's a shame that it was not brought into print during his lifetime. Those who are looking to Dick for science fiction would do best to avoid this novel. But those who want a truly satisfying realist yarn which complements the works of the contemporaneous Beat writers without necessarily being of them, should enjoy this gripping, can't-put-it-down tale.
Having been very sorely disappointed by Dick's first novel, "Gather Yourselves Together," I found this second attempt far superior. I am frequently skeptical of post-WWII realist fiction, since it so often presents characters who are self-absorbed, aimless, and shallow. In this novel, Dick manages to expose the inner motivations of his characters -- revealed from an omniscient point of view -- in such a way as to generate genuine sympathy for all of them. Without this exploration of their inner lives, many of these characters would appear to lack depth and self-awareness, while others would come off as mean-spirited caricatures. But Dick ably sidesteps this pitfall: even the TV shop owner, Jim Fergusson, whose gruff machismo sets him up as the perfect "square" and bastion of the establishment, is rendered in terms which help the reader make sense of why he is the way he is. Far from hating Fergusson, we end up recognizing the forces which have molded him into who he is, and we're repeatedly rooting for him to experience a moment of awakening, of self-awareness, which, in fact, he does experience at the novel's climax.
The same is true of Stuart Hadley, the book's central protagonist. Without Dick's insightful treatment, Hadley might have come off as infantile, insufferably self-indulgent, harshly judgmental, boorish, and bullying. But we see, almost from the start, that something fundamental is eating at him, and the pieces which contribute to this disenfranchisement slowly coalesce as the novel plays out. These elements include the loss of his father at a relatively early age; a strongly-implied incestuous relationship with his older sister; spiritual rootlessness coupled with a brooding intellect; and artistic ambitions cut short by his conformity to the constraints of the "real world," particularly marriage and family.
Although Hadley's behavior, as his psychological meltdown accelerates, is truly abominable (including rape, grand larceny, child abduction and neglect, assault, and attempted robbery), we somehow never entirely lose sympathy for him, because we understand all of it to be the result of a genuine mental breakdown. Just as with Dostoyevsky's Raskolnikov, we want Hadley to pay the price for his crimes, but we also want him to learn from his mistakes and come out a better person on the other side. It would have been easy for Dick to end this story with Hadley going down in a hail of bullets, or winding up in a psychiatric ward for the rest of his life. But instead, the author chooses a more remarkable, and satisfying, conclusion, in which Hadley is fundamentally transformed. In the final chapter we see him adopting, and identifying with, much of the ethos of Fergusson, an ethos which he not only ridiculed and held in contempt, but which helped to drive him over the edge of madness to begin with.
There are, to be sure, a number of things in this novel which will be distasteful to any reader of good conscience. The rape scene, in particular, is very difficult to get through. And Hadley's casual racism and anti-Semitism are also painful, especially to readers in 2018. Yet it is clear from the manner in which these events are presented that it is the character, not the author, who is misogynistic and bigoted. It is no wonder that Dick could not find a publisher for this work in 1952, and it's a shame that it was not brought into print during his lifetime. Those who are looking to Dick for science fiction would do best to avoid this novel. But those who want a truly satisfying realist yarn which complements the works of the contemporaneous Beat writers without necessarily being of them, should enjoy this gripping, can't-put-it-down tale.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 21, 2022
Stuart Hadley é um jovem charmoso, educado, casado com uma bela mulher, com um filho saudável e dono de uma carreira promissora numa loja de aparelhos de rádio e TV. Retrato bem nítido do sonho americano, Stuart tem a vida perfeita, daquelas tão confabuladas nos Estados Unidos durante a década de 1950. Entretanto, Hadley é um sonhador, sempre perseguido pela angústia de não ver seus ideais na prática. Um inconformista inquieto, que não consegue entender o mundo que o cerca. Assim, ele tentará preencher esse vácuo, primeiro com a bebida, depois com uma amante e, por fim, com o fanatismo religioso. Quando percebe que não encontrará as respostas pelo que procura, decide se entregar à loucura, que afetará a todos que o cercam.
Essa é a narrativa de Vozes da Rua (Voices from the street), livro póstumo de Philip K. Dick, o escritor que piscou em suas obras o futuro que hoje vivemos. Vozes é um retrato sincero de muitos sentimentos que hoje afligem normalmente homens e mulheres do mundo todo. Escrita em 1952/53 e editada a partir de um manuscrito, a obra, como tantas outras do autor norte-americano, explora um momento de sua vida, o período que trabalhou numa loja, consertando eletrodomésticos. E o protagonista, um típico “herói” dickiano, meio que alter ego do escritor, perdido em sua existência e frequentemente cobrado pela esposa, reflexo de Kleo Apostolides, a senhora Dick dos anos 1950-1958 representa ainda uma critica aos diversos líderes underground que predicavam versões peculiares de códigos fascistas e religiosos naquela década.
A história de um homem que entra em depressão, enlouquece e se cura, pode soar repetitiva para alguns leitores, contudo, no caso de Stuart Hadley, sai do outro extremo, numa trilha à loucura, totalmente transformado, retornando à sanidade. O vendedor aprende, ao longo da narrativa, que a procura de sentido ou significado para a vida é um desejo egoísta de satisfação, que sempre estará fadado ao fracasso, como a sociedade americana. E analisando o autor da narrativa, Vozes da Rua é uma ficção bem impar, pois grande parte da obra de PKD, está generalizada como sci-fi, e seus romances sociais ou políticos não eram aceitos pelas editoras, por isso que poucos saíram do papel. As que saíram ficaram conhecidas como psico-proletárias, as quais “Confissões de um Artista de Merda”, (tradução literal de Confessions of a Crap Artist), In Milton Lumky Territory, Humpty Dumpty in Oakland o The Man Whose Theet Were All Exactly Alike ainda sem tradução. Os demais foram consideradas perdidos ou estão em outra dimensão, os quais podemos citar: os manuscritos de Return to Lilliput, The Earthshaker, A Time for George Stavros e Pilgrim on the Hill.
Segundo o especialista Johantham Lethem, Dick é um desses escritores donos de uma rara qualidade: seus livros inspiram sentimentos. E nas últimas décadas, após prover o cinema com Blade Runner, O homem duplo ou Minority Report, é considerado um dos grandes nomes da literatura norte-americana, ao lado de Herman Melville e Edgar Alan Poe. Bem diferente, quando vivo, quando incomodava por suas teorias, entrevistas, fobias e conferências a crítica e o público americano. Um pária que fustigava seus colegas, que desesperava seus editores por abordar em seus livros sci-fi um futuro bem mais próximo que os demais autores do gênero. Um paradoxo que por trás de andróides com defeitos, colônias interplanetárias sórdidas, morto-vivos ou indivíduos que ingerem substâncias ciberpsicodélicas, encontramos a dissociação psicótica e a catástrofe amorosa e profissional como temas e situações habituais.
Um bom livro, mas não daqueles surpreendentes, de narrativa simples e um ritmo inconsistente, mas eficiente em transmitir a angústia do protagonista da história. E uma fascinante história sobre a morbidez humana.
Essa é a narrativa de Vozes da Rua (Voices from the street), livro póstumo de Philip K. Dick, o escritor que piscou em suas obras o futuro que hoje vivemos. Vozes é um retrato sincero de muitos sentimentos que hoje afligem normalmente homens e mulheres do mundo todo. Escrita em 1952/53 e editada a partir de um manuscrito, a obra, como tantas outras do autor norte-americano, explora um momento de sua vida, o período que trabalhou numa loja, consertando eletrodomésticos. E o protagonista, um típico “herói” dickiano, meio que alter ego do escritor, perdido em sua existência e frequentemente cobrado pela esposa, reflexo de Kleo Apostolides, a senhora Dick dos anos 1950-1958 representa ainda uma critica aos diversos líderes underground que predicavam versões peculiares de códigos fascistas e religiosos naquela década.
A história de um homem que entra em depressão, enlouquece e se cura, pode soar repetitiva para alguns leitores, contudo, no caso de Stuart Hadley, sai do outro extremo, numa trilha à loucura, totalmente transformado, retornando à sanidade. O vendedor aprende, ao longo da narrativa, que a procura de sentido ou significado para a vida é um desejo egoísta de satisfação, que sempre estará fadado ao fracasso, como a sociedade americana. E analisando o autor da narrativa, Vozes da Rua é uma ficção bem impar, pois grande parte da obra de PKD, está generalizada como sci-fi, e seus romances sociais ou políticos não eram aceitos pelas editoras, por isso que poucos saíram do papel. As que saíram ficaram conhecidas como psico-proletárias, as quais “Confissões de um Artista de Merda”, (tradução literal de Confessions of a Crap Artist), In Milton Lumky Territory, Humpty Dumpty in Oakland o The Man Whose Theet Were All Exactly Alike ainda sem tradução. Os demais foram consideradas perdidos ou estão em outra dimensão, os quais podemos citar: os manuscritos de Return to Lilliput, The Earthshaker, A Time for George Stavros e Pilgrim on the Hill.
Segundo o especialista Johantham Lethem, Dick é um desses escritores donos de uma rara qualidade: seus livros inspiram sentimentos. E nas últimas décadas, após prover o cinema com Blade Runner, O homem duplo ou Minority Report, é considerado um dos grandes nomes da literatura norte-americana, ao lado de Herman Melville e Edgar Alan Poe. Bem diferente, quando vivo, quando incomodava por suas teorias, entrevistas, fobias e conferências a crítica e o público americano. Um pária que fustigava seus colegas, que desesperava seus editores por abordar em seus livros sci-fi um futuro bem mais próximo que os demais autores do gênero. Um paradoxo que por trás de andróides com defeitos, colônias interplanetárias sórdidas, morto-vivos ou indivíduos que ingerem substâncias ciberpsicodélicas, encontramos a dissociação psicótica e a catástrofe amorosa e profissional como temas e situações habituais.
Um bom livro, mas não daqueles surpreendentes, de narrativa simples e um ritmo inconsistente, mas eficiente em transmitir a angústia do protagonista da história. E uma fascinante história sobre a morbidez humana.
June 29, 2017
Philip K. Dick's second novel, written as he attempted to transition from science fiction short story writer to novelist, and unpublished during Dick's lifetime. It's not polished, and could use some more editing and rewriting. Dick's "voice" as an author is not really present yet, but there are certain passages that I where I caught a glimpse of the author he would later become. Very much the work of a young author feeling his way, working out his style, and struggling with the novel form.
Dick's inexperience as a novelist is clear in the book's early chapters. The first half moves at a snail's pace. The prose struck me as very self-conscious and slow: sometimes pretentious, sometimes awkward. Dick stops to describe everything, whether it is significant or not, piling adjective on top of adjective. It gives the impression of an author wandering without knowing where he wanted to go, padding out the book with unnecessary supporting characters and tangential scenes. One character after another sits around drinking coffee and smoking so that we can be privy to their internal monologues.
Sometime near the midpoint, the main character, Stuart Hadley, starts interacting in earnest with the other characters. The plot begins moving forward and gets interesting. Hadley lives with his pregnant wife in a suburb of San Francisco, working as a salesman at a TV and radio shop. He mourns his lost dream of being an artist and intellectual, but he hopes his stern and practical boss will one day promote him to manager. Hadley is also angry, resentful, narcissistic, and self-centered. He's an alcoholic, he's a racist and antisemite, he's violent and abusive towards women. He has a creepy incestuous infatuation with his own sister.
Dick would later create compelling characters not that different from Hadley. However, here he doesn't have the writerly skill to pull it off. I'm not someone who demands that every novel have a positive, pleasant protagonist. Novels can have horrible lead characters and still be great novels. This novel does not manage that balancing act. Hadley is horrible and despicable, but also lacking in that spark of humanity or connection that a great writer can give to a terrible character. He's just unpleasant, and his journey through the plot didn't give him a connection to me. Nor did it redeem him or develop him in any compelling way. He just engages in self-destructive behaviour until he crashes and stops being so awful.
Evn though I found the overarching plot of Hadley's fall and not-really-redemption unsatisfactory, there are a lot of scenes and characters in the book that I thought worked well, or were funny or touching in some way. Hadley's boss, Jim Fergusson, is based on Dick's own boss when he held a similar job in a record shop. The conservative small businessman is diametrically opposite to Dick's own shaggy Bohemian personality, but it's clear that the author has an affection and respect for the character (and presumably the man he was based on). Hadley's abrasive, bullying brother-in-law is another example of a skillfully written character (despite his questionable importance to the story).
There is also an unusual scene near the end of the book where Hadley is on a bender in San Francisco and accidentally stumbles into a gay bar. Although it's unfortunate that Dick plays into some homophobic stereotypes with this scene, it's also a funny, bizarre, and hallucinatory sequence that reminded me a bit of Dick's later mindbending science fiction novels. Even at this early stage, there's a tiny bit of the trippy, reality-unraveling plots that he would become best known for.
Dick's inexperience as a novelist is clear in the book's early chapters. The first half moves at a snail's pace. The prose struck me as very self-conscious and slow: sometimes pretentious, sometimes awkward. Dick stops to describe everything, whether it is significant or not, piling adjective on top of adjective. It gives the impression of an author wandering without knowing where he wanted to go, padding out the book with unnecessary supporting characters and tangential scenes. One character after another sits around drinking coffee and smoking so that we can be privy to their internal monologues.
Sometime near the midpoint, the main character, Stuart Hadley, starts interacting in earnest with the other characters. The plot begins moving forward and gets interesting. Hadley lives with his pregnant wife in a suburb of San Francisco, working as a salesman at a TV and radio shop. He mourns his lost dream of being an artist and intellectual, but he hopes his stern and practical boss will one day promote him to manager. Hadley is also angry, resentful, narcissistic, and self-centered. He's an alcoholic, he's a racist and antisemite, he's violent and abusive towards women. He has a creepy incestuous infatuation with his own sister.
Dick would later create compelling characters not that different from Hadley. However, here he doesn't have the writerly skill to pull it off. I'm not someone who demands that every novel have a positive, pleasant protagonist. Novels can have horrible lead characters and still be great novels. This novel does not manage that balancing act. Hadley is horrible and despicable, but also lacking in that spark of humanity or connection that a great writer can give to a terrible character. He's just unpleasant, and his journey through the plot didn't give him a connection to me. Nor did it redeem him or develop him in any compelling way. He just engages in self-destructive behaviour until he crashes and stops being so awful.
Evn though I found the overarching plot of Hadley's fall and not-really-redemption unsatisfactory, there are a lot of scenes and characters in the book that I thought worked well, or were funny or touching in some way. Hadley's boss, Jim Fergusson, is based on Dick's own boss when he held a similar job in a record shop. The conservative small businessman is diametrically opposite to Dick's own shaggy Bohemian personality, but it's clear that the author has an affection and respect for the character (and presumably the man he was based on). Hadley's abrasive, bullying brother-in-law is another example of a skillfully written character (despite his questionable importance to the story).
There is also an unusual scene near the end of the book where Hadley is on a bender in San Francisco and accidentally stumbles into a gay bar. Although it's unfortunate that Dick plays into some homophobic stereotypes with this scene, it's also a funny, bizarre, and hallucinatory sequence that reminded me a bit of Dick's later mindbending science fiction novels. Even at this early stage, there's a tiny bit of the trippy, reality-unraveling plots that he would become best known for.
October 8, 2022
Devo dire che ho fatto veramente molta fatica. Ma se vogliamo conoscere l'uomo che sta dietro lo scrittore qui troviamo un sacco di riferimenti. Hadley, il protagonista e un Dick che vuole raccontarsi. Perché, si sa, si scrive ciò che si conosce...
Stuart Hadley, l’antieroe per eccellenza, con un velleitario passato di pittore alle prime armi, incapace di fare scelte definite e di accettare le responsabilità dell’esistenza, nello stesso tempo attratto e spaventato dalle donne, e morbosamente legato alla sorella maggiore, che lo vezzeggia come un bambino.
Dick nei primi anni 50 (periodo in cui è stato scritto il romanzo) compiva a Berkeley un’intensa esperienza di lavoro nel negozio di apparecchi radiofonici e televisivi (riparazione e vendita), ma anche di dischi, di Herb Hollis
I personaggi che gli girano attorno sono presi dalla sua vita.
[...] la figura paterna più volte recuperata nella narrativa dickiana, e presente in Voci dalla strada nel personaggio burbero e rozzamente anticomunista, ma non privo di doti umane, di Jim Fergessen, il proprietario di Model tv Sales and Service.
[...]Qui basterà sottolineare che anche in questa prospettiva Dick è simile a Stuart Hadley, che ha davanti a sé un percorso ben definito e in grado di dargli il successo sociale, ma che non è capace di sottrarsi al senso di inadeguatezza, all’autolesionismo, al desiderio di annientamento, e sogna sempre qualcos’altro, un’altra vita, l’insicurezza dello spazio aperto.
[...]Perciò egli è continuamente in fuga, sia dalle pareti domestiche della propria dimora, dove pure è amato dalla giovane e pazientissima moglie Ellen, sia da quelle professionali del negozio di Fergessen, che, pur rimproverandolo, lo protegge come se fosse il figlio che non può avere, tanto che sarebbe perfino disposto a perdonargli ogni trasgressione, pur di averlo vicino a sé.
[...]Nello stesso tempo, il naturalismo del romanzo nega al suo protagonista qualsiasi possibilità di assurgere a una condizione eroica, mostrandolo nella meschinità dei suoi comportamenti quotidiani con la moglie, o seguendolo fino a quando si rifugia nel cesso o si soffia il naso con i kleenex.
Un romanzo denso di nausea Sartriana, denso di squallore, claustrofobico, paranoico, violento, di quella violenza velata tipica di chi è soggetto ad una aggressività passiva.
Non si tratta solo dei temi trattati o del paesaggio californiano, ma anche del metodo narrativo basato su un naturalismo esasperato, gonfio di aggettivi, minuzioso in certi passaggi fino alla paranoia verbale nella descrizione dei vestiti, dei cibi, delle suppellettili domestiche, dell’arredamento urbano. Un ruolo significativo hanno le automobili, perché esse, pur distinte con competenza per la marca o le prestazioni (come succede, del resto, con gli apparecchi radiofonici e televisivi venduti nel negozio di Fergessen), finiscono per rappresentare oggetti simbolici, veicoli della mente che permettono il movimento e promettono libertà.
Non riesco a dare più di tre stelle a questo romanzo, ma se l'avessi letto durante la mia adolescenza so che lo avrei adorato.
Forse il profeta nero Beckheim aveva ragione: l’Apocalisse è in arrivo. In ogni caso, le voci dalla strada si sono spente.
Carlo Pagetti [testi presi dalla prefazione all'edizione Fanucci]
Stuart Hadley, l’antieroe per eccellenza, con un velleitario passato di pittore alle prime armi, incapace di fare scelte definite e di accettare le responsabilità dell’esistenza, nello stesso tempo attratto e spaventato dalle donne, e morbosamente legato alla sorella maggiore, che lo vezzeggia come un bambino.
Dick nei primi anni 50 (periodo in cui è stato scritto il romanzo) compiva a Berkeley un’intensa esperienza di lavoro nel negozio di apparecchi radiofonici e televisivi (riparazione e vendita), ma anche di dischi, di Herb Hollis
I personaggi che gli girano attorno sono presi dalla sua vita.
[...] la figura paterna più volte recuperata nella narrativa dickiana, e presente in Voci dalla strada nel personaggio burbero e rozzamente anticomunista, ma non privo di doti umane, di Jim Fergessen, il proprietario di Model tv Sales and Service.
[...]Qui basterà sottolineare che anche in questa prospettiva Dick è simile a Stuart Hadley, che ha davanti a sé un percorso ben definito e in grado di dargli il successo sociale, ma che non è capace di sottrarsi al senso di inadeguatezza, all’autolesionismo, al desiderio di annientamento, e sogna sempre qualcos’altro, un’altra vita, l’insicurezza dello spazio aperto.
[...]Perciò egli è continuamente in fuga, sia dalle pareti domestiche della propria dimora, dove pure è amato dalla giovane e pazientissima moglie Ellen, sia da quelle professionali del negozio di Fergessen, che, pur rimproverandolo, lo protegge come se fosse il figlio che non può avere, tanto che sarebbe perfino disposto a perdonargli ogni trasgressione, pur di averlo vicino a sé.
[...]Nello stesso tempo, il naturalismo del romanzo nega al suo protagonista qualsiasi possibilità di assurgere a una condizione eroica, mostrandolo nella meschinità dei suoi comportamenti quotidiani con la moglie, o seguendolo fino a quando si rifugia nel cesso o si soffia il naso con i kleenex.
Un romanzo denso di nausea Sartriana, denso di squallore, claustrofobico, paranoico, violento, di quella violenza velata tipica di chi è soggetto ad una aggressività passiva.
Non si tratta solo dei temi trattati o del paesaggio californiano, ma anche del metodo narrativo basato su un naturalismo esasperato, gonfio di aggettivi, minuzioso in certi passaggi fino alla paranoia verbale nella descrizione dei vestiti, dei cibi, delle suppellettili domestiche, dell’arredamento urbano. Un ruolo significativo hanno le automobili, perché esse, pur distinte con competenza per la marca o le prestazioni (come succede, del resto, con gli apparecchi radiofonici e televisivi venduti nel negozio di Fergessen), finiscono per rappresentare oggetti simbolici, veicoli della mente che permettono il movimento e promettono libertà.
Non riesco a dare più di tre stelle a questo romanzo, ma se l'avessi letto durante la mia adolescenza so che lo avrei adorato.
Forse il profeta nero Beckheim aveva ragione: l’Apocalisse è in arrivo. In ogni caso, le voci dalla strada si sono spente.
Carlo Pagetti [testi presi dalla prefazione all'edizione Fanucci]
April 18, 2023
I want to write a review of this book because I see a lot of people trashing it and I honestly don't think that it was as bad as people have made it out to be. Of course, I can only say that because I made myself finish it out of an obsession with reading everything that PKD wrote. And yes, I will concede it is not a particularly good novel, especially since it's probably twice as long as it needs to be to make its point.
Two books came to mind as I read this book, the first being The True Believer by Eric Hoffer and the second being A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. The former I think gives a good account of the kind of person that Stuart Hadley is at the start of the story, he's egregiously narcissistic but also frustrated with his lot in life, which motivates him to find something bigger to not just be a part of, but to be a prominent figure in. But he has a proclivity towards self-sabotage, so he ends up wrecking everything he pursues. He engages in a lot of antisocial behavior, much lot Alex in A Clockwork Orange. He strikes me as someone showing symptoms of Type I Bipolar Disorder and the novel's plot climaxes with what appears to be a full-blown manic episode, and it's only after he suffers a head injury while in the midst of this that his behavior stabilizes and he is able to settle down, as Alex eventually does in the final chapter of A Clockwork Orange.
One of things that I like about this novel is that it addresses a very common theme in PKD's writing, which is to question what makes us the individual humans that we are. In some of his other work, the question is much more explicit as he explores the differences between actuals and machines, such as with the replicants in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? But here he is asking us to consider how our biology ends up determining our behavior, for better or worse. Of course, he spends over 500 pages showing us what a horrible person Stuart Hadley is, to the point where we have thoroughly judged him as a bad person, only to show that his behavior is the result of a malfunctioning brain that eventually starts functioning as it should once it suffers an injury.
All of that said, I can understand why this book ended up as a trunk novel that was only published posthumously. It feels like something that he wrote just to keep himself writing, refining his craft. I would imagine that trying to get it published would have been an exercise in futility, which is why it comes as no surprise that this book ended up basically being cannibalized for parts that he could use for more interesting stories.
I didn't love it. I didn't hate it. There were parts that I liked, but that is about it. But make no mistake, I am glad that I read it just to scratch it off the list.
Two books came to mind as I read this book, the first being The True Believer by Eric Hoffer and the second being A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. The former I think gives a good account of the kind of person that Stuart Hadley is at the start of the story, he's egregiously narcissistic but also frustrated with his lot in life, which motivates him to find something bigger to not just be a part of, but to be a prominent figure in. But he has a proclivity towards self-sabotage, so he ends up wrecking everything he pursues. He engages in a lot of antisocial behavior, much lot Alex in A Clockwork Orange. He strikes me as someone showing symptoms of Type I Bipolar Disorder and the novel's plot climaxes with what appears to be a full-blown manic episode, and it's only after he suffers a head injury while in the midst of this that his behavior stabilizes and he is able to settle down, as Alex eventually does in the final chapter of A Clockwork Orange.
One of things that I like about this novel is that it addresses a very common theme in PKD's writing, which is to question what makes us the individual humans that we are. In some of his other work, the question is much more explicit as he explores the differences between actuals and machines, such as with the replicants in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? But here he is asking us to consider how our biology ends up determining our behavior, for better or worse. Of course, he spends over 500 pages showing us what a horrible person Stuart Hadley is, to the point where we have thoroughly judged him as a bad person, only to show that his behavior is the result of a malfunctioning brain that eventually starts functioning as it should once it suffers an injury.
All of that said, I can understand why this book ended up as a trunk novel that was only published posthumously. It feels like something that he wrote just to keep himself writing, refining his craft. I would imagine that trying to get it published would have been an exercise in futility, which is why it comes as no surprise that this book ended up basically being cannibalized for parts that he could use for more interesting stories.
I didn't love it. I didn't hate it. There were parts that I liked, but that is about it. But make no mistake, I am glad that I read it just to scratch it off the list.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 7, 2024
Currently read the first 20 pages of the book. I can't believe Dick didn't write more non sci-fi. The writing in this book is fantastic, Dick projects his own negativity through the protagonist Hadley crystal clear. This writing has real feeling to it. The choice of words and phrasing used by the author provides a clear picture of what is going on. I will revise this review when I am finished. So far, 4.5 stars if I could. Although a negative book, one of the best books I have read in a while.
Update: I am on page 120 of the book. The first 30-50 pages were great, now that I am closer to the middle, the story is dragging a bit. Still a good book and glad to have read it. The religious gathering I found to be boring. I just finished the part where Hadley had another fight with his wife and ran out again.
Page 202. The book is dragging and meeting with Beckheim was underwhelming. Hadley is an interesting confused character who doesn't know what he wants and trapped in life. More 1950's banter, which in a way is interesting and a drag at the same time.
I finished this book yesterday. Crossing the 200 page mark, it was more of a drag until page 250 where things started to move faster. I felt that the book closed a little too fast. Things just sporadically resolved that took a while to build up. For example, Hadley's fight with Ferguson. One page Ferguson is calling the cops, almost on the same page he is offering Hadley his job back.
As clunky and monotonous this book was at times, it really made me reflect and think about the main character Hadley when I was done reading it. Hadley is a very relatable character and represents a young adult male struggling to fit in to society. The pressure to have a boring job that pays well, but in exchange you have to give up your freedom of self expression. This contradicts PKD's love of socialism, and proves that socialism looks great from afar, but doesn't work well in the real world.
I also though it was strange that Hadley turned into an asshole at the end. He went on a huge bender, leaving his kid in a stolen car. Even though his friends found the kid (what are the chances?), he smashed up a store and got into several fights. Committed adultery. Hadley never faces any consequences for any of this. Never went to jail, no one pressed charges, his wife and former boss forgave him, seemingly overnight. That sends a bad message, I don't know if PKD meant it to be that way, or if he just struggled a bit concluding the book.
My review is somewhere between a 2.5 and 3 star review. Pretty good for his first book that was never published during PKD's lifetime. Maybe he never really wanted this to be published. Even with the formatting and the rushed ending, this book shows several glimpses of how great of a writer PKD was.
Update: I am on page 120 of the book. The first 30-50 pages were great, now that I am closer to the middle, the story is dragging a bit. Still a good book and glad to have read it. The religious gathering I found to be boring. I just finished the part where Hadley had another fight with his wife and ran out again.
Page 202. The book is dragging and meeting with Beckheim was underwhelming. Hadley is an interesting confused character who doesn't know what he wants and trapped in life. More 1950's banter, which in a way is interesting and a drag at the same time.
I finished this book yesterday. Crossing the 200 page mark, it was more of a drag until page 250 where things started to move faster. I felt that the book closed a little too fast. Things just sporadically resolved that took a while to build up. For example, Hadley's fight with Ferguson. One page Ferguson is calling the cops, almost on the same page he is offering Hadley his job back.
As clunky and monotonous this book was at times, it really made me reflect and think about the main character Hadley when I was done reading it. Hadley is a very relatable character and represents a young adult male struggling to fit in to society. The pressure to have a boring job that pays well, but in exchange you have to give up your freedom of self expression. This contradicts PKD's love of socialism, and proves that socialism looks great from afar, but doesn't work well in the real world.
I also though it was strange that Hadley turned into an asshole at the end. He went on a huge bender, leaving his kid in a stolen car. Even though his friends found the kid (what are the chances?), he smashed up a store and got into several fights. Committed adultery. Hadley never faces any consequences for any of this. Never went to jail, no one pressed charges, his wife and former boss forgave him, seemingly overnight. That sends a bad message, I don't know if PKD meant it to be that way, or if he just struggled a bit concluding the book.
My review is somewhere between a 2.5 and 3 star review. Pretty good for his first book that was never published during PKD's lifetime. Maybe he never really wanted this to be published. Even with the formatting and the rushed ending, this book shows several glimpses of how great of a writer PKD was.
April 18, 2020
"Dünyanın artık bir anlamı yok... tükenmiş. Anlamsız, bomboş. Beckheim konuşurken bir anlamı olabileceğini hissetmiştim; dünya onun için ve oradaki diğer herkes için bir şeyler ifade ediyordu. Ama onlar benden farklı. O eski kelimeleri anlamıyorum; bana hiçbir şey ifade etmiyorlar. Tenrı, ülke, bayrak, insanların inandığı tüm o eski şeyler sadece belirsiz bir ses. Bu yanlış bir şey mi? "
Philip K. Dick'ın ilk yazdığı öykülerden biri olan Sokaktan Gelen Sesler sonradan romana dönüştürülmüş bir eser. Yukarıya bıraktığım alıntı ise kitabı özetleyen en önemli cümlelerden olabilir. 1950'ler de California'da yaşayan Hadley Stuart bir insanin dileyebileceği çoğu şeye sahiptir fakat hayatında sürekli bir boşluk hissetmektedir ve bu boşluğu ne dini örgütler ne de peşinden sürüklenebileceği fikirler doldurabilir. Hadley bu boşlukta sokaktan gelen seslere kulak verir ve yolunu bulmaya çalışır. Roman boyunca da karakterimizle beraber o boşluğu doldurup dolduramayacağını ve bu yolda başına gelenleri okuyoruz.
Benim düşüncelerime gelirsek Philip K. Dick benim en sevdiğim bilim kurgu yazarlarından biridir. Uzun soluklu bir bilim kurgu okuyacağım hayaliyle yola çıkmışken biraz hayal kırıklığına uğradım. Kitap bilim kurgu öğelerinden biraz uzakta kalıyor. Kitapta daha çok karakterimizin varoluş sancıları ve yaşadıkları kitabı yeraltı edebiyatına daha çok yaklaştırmış diyebilirim. Yazar okuduğum romanlarından biraz daha farklı üslüp kullanmış ve romanı da biraz fazla uzatmış. Uzun lafın kısası bilim kurgu öğeleri taşımayan ama yine de okunabilir bir kitap.
Philip K. Dick'ın ilk yazdığı öykülerden biri olan Sokaktan Gelen Sesler sonradan romana dönüştürülmüş bir eser. Yukarıya bıraktığım alıntı ise kitabı özetleyen en önemli cümlelerden olabilir. 1950'ler de California'da yaşayan Hadley Stuart bir insanin dileyebileceği çoğu şeye sahiptir fakat hayatında sürekli bir boşluk hissetmektedir ve bu boşluğu ne dini örgütler ne de peşinden sürüklenebileceği fikirler doldurabilir. Hadley bu boşlukta sokaktan gelen seslere kulak verir ve yolunu bulmaya çalışır. Roman boyunca da karakterimizle beraber o boşluğu doldurup dolduramayacağını ve bu yolda başına gelenleri okuyoruz.
Benim düşüncelerime gelirsek Philip K. Dick benim en sevdiğim bilim kurgu yazarlarından biridir. Uzun soluklu bir bilim kurgu okuyacağım hayaliyle yola çıkmışken biraz hayal kırıklığına uğradım. Kitap bilim kurgu öğelerinden biraz uzakta kalıyor. Kitapta daha çok karakterimizin varoluş sancıları ve yaşadıkları kitabı yeraltı edebiyatına daha çok yaklaştırmış diyebilirim. Yazar okuduğum romanlarından biraz daha farklı üslüp kullanmış ve romanı da biraz fazla uzatmış. Uzun lafın kısası bilim kurgu öğeleri taşımayan ama yine de okunabilir bir kitap.
September 28, 2022
Technically, Voices From the Street is a tightly constructed story. It has a unity of focus that propels the reader along. But the main character commits several random acts of violence that may make some readers uncomfortable.
This is a story about a young married man named Stuart Hadley coming to terms with reality as it is, and not as he thinks it should be. Stuart does not enjoy his job as a TV salesman, feeling he is meant for bigger and better things. As he tries to adjust the circuitry in his own mind, his personal stability is compromised by outsiders, and a negative feedback loop begins to spiral out of control.
PKD has a way of using mundane activities to delineate his characters' motivations and fears, aided by his faultless interior monologues that are never mundane. Even though I did not find Stuart to be a sympathetic character, the narrative slowly builds to a point of high compression, and near the end the pages almost turn themselves.
It is not hard to understand why this book was not published back in the early 1950s, and a book like this would not be picked up today. What makes this book special is its now-famous author, and its place within his body of work.
This is a story about a young married man named Stuart Hadley coming to terms with reality as it is, and not as he thinks it should be. Stuart does not enjoy his job as a TV salesman, feeling he is meant for bigger and better things. As he tries to adjust the circuitry in his own mind, his personal stability is compromised by outsiders, and a negative feedback loop begins to spiral out of control.
PKD has a way of using mundane activities to delineate his characters' motivations and fears, aided by his faultless interior monologues that are never mundane. Even though I did not find Stuart to be a sympathetic character, the narrative slowly builds to a point of high compression, and near the end the pages almost turn themselves.
It is not hard to understand why this book was not published back in the early 1950s, and a book like this would not be picked up today. What makes this book special is its now-famous author, and its place within his body of work.
September 9, 2019
I saw someone compare this book to Revolutionary Road, and I think the comparison is apt. That's what Dick is aiming for here, anyway. It's a novel of suburban angst, and a self-destructing main character who isn't satisfied but isn't sure why.
This novel is very early in Dick's career, and was not published in his lifetime. You'll note as you read that it obviously could have benefited from an editor to clean up some spots that no doubt would have been revised if the book had been published. Still, the core of the story is all here and most of the male characters are fairly well drawn. Dick invests a lot less in his female characters.
The book is uneven, and at times slow moving, but I found the language to be quite beautiful and many of the threads to be interesting (especially the bits about the religious cult and the final section of the book where the protagonist finally has his breakdown).
Certainly not Dick's best work, but for fans of the author it's an interesting diversion into what might have been if he had not been successful in the science fiction niche.
This novel is very early in Dick's career, and was not published in his lifetime. You'll note as you read that it obviously could have benefited from an editor to clean up some spots that no doubt would have been revised if the book had been published. Still, the core of the story is all here and most of the male characters are fairly well drawn. Dick invests a lot less in his female characters.
The book is uneven, and at times slow moving, but I found the language to be quite beautiful and many of the threads to be interesting (especially the bits about the religious cult and the final section of the book where the protagonist finally has his breakdown).
Certainly not Dick's best work, but for fans of the author it's an interesting diversion into what might have been if he had not been successful in the science fiction niche.
May 22, 2021
This should not be your first book by Philip K Dick. That's for sure. But should you read it at all? Probably not. I feel that it wasn't published for a reason. It's a book by a science fiction icon that was not science fiction. It exposes a lot of things that are true of many white male writers: that he's a misogynist and kind of a racist.
It's well written, as I was easily able to put myself in the scene and see things for myself, hear them, taste them (mostly the celery zelster) and feel them. I can even understand where the character is coming from and empathize with him, despite his many annoying flaws. I enjoyed the book, as it was written by a talented writer.. however..I would never recommend it to anyone, as it was a book I would have rather not have wasted my time reading, and it's nothing like his science fiction books.
That said, if you're a non jewish white man who is often called aloof or a loner (maybe even selfish), spends most of his time at a monotonous job, hates his family and the choices he's made in his life, you might find some solace in this book.
It's well written, as I was easily able to put myself in the scene and see things for myself, hear them, taste them (mostly the celery zelster) and feel them. I can even understand where the character is coming from and empathize with him, despite his many annoying flaws. I enjoyed the book, as it was written by a talented writer.. however..I would never recommend it to anyone, as it was a book I would have rather not have wasted my time reading, and it's nothing like his science fiction books.
That said, if you're a non jewish white man who is often called aloof or a loner (maybe even selfish), spends most of his time at a monotonous job, hates his family and the choices he's made in his life, you might find some solace in this book.
November 21, 2022
I admit that I was expecting science fiction going in, and only realized about halfway through that this was a different genre of PKD novel. It wasn't poorly written, but I found the entire story to be boring. Stuart Hadley is a racist, antisemitic drunk searching for his purpose in the most impotent ways imaginable. Rather than picking a direction he wants to go and pursuing it, he meanders in whatever direction he is lead, becoming in the process increasingly frustrated by his failure to suddenly be fixed and fully realized as an individual. His breakdown near the end of the book was the best part of the book, but even that is protracted to the point of seeming indecisive, and the end result is somehow that he lives happily ever after, albeit with one less eye. Leave this one for the fanboy devotees of PKD to swoon over, it isn't particularly great literature.
November 25, 2022
Nonostante "Voci dalla Strada" sia un libro tuttosommato abbastanza scorrevole e leggibile, si porta tuttavia appresso un'aura di estrema pesantezza dovuti a discorsi e momenti di totale lucida follia dell'autore. Lo stesso personaggio principale è molto probabilmente un ritratto dell'epoca del sua autore, la cui lotta verso l'estremo materialismo americano post-guerra si risolve in una completa perdita di identità e quindi affettività verso il prossimo. Non è un caso quindi, che l'unica maniera per ritrovare un minimo di stabilità è quella di afferrare un discorso puramente marxista fatto di lavoro manuale, a cui però non sfugge anche un rientro nei ranghi del capitalismo americano. In mezzo a tutto sto popo di robba, troviamo una serie di personaggi meschini e situazioni ai limiti della realtà, che fanno ritenere questo libro più che altro uno sfogo violento del suo autore.
April 25, 2022
Uno dei pochi libri non fantascientifici dell’autore.
Un libro autentico che parla dell’uomo. Il nostro uomo, Stuart, non è un santo, ma non è nemmeno cattivo. È un antieroe tormentato da cosa? Da tutto e da niente. È un sognatore, ha grandi progetti, ma non realizza niente. Colpa sua come anche dell’America in cui vive: una nazione a quei tempi alle prese con la Guerra di Corea.
Una nazione che non da certezze. Allora le cerca nella fede grazie a un uomo enigmatico e una femme fatale. Un’America razzista ma guarda caso il leader religioso con grande seguito è un nero.
7,5/10 per questo libro che non è brutto ma non mi ha lasciato granché sinceramente, forse mi ero immaginata uno sviluppo di trama diverso🤷🏻♀️ mi aspettavo più sviluppo della parte religiosa/setta
Un libro autentico che parla dell’uomo. Il nostro uomo, Stuart, non è un santo, ma non è nemmeno cattivo. È un antieroe tormentato da cosa? Da tutto e da niente. È un sognatore, ha grandi progetti, ma non realizza niente. Colpa sua come anche dell’America in cui vive: una nazione a quei tempi alle prese con la Guerra di Corea.
Una nazione che non da certezze. Allora le cerca nella fede grazie a un uomo enigmatico e una femme fatale. Un’America razzista ma guarda caso il leader religioso con grande seguito è un nero.
7,5/10 per questo libro che non è brutto ma non mi ha lasciato granché sinceramente, forse mi ero immaginata uno sviluppo di trama diverso🤷🏻♀️ mi aspettavo più sviluppo della parte religiosa/setta
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