The Search for Philip K. Dick

by Anne R. Dick

Anne Dick's book is part memoir, and part a kind of detective novel, as she sifts through the details of her life with Philip K Dick, a prolific genius whose books and novels are being recognized as significant works of literature. Much of Dick's work, currently being celebrated in college courses and prestigious anthologies like The Library of America, consists of a kind of surreal autobiography and Anne's memoir helps us connect his fictional characters to his life. Philip K Dick was quite a character himself, both on and off the page, and Anne's memoir bravely explores her tumultuous relationship with this mercurial man in an attempt to better understand him and his writing. A touching aspect of this memoir is that it represents Anne's search as well.

Anne witnessed first-hand the most prolific period in Dick's career, a five year period year stretch from 1958 - 1964 during which time Philip wrote many of his most celebrated novels including: The Man in the High Castle, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Martian Time-Slip, Confessions of a Crap Artist, Dr Bloodmoney, We Can Build You, Now Wait For Last Year, and The Simulacra. Anne, a fifty four year resident of Point Reyes Station, still lives in the modern Campbell and Wong house she shared with Philip, a house that was featured in many of Dick's books. Reading Anne's memoir will open up many of Philip's works, revealing the autobiographical material often buried deep in his texts. Biography lovers will enjoy the intensity of detail Anne brings to Dick's complex and intense struggles. Anne spent several years conducting interviews with Dick's friends, family, and colleagues, assembling perhaps the most thoroughly researched biography of Philip K Dick currently available.

---
Editor's description:

Brilliant, talented, and charismatic, Philip K. Dick had it all. Already a successful young writer with a highly promising career, in 1958 he met his intellectual and romantic soulmate, his soon-to-be third wife Anne Rubenstein.

To his new family and friends, Dick appeared cheerful and loving. But behind the facade of an untroubled life was a man struggling with inner demons. Slowly and always in denial, Anne watched his disconnect from reality and witnessed his increasing paranoia. Philip K. Dick had begun his descent into madness.

In this riveting memoir and biography, Anne Dick creates an extraordinary portrait of one of the twentieth century's most important writers. Through this no-holds-barred account, she reveals the compelling genius and private hell of Philip K. Dick, for better and for worse.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Memoir, Ebooks, Reference, Psychology, Dark

279 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Estelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.
A really great read. Very detailed (sometimes even too much - I kinda lost track with all the names) and incredibly thorough. Anne Dick gives valuable insight in Phil's life, personality and work. And a lot of heart too.
Highly recommended to fellow Dickheads.

[Umut Söyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

PKD'nin sosyal hayatını ve kişisel ilişkilerini öğrenmek açısından iyi bir kaynak olsa da ne romanlarının yazım süreçlerini ne de düşüncelerini irdelenmesi açısından tek başına yeterli bir PKD biyografisi değil. Ama PKD'yi PKD yapan yönlerinden bazılarını görebilmek için de sosyal hayatı elzem olduğundan okunmalı.

[Tuncer Şengöz · Rating 4 out of 5]

"... insanın ve gerçekliğin doğası hakkında yazmak" isteyen ve "eğer ciddi edebi eserlerini bastırmayı başaramazsa bunu bilimkurguyla" yapacağını söyleyen Philip K. Dick'in üçüncü eşinin seneler süren araştırmaları, röportajları ve Dick'in annesine, eşlerine, kızına yazdığı mektuplarla zenginleştirilmiş biyografisi.

Kitabı okurken biraz içim acıdı. O muazzam romanları, öyküleri yazan Dick'in yaşadığı bunalımlar, psikolojik sorunlar, hastalıklar ve yoksulluk kitapta çok iyi anlatılmış. Sıkıcı ve rutin bir biyografinin ötesinde anlatım dili çok iyi ve kitapta pek çok sürpriz de var: Dick'in bir yazar arkadaşına öykülerinden birinde kullanması için "armağan ettiği" iki sayfalık bir mini öykü, Anne R. Dick'in rüyaları, Philip K. Dick'in roman kahramanlarının gerçek hayattaki karşılıkları... Büyük bir keyifle okudum ve Dick'e bir kez daha saygı duydum.

[David Agranoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have many thoughts on this book and the first one I have to get out of the way is the fact that I can't read this book like a civilian. What I mean is that through the course of doing 6 year now of Philip K. Dick research, including a hundred or so podcast episodes, and many articles and currently writing my own book, this book is an incredible resource. I avoided this book for a while. Then I was In Indiana at the famous Vons bookstore off the Purdue Campus and impressed by their PKD, and decided I would pick up a book I needed for the podcast.

Introduced by my homey David Gill, I thought this was the time. I hesitated because I wasn't sure it would be a fair book. Written by Anne Rubenstein Dick - this biography was written by Phil's third wife. For years Phil and Anne's relationship was brutal. He claimed to be afraid of her reminding anyone who would listen that her first died, and he thought she was going to kill him. In a haze, he also chased her away from his home in Oakland with a pistol. Yeah, some not-pretty moments. I really don't like to dwell on the negative.

That said with the latest project I am researching the minute to minute stuff is the details I need and in this book Anne provides crazy amounts of detail. The other reason why is this...despite the roller coaster that the Point Reyes/ Anne marriage years were I consider it to be the best period of Phil's writing career. I also know some avoided this book assuming that Anne would just beat up Phil. I personally she was fair. It is clear she wanted to set the record straight and defend herself. Which is fair as there are multiple biographies, movies etc out there.

Anne clearly still loved and respected Phil. This memoir starts with the relationship they had and then through detailed research, Anne tried to understand Phil. She is trying to understand what happened to her marriage and in the process we are trying to understand the writer. She has her reason to research and write it and we have our reason to read it. They are totally different but the finished book is an important document.

Keep in mind Anne is not a writer, and as such there are some clumsy details. At times there are more details than the average reader needs. THAT SAID. that is stuff that Dickheads like myself are totally digging into. Does the average reader need to know that was Anne who picked the Ludwig Binswanger book at the library? No, but this researcher certainly noted it. David Gill in the introduction pointed out that Anne told us which piece (the old shoe) Phil choose for family monopoly. Does the average reader need a chart of the real-life friends on whom Phil based the characters in Dr. Bloodmoney after? Dickheads will eat it up.

Anne could've hated Phil, he certainly crushed her publically, it seemed clear friends that knew her saw through Phil's stories. Either way, it seems clear to me that Anne without coming out and saying as much blamed the drugs for what happened to Phil, her marriage, and the relationships that came later. Phil said as much in A Scanner Darkly and The Divine Madness of PKD by Kyle Arnold makes a great case for this.

I gained lots of respect for Anne, not that I didn't have it before. She could've been more bitter but the way she approached this project. This book is important to the scholarship of Philip K. Dick. A must read for anyone trying to understand one of the most important voices of the

[Michael Perkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is all over the map. The author, Philip K. Dick's third wife, can't seem to distinguish the trivial ("That Thanksgiving we had mince pie") from the important.

Having just read Alice Miller's book "The Drama of the Gifted Child" I focused on what the book said about PKD's relationship with his young mother, Dorothy.

A short paragraph compilation about Dorothy from the book...

"For Dorothy, illness (Bright's Disease and other ailments) was a way of life.....She used her illnesses to manipulate and control her family. She was loving and intelligent, but very guilt-provoking. She was not given to expressions of affection. She also would not allow any expression of anger from her children and would show her disapproval with a withering glance. Her household wasn’t one of emotional self-expression. If Phil did something wrong, he wouldn’t quite know what it was. Dorothy had a love-hate relationship with Phil."

Dorothy's husband, Phil's father, Edgar, was significantly older than his wife and was gone a lot because his work took him to other parts of the country. It seemed evident to me that Dorothy "spousified" her son, i.e. treated him as a surrogate for her husband. After she asked Edgar to leave the family, they struggled with poverty.

Philip was a twin, a premi. He survived, but the twin sister died. She could have been saved if the parents had any sense in their heads. His mother talked about the lost daughter the rest of her life, making her son feel guilty. He was loaded with a lot of emotional baggage, including misogyny, that he carried the rest of his life. Of course, his own behavior only exacerbated the bad as he got older. Later in life he was an agoraphobic.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cuarta lectura del año. Un MUST para todo fan incondicional de Dick. Es verdad que lo cerca que estuvo la autora del escritor (fue su tercera mujer), empaña y, sobre todo, confunde, porque se contradice todo el tiempo sobre las épocas en que era expansivamente abierto y las que se enclaustraba -- en especial, a partir de cuando ella deja de estar en su vida, o no lo está porque es antes de conocerse, que se fía de lo que le cuentan y a veces los testigos ofrecen relatos contradictorios --, pero puedes llegar a hacerte una idea del volcán siempre a punto de estallar (de culpa y miedo) que fue Dick. Si la de Carrère era un cuadro impresionista (hecho de más pedazos de sí mismo que del propio Dick), la de Anne Rubenstein es un documental en Súper 8.

[Florin Pitea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicely written. Thoroughly documented. Enjoyable to read. Recommended.

[wmvdbiii · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a good purchase. Anne Dick is a fine writer who comes across as a sane, intelligent, and interesting human being, and who maintains her love for the good man she knew while chronicling his misdeeds when things fell apart and the many nastynesses of his character all around, with roots in his childhood and blossoming after he left Point Reyes. No doubt the viewpoint is partisan, but nobody could read this without coming away with the conviction that a great deal of the Dick version of events, fictional and otherwise, warrants correction, as indeed do his versions of any events in his life. He had a way in real life of playing with reality, challenging you to go with it or try to stand up for something else. We forgive our artists a lot, and the point of it all for the public is what he wrote. But as a human being he was in significant part a monster, to go by the portrait in this book that is hard to dispute given the accumulation of detail. He's a familiar species of artist, distinguished by his extremity. I'm reminded of Saul Bellow, who similarly chewed through his women and wrote scurrilous works of art about it, dedicating his experiences and the people who populated them, and himself, entirely to the service of his art.

I was surprised at how much of Sutin's "Divine Invasions" seems to have been lifted verbatim from the earlier version of this text. I'm also surprised that a text that has been around so long and gone through so much scrutiny hasn't cleared up "Sulfur Springs, Maryland" or the botched introduction of some character named Jeff during the late Burkeley days.

I'm not a Dick postulant, nor have I been inclined to read him much in recent years, but I was a Dick fan and admirer long before he became a hoola-hoop (I date to the mid-sixties), so maybe I can still comment on a subject likely to be fraught with intense insiderdom. I read Lawrence Sutin's biography when it was first published, and when this book got noticed in the New York Times I ordered a copy without aspirations of really keeping up anymore, or wanting to. Even if you don't like the man or feel very responsive to the writing, you may find this engrossing reading, as I did.

[Julio Bonilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm really a fantasy writer.

[Libros Prohibidos · Rating 5 out of 5]

En busca de Philip K. Dick es un texto que interesará a los admiradores del autor de ¿Sueñan los androides con ovejas eléctricas?, pero se trata también de un excelente libro de memorias escritas por una mujer inteligente e interesante de pleno derecho que ha vivido a la sombra de su exmarido. La prosa fluida, detallada y evocadora de Anne R. Dick, realzada por el extraordinario trabajo de traducción, se merece un lugar en nuestras estanterías independientemente de quién fuera el objeto de sus memorias.

Reseña completa: https://libros-prohibidos.com/anne-r-...

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shortly after Philip K. Dick's death in 1982, his ex-wife Anne Dick began comparing notes with his friends, acquaintances and exes. This book grew out of her initial attempts to reconcile the many and divergent versions of himself and his life that Phillip presented to the other people in his life. She started by putting down her own memories of their years together, along with recollections from their daughter and Philip's stepdaughters (Anne's daughters from her first marriage).

From there Anne did a huge amount of legwork, tracking down and interviewing relatives, friends, exes and various hangers-on. Most of this work was done in the early 1980's, documenting much valuable material about Dick before memories were clouded and lost to the ravages of time. Her italicized notes on the sources for each section are unconventional, but I found them more informative than the typical foot- or end-notes.

The manuscript unfortunately went unpublished for many years, but Anne made it available to other biographers during that time. Lawrence Sutin's Divine Invasions benefited greatly from Anne's detective work. Much of what Sutin included about the early 1960's comes directly from Anne's recollections and the interviews she conducted for this book. Sutin does give Anne appropriate credit in his notes, but I felt it was worth commenting on here.

Even though the book has been revised and re-issued several times, it still suffers from bad editing (whether it was ever professionally edited, I don't know). Anne's writing style comes across as amateurish, favoring short, declarative sentences without good flow. I noticed a number of misspelled names. A Mr. Ackerman is referred to as both "Gerry" and "Jerry" in the same paragraph on several occasions. At certain points, events and people are referred to without sufficient context, making some sections difficult to follow. Anne also appears to have her chronology mixed up in certain places, something an editor should have picked up. The worst example is Anne's statement that she only spoke to Phil in person on one occasion after 1971, contrary to the fact that she describes two different meetings with him during that period!

I think it is fair to state that one of Anne Dick’s motivations for writing was to repair her own reputation. Despite her biases, I believe that her account adds a lot of valuable and lucid insight into Philip K. Dick’s life and relationships, especially in the most productive period in his career, the early 1960’s. For instance, Anne’s personal impressions of Philip’s mother are extremely interesting, and gave me a more nuanced picture of her than other biographies. She also has an acute insight into the real life origins of many of Dick's characters and settings.

After their divorce, Philip treated Anne very shabbily, ridiculing her publicly and characterizing her as a controlling, manipulative shrew. She was the prototype for many unpleasant female characters in his novels. At the height of Dick’s paranoia, he accused Anne of killing her first husband and attempting to murder him as well. Many of Dick’s fans seem to have taken this vitriol at face value, even though Dick’s account grew more lurid over the years and changed depending on his audience. Philip Dick could be fanciful and charming at his best, but he was an outright liar and manipulator at his worst.

I tend to believe Anne’s account of the marriage in general terms. I see a relationship between two people with fundamentally different perceptions of the world and people. Anne largely takes life at face value, assuming that others can mostly be trusted as well. Philip Dick believed that the truth was almost always hidden, and reality was ever changing. He seems to have hid most of himself from others, and probably assumed that Anne was hiding most of herself from him. I think he often acted from elaborate (and neurotic) hidden motives, and ascribed similar motives to those around him. Anne may have intentionally targeted his insecurities at times (and he had many), but I think in the later stages of their marriage, Philip Dick was unraveling from the inside. Anne, as a rather naïve middle-class wife of the early 60’s, had no idea what she was getting into. Phil’s psychiatric problems, coupled with the beginnings of a prescription drug abuse problem really seem to have steamrolled her. The shoddy psychiatric treatment that Phil received at the time only compounded matters.

The respect that Anne still has for him as an author is remarkable after everything she went through with him as a person. She does not do a hatchet job here, she relates what she knows in a direct and straightforward manner. She certainly deserves our gratitude for her research and interviews, which have added a great deal to our knowledge about one of the major American science fiction authors of the previous century.

[Nicole Cushing · Rating 3 out of 5]

The key to enjoying this book is to maintain reasonable expectations.

On the one hand, the author, Anne R. Dick, is not a professional writer and it sometimes shows in the episodic way in which she presents this biography (first this happened, then that happened, without much in the way of graceful segues). She seems overly concerned about defending her own reputation, rather than letting her account of events stand on its own. Her extensive lists of which PKD characters were based on which real life friends or acquaintances starts reading like a list of Biblical "begats" and you just want to tear out your eyeballs sometimes (or, at least skip ahead).

For the record I did neither.

ON THE OTHER HAND, this book is an important addition to the growing amount of biography on PKD, and so it is a boon to serious fans and scholars. By all accounts, Anne Dick was involved in PKD's life (either integrally or tangentially) for many, many years. This alone makes her perspective worth reading.

[Ron Record · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe this book is TMI but for a Phil Dick fanatic like myself it is juicy behind the scenes real life meets sci-fi meets am I insane or are those really CIA/FBI/Aliens following me. Dick's 3rd wife Anne tells every bit of her side of the story in this frank account of their years together in Point Reyes. She follows this up with a thoroughly researched accounting of PKD's descent into after he left her and moved to the East Bay and later Southern California. The book likely enraged Dick fans around the world but it's a fascinating read. Not only because Philip K. Dick is one of the most fascinating people to have lived but also because Anne Dick manages to remind us what life was like for an American wife and woman in the Fifties and Sixties. Everything, including most people's neurotic behavior, was blamed on the mother. Heck, at one point the Point Reyes sheriff comes out to their house, talks calmly with Phil Dick, and trundles Anne off to a mental hospital for 72 hours observation! Those were the days.

[Rubén Lorenzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Si quieres saber más de uno de los mejores autores de ciencia ficción de la historia, este es tu libro. Primero; porque está escrito por su tercera exmujer, que estuvo al lado de Philip K Dick mientras este creaba algunas de sus mejores obras; segundo, porque la vida de PKD fue tan extraña y apasionante como una de sus novelas.

Leyendo este libro se ve cómo el autor usaba su vida y la realidad a su alrededor como fuentes directas de inspiración. Además, nos permite entrar de alguna forma en su mente, aunque incluso para la autora PKD es inclasificable.

Respecto a Anne, se nota el cariño con el que escribe sobre su exmarido, pero no deja que se interponga y expone su visión de los hechos y critica cuando cree que debe hacerlo. Por si fuera poco, Anne tiene madera de escritora y su forma de narrar es adictiva.

El recorrido de la autora no se limita a los años que vivió con Dick, ya que se ha tomado el esfuerzo de buscar y entrevistar a decenas de personas que conocieron a PKD, de forma que asistimos en la biografía a toda la vida del escritor.

No me extiendo más, para mí este es un libro genial y lo recomiendo encarecidamente.

[Ray Smillie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Philip K Dick was, is and always will be, my favourite author. First read this between ten and fifteen years ago so it was time for a revisit. Anne R Dick is honest about PKD and his problems. He definitely was not a success in relationships and really didn't make much money until the 70s when his book sales seemed to rocket in Europe. PKD's mental health issues feature quite heavily probably not helped by him dabbling in drugs. To be brutally honest he was a bit of a dick at times but we all have been at some time, if we are being truthful. I still can be on occasion. Having said that I don't love his work any less after finishing this.

[L · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating insight into the legendary and utterly complex writer's life as seen through the eyes of Dick's equally interesting (third out of seven) wife Anne.
Like all great writers Dick interwove fiction and reality (or maybe ireality?) with great skill and was also a bit insane (he was most probably schizophrenic). As much as I admire his skill and artistry, the way he treated the people in his life was abominable.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably no more than a 3.0 stars in writing quality, often bogged down in details and people who appear and disappear from the narrative without explanation and who are more ciphers than personalities. OTOH, much of the material is as close to seeing PKD from inside the the universe in which he lived, at least externally and for that, if you're a Dickhead, makes for a fascinating read.

[Fernando Soto-Dupuy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesante y triste libro. Me lleva a la compasión por hombres de mentes tan talentosas y vidas tan desastrosas. El misterio de un hombre que es buen esposo, buen padre, excelente escritor, y por sus problemas síquicos y sus adicciones se destruye a si mismo y destruye a los demás.

[Mark Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Half memoir, half biography, by PKD’s third wife. Thorough, but lacking in the analysis/speculation that many biographies have, which may be seen as a flaw or a virtue, depending on your point of view.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A view of PKD's life from one of his ex-wives. Very interesting look at what you could only call a disturbed genius.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insights into Philip K. Dick you could only find from the author.

[吕不理 · Rating 5 out of 5]

周末拿去让草老师给我签名！谈谈翻译吧 可能有人会以为翻译腔重 但其实这是她刻意保留的口语话表述 原因是安妮对菲尔的爱如此深 大部分人生缺席了 通过采访查证拼凑出的PKD的生活 有迸发的情感不可忽视 这是私人化的 亲昵的 爱的作品 贴近原文的语气才最有代入感 最能让读者感受到这份情绪。我草老师手机最棒的！

[Ralph Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting book.

[Qing · Rating 4 out of 5]

pkd在生活中是个癫狂的混蛋，一个集各种心理疾病于一身的有魅力的烂人，一个吸毒者，精神分裂症，一生沉迷于追逐自己那个五个月大时就死去的黑发双胞胎妹妹。这本书其实也很乱，我无法理解作者在多年后为什么还能对无条件被pkd蛊惑的��理医生A说出那句“可是我爱他”，人类的感情生活真是稀烂。

[David Merrill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read 3 of the other biographies of PKD, the ones by Lawrence Sutin, Greg Rickman And Paul Williams. I think this is my favorite of the four. I really couldn't put it down. The other biographies are much more objective, but at the same time, we don't get much beyond judging the drug use and questioning Dick's version of things. Here we get the viewpoint of the people who loved him and lived with him. We get versions of familiar stories as seen by the other parties concerned. We also find out a lot of writers were using amphetamines at the time Dick was using them to write. We get a lot more context of the times. We also get a rundown on which of Dick's characters were based on his friends and family and how they differ from the real people.

Today we would label Phil bi-polar, obsessive compulsive, having an eating disorder of some kind, agoraphobic with social anxiety. The other biographies didn't make all of this so obvious. Given the fact we're living his nightmare politically and the number of drugs psychiatrists would prescribe him today, it almost seems a mercy he didn't have to see all of this.

My fascination with Philip K. Dick is fueled by his similarity to my father. My father died at the same age of cancer, used copious drugs during his lifetime and seemed to have a lot of the same personality quirks, perhaps a little less extreme as far as the mental illness is concerned, but perhaps not. When I'm reading PKD bios and letters, I feel I get more of a handle on who my father was too. My Dad was married four times, each successive wife younger than the last. My third step mother was only 6 years older than me. He was her6th husband. He was charming in a similar way and had a similar mixture of low self-esteem and charisma, apparently a dangerous combination. It's amazing how little we can know of our own parents. I really only ever got a small slice of who he was and I could probably do a similar book on my Dad, interviewing all the people who knew him better and finding out all of his personae. I wonder if I would find the same sort of thing if I interviewed everyone who knows me. Am I that different to everyone who knows me? Probably not, because PKD told different stories about the same event to different people, only making the problem worse. I have a feeling my Dad may have done the same, changing the story for different people when different parts made him uncomfortable with them. Perhaps we all do that to an extent.

Definitely a lot of food for thought here, particularly if you've read a lot of PKD and read other bios of him. This one, I came away feeling a hot know a bit of the man, the human being.

[Stephen Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

THE MAN WHOSE WIVES WERE NOT ALL EXACTLY ALIKE

This subjective view of the life of Philip K. Dick is in need of a rigorous editor. There are many typographical errors and a number or grammatical and syntactical issues. There also appears to be some confusion regarding dates. But the main shortcoming is that it suffers from a rather disjointed style: within the span of a few paragraphs the narrative lurches from one event to another at the expense of cohesion. I do not wish to dis the many people who helped Anne Dick to produce this book but, with the best will in the world, professional and impartial assistance cannot always be eschewed.

Okay, despite all the above this is an interesting book. I have read many biographical pieces about Dick, as well as all the author’s own published works. I love his work and would have liked to have known him. But I’ve always had doubts about whether I would have liked him. Anne Dick portrays a deeply flawed human being. Whether Dick was mostly to blame or not for his turbulent life is a matter of opinion. There can be no doubt, however, that some of his problems were self-inflicted. What this book gives the reader is a personal take on the life of this interesting, larger-than-life character, and it’s often fascinating to learn about some of the smaller details that have been ignored by other biographers. Overall this is a worthwhile read but it could be greatly improved by a more critical editorial process.

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was something about her that didn't quite ring true--always seeming to be on the edge of wanting a reconciliation with him, for example. Still, it can't possibly be as bad as him anyway; and it was interesting hearing the voices (even if often much later) of all the people who you've only seen through his nut-colored glasses. The (lame) intro was written by Ben Gross, the same one I believe I played one of my better games against at a chess tournament in San Francisco; and of course an old chess friend of mine used to work for her making jewelry (he wasn't mentioned though). All of which goes to prove that it's a small world ("but I wouldn't want to paint it"). She also seemed a bit square and conventional--sort of the usual free-spirit matron of the suburbs. In particular gave a lot of insight into the Terra Linda years (though I thought he'd been using speed since the '50's).

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was part of my holiday reading. Its an amazing book written by one of PKDs many wives. Now PKD was a troubled but gifted writer - there is no question of that - many of his bios touch on this. But this book goes much much further - it shows his loving caring side, this eloquence and mastery of the English language as well as the dark cunning and treacherous side too.
The book is clearing written from Anne Dick's perspective and misses out many details other biographies capture however what they miss and this one portrays so clearly is he is human - with loves and fears and puts a personal touch to his career sometimes lost in the more accademic and cynical books written about him. A fascinating read and one made all the more important by the fact I stumbled across this book while searching a small second hand dealers bookshelves

[JimmiD · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great insights into the Author. Thanks Anne.

What my ratings mean:
5 – I felt this book was an exemplar in its genre/field. That does not mean I agree with everything it says (or the moral of the story). It is likely to be a book that will change my thinking about a topic.
4 – A very impressive book for its genre/field. It probably didn’t change me or my thinking though.
3 – An enjoyable way to spend the time reading it.
2 – This was a pain to read. It was probably difficult to finish.
1 – Life’s too short and/or I’m not smart enough to get the point of this book.

[Nicolas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful biography of this deity among SF writers and fans all around the world. It's really well written and easy to read, giving a lifelike insight into Dick (only an insight, for that man was so terribly complex) for it was done by one of his ex-wives.

Fans should read it at all costs.