A Horse in the Bathroom (Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams)

Name: Frankingsteins

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Product:	Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams
Date:	10/06/04 (137 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny and very clever, An entertaining and compelling story, Great characters

Disadvantages: Difficult to follow sometimes, Needs to be read in a short period of time, lest the reader forget everything

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency is described by the author as “a thumping good detective-ghost-horror-who dunnit-time travel-romantic-musical-comedy-epic” and certainly lives up to all of these claims, improbable as that may seem. A modern detective tale based firmly in the paranormal, Douglas Adams has created another very interesting and detailed universe in this book.


PLOT


Well it’s a little more complicated than that, but I’ll try. The story essentially follows a few days in the life of Richard MacDuff, a promising and skilled computer programmer working for one of the big firms called WayForward technologies, as he is led to the services of the enigmatic Dirk Gently, a man he previously knew as Svlad Cjelli but who changed his name due to past legal mishaps, following a number of very strange occurrences. A horse appeared in his old lecturer’s bathroom, his boss was shot and subsequently leaped at his car in ghost form and he risked his life climbing into his girlfriend’s window without a vital justification.

As Gently’s detective agency is based on the principle of the fundamental interconnectedness of all thing, the man himself is very interested in solving some of these mysteries. Dirk respects the techniques of the fictional Sherlock Holmes, the man who stated “eliminate the impossible. Then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth”; Dirk is only different in that he doesn’t eliminate the impossible, finding it the only rational explanation in some cases, and a verdict that can often only be reached by imaginative children uncorrupted by the tedium of the world. Needless to say, the answers to some of the stranger mysteries dwell within the realm of what was previously considered impossible.


DOUGLAS ADAMS


The late, great Douglas Adams is one of my favourite authors, and would have doubtless written many more entertaining books had he not suffered an unexpected fatal heart attack in 2001 at the age of 49. An author, radio presenter and ardent supporter of animal charities, Douglas Adams’ wit and writing talent live on in his published works.

Fans of the Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series will not necessarily love these books, although at times it’s clear that they are both the product of the same mind. Where the Hitch-Hiker’s Guide was silly, quirky, epic and often hilarious, the humour and ideas in Dirk Gently are more subtle and planned out. The scale is also much more limited, with the majority of the story focusing on events around Cambridgeshire with the protagonists.

Some Hitch-Hiker’s Guide fans found the changes in the author’s lifestyle between books very obvious and revealing in some aspects of the books; for example, the first book featured a local bar and minor stabs at decisions made by local councils, while the later efforts discussed Bistros and flights worldwide. The first Dirk Gently book makes Douglas Adams’ somewhat famous fascination with computers and computer programming, especially with the Macintosh variety of machine, very clear and the many detailed pages on the operations and functions of the computer software in solving complex puzzles gets very dull and feels like my dad or my brother has started going on about Linux again.


VERDICT


I really enjoyed this book, however I did have some problems with it (aside for the afore-mentioned computer jargon). The deliberately muddled and mysterious organisation of the events is sometimes a little distracting and misleading, especially when reading the book over a number of days, as less interesting and important characters take up chapters that could have been better served with the main plot. But in many ways this is the essence of the book. The main characters all have interesting and entertaining traits, even the incredibly regular main character – something that made Arthur Dent in the Hitch-Hiker’s Guide so endearing – and each chapter holds new insights.

It’s clear that Douglas Adams was attempting a different writing style to the one he was more famous for and thankfully it worked, although it’s clear that his experiences and experiments here impacted on the style of the later books in the Hitch-Hiker’s series that were, as a result, less entertaining than the original trilogy. Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency was first published in 1987 and Adams soon wrote a sequel, ‘The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul.’ I plan to check this book out, but I’ve heard that it isn’t as entertaining.

This book should please fans of detective stories who enjoy a little absurdity, and would have made a great film.

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