Contempt this way------> (The Dice Man - Luke Rhinehart)

Member Name: michaird

Product:	The Dice Man - Luke Rhinehart
Date:	26/02/03 (424 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great Idea, Interesting concept

Disadvantages: Poorly exectuted, Bored me to tears

Little upsets me more than a squandered idea. An idea that you really like, you can really see the potential and it is executed so poorly that it actually makes you angry. The last time I felt this way about something was the film AI (don't get me started) and currently I'm feeling that way about 'The Dice Man' by Luke Rhinehart.

Now the concept of the books is excellent, interesting, it gives such scope for an entertaining read. Written in an autobiographical style it recounts the story of Dr Luke Rhinehart, eminent psychiatrist, possible genius, bored with life. He craves excitement, he yearns for fulfilment he has visions of rape, murder and suicide but his personality and social boundaries prevent him from any kind of fulfilling experience.

The solution? Turn yourself over to the whim of the dice, let the random roll of the dice determine your every action, your life according to the options you give it. If you are willing, if you can turn yourself over completely to the dice and allow yourself to live a completely random life, then the fulfilment of every facet of your personality becomes at least a possibility.

Sounds like a good idea doesn't it? It is a good idea, but in my opinion it has been executed poorly.

The book is written in the first person, autobiographical style. Now I don't have anything against first person point of view but when handled poorly, as is the case with 'The Dice man', it can degenerate into meaningless and un-dynamic introspection on the part of the main character that does nothing to further the story and is frankly boring. Another problem I had with the point of view was that it kept shifting. Some of the shifts were presented as transcripts or reconstructions from tapes or case notes and I could deal with that and it worked well. As other times it appeared that the point of view had either shifted into third person or the main character had begun to refer to h
imself in the third person (as a sign of growing insanity I expect) but as it was inconsistent throughout the book I found it annoying and confusing.

I found visualisation difficult also. Instead of weaving a characters appearance and characteristics into the text allowing the person to gradually form within your mind we are presented with lists of description that does nothing to enhance the imagery within the story. This technique of telling rather than showing for me made the book slow, ponderous and lacking in any kind of action. What do I mean? Well let me show you:

Kelly sat at her desk in front of the window concentrating hard on her work, her long, red curly hair repeatedly falling over her face irritating her.

Kelly sat at her desk trying to concentrate on her work, often a twist of hair would fall across her face and she agitatedly brushed it back, the light from the window setting it alight with fiery colour.

It's not a great example but do you see? Imagine five hundred pages or so of the first style, it wouldn't have bothered me so much if the book itself hadn't opened with a long, dull list style description of the narrator. But it did and I couldn't help but notice it all the way through the book.

What else didn't I like? Well the total lack of any real action, we don't get to see an awful lot of the things he does when commanded by the dice, it is often simply referred to, when it is shown I found there to be little tension and little interest. I don't mind books where nothing in particular happens if it tells us a story of enough richness that it actually means something. I'm sure that this book has a great and important theme but it is so poorly put across that it just didn't work.

The main character is a psychiatrist and he also sees this 'dice life' as a religion. As a consequence of this we get an awful lot of material on god, the nature
>of god and theorising about the differences and similarities between god and the dice. Potentially interesting, but in this case boring, this is all theorised with no active, emotional narrative to bring it to life in my imagination.

We also get an awful lot of text on psychiatry, the nature of the experiment and how it can be used to break down the personality and allow each individual to learn to accept those minor parts of their character. To give each part of their inner selves the chance for expression and fulfilment. Again, all very interesting, but instead of feeding this theory to us in conversation and arguments I would rather have seen this shown in the actions and emotional state of the main character.

So my final point, the emotional state of the main character. It's non-existent; we are told that the writer is unhappy, suicidal, in despair, lustful and god-like but never shown it. The narrative is written in such a way that there is total emotional detachment from the main character. This on top of the dull writing style and the lack of real action means that I have absolutely no interest in how things turn out for this guy, I don't care, I wish he'd kill himself so that the book would end.

Would I recommend this book? Hell no, it's crap. I got about three quarters of the way through and just couldn't be arsed anymore.

However, looking at the other reviews in this section it seems I am alone in my thinking, I'm still right though.

Summary: