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Humpty Dumpty in Oakland, by Philip K. Dick
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Set in San Francisco in the late 1950s, Humpty Dumpty in Oakland is a tragicomedy of misunderstandings among used car dealers and real-estate salesmen: the small-time, struggling individuals for whom Philip K.Dick always reserved his greatest sympathy.
Jim Fergesson is an elderly garage owner with a heart condition, who is about to retire; Al Miller is a somewhat feckless mechanic who sublets part of Jim's lot and finds his livelihood threatened by the decision to sell; Chris Harman is a record-company owner who for years has relied on Fergesson to maintain his cars. When Harman hears of Fergesson's impending retirement he tips him off to what he says is a cast-iron business proposition: a development in nearby Marin County with an opening for a garage. Al Miller is convinced that Harman is a crook, out to fleece Fergesson of his life's savings. As much as he resents Fergesson he can't bear to see it happen and--denying to himself all the time what he is doing--he sets out to thwart Harman.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
- Sales Rank: #1337681 in eBooks
- Published on: 2008-09-30
- Released on: 2008-09-30
- Format: Kindle eBook
From Publishers Weekly
Fans of late SF icon Dick (1928–1982) who have yet to discover his obscure nongenre works will be pleasantly surprised by this profound—and perplexing—1986 posthumous tragicomedy. Unpublished in the U.S., this tale revolves around two truly miserable characters: Jim Fergesson, a world-weary, ailing garage owner preparing to retire, and Al Miller, a shiftless used car salesman who rents lot space from Fergesson. Learning that Fergesson is investing his life savings in a questionable real estate venture, Miller hatches a series of ill-conceived and delusional schemes he hopes will grant him some sort of redemption and save Fergesson from getting scammed. Evoking the economically booming, socially repressive and prejudiced America of the 1950s, this paranoid and ambiguity-filled exploration into the psyche of the small businessman showcases not only Dick's wild imagination and sardonic wit but also, and most notably, his mastery at intertwining perception with reality. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Long before establishing himself as one of sf's foremost innovators, Dick served his writing apprenticeship by penning sober mainstream tales about harried American workers. First published in 1986 in England and now receiving American publication, this early novel recounts the intertwined fates of California-based used-car-salesman Al Miller and his aging landlord, Jim Fergusson. Perpetually down on his luck, Miller sees the world through cynical lenses, whereas Fergusson, despite a recent heart attack, remains optimistic. When Miller discovers that Fergusson is selling their shared business and taking the advice of a shady record producer to purchase a new one, he becomes suspicious. With the aim of undermining the deal, Miller recklessly talks his way into a job for the producer and bumbles headlong into life-unraveling charges of fraud. Dick aficionados will recognize the familiar themes of psychosis and confrontation with inimical powers that permeated his later work. As a formative novel, this book contains surprisingly strong writing and character development and reveals an interesting dimension of the Dick canon. Hays, Carl
Review
"A kind of pulp-fiction Kafka, a prophet." --The New York Times "Remarkable. . .echoes of Dick's contemporaries such as Ralph Ellison, Richard Yates, Rod Serling, Raymond Chandler and early Kurt Vonnegut Jr. resonate, and a bonus exists in Dick's impeccable eye for detail. . . .Dick fans will be in rapture." --Publishers Weekly [boxed review] on Voices from the Street
"He reworks the territory of soured domesticity (à la Richard Yates and John Updike) in a working-class milieu anticipating Raymond Carver. Decades later, his oeuvre (like Philip Roth's) is lovingly enshrined in our national pantheon." -LA Times
"It may be hard for some to accept that the same writer who recently snuck into the American canon as a visionary and paranoid pop surrealist also penned a half dozen or more proletarian-realist novels set in the California of the '50's and early '60's, the best of which occupy a region demarcated by Richard Yates on one side and Charles Willeford on another. But accept it." --Jonathan Lethem
"Well written, it is a welcome addition to its authors' large and brilliant canon." --Booklist on Voices from the Street
Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Early Dick rediscovered
By mrliteral
When I first started reading Philip K. Dick in the early 1980s, he was just on the cusp of fame, the result of the movie Blade Runner as much as anything. Now, in fact, he is considered one of the greatest science fiction writers (and maybe writers in general) of his era. Unfortunately, Dick - who had lived a rather unhealthy lifestyle - would die just as his writing was being noticed outside the narrow confines of the science fiction community. This new-found fame would not only result in re-releases of his science fiction novels, but also the first-time publication of some of his early, mainstream fiction.
This is both a service and disservice to Dick's fans. On the one hand, for someone like me who's read practically everything he's written, this is a chance to read something new. On the other hand, there's often a reason that this work is unpublished. Humpty Dumpty in Oakland, one of his posthumously released works, is not bad, but I'm not sure if it would have been published if not for who wrote it.
The novel focuses on two men: Jim Fergesson is a successful auto mechanic who is selling his shop due to a heart condition (Jim is constantly described as old, though he is only in his late fifties; this must have seemed elderly to the young PKD who wrote this, and ironically, he would never reach the age of his protagonist). Al Miller is the young used car dealer who rents space from Jim and whose livelihood is threatened by the garage sale.
One of Jim's customers, Chris Harman, is an entrepreneur who turns Jim onto a business opportunity, but the resentful Al suspects Chris is a con man and passes on his suspicions. The relationship between Jim and Al gets more and more strained which threatens Jim's fragile health.
As is typical in Dick's stories, there are no true heroes or villains. The main characters are distinctly flawed individuals, always seeking a happiness that eludes them, often because they don't even know what will satisfy them. This is a decent enough novel, but I think it will most likely only appeal to those who want to complete their Dick collections. For others, this is not where to start with Dick's work to get a good feel for his writing; instead, it's better to go with one of his classic science fiction works.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Not Just for the PKD Completist
By Zac Hanscom
Humpty Dumpty in Oakland is like Philip K. Dick's other "mainstream" novels in that it deals with mental illness instead of time travel, rockets, exo-planetary colonization, and the like. The main character is Al Miller, a used car salesman. He goes through a number of travails, coming to the conclusion that everyone is after him, but of course, a Philip K. Dick novel can never be that simple.
This novel wasn't printed in America until 2007, despite it being written almost half a century earlier. I found it readable, fun, and interesting. The characters and their interactions are very well detailed, and I might even suggest that this novel be read by someone other than the Philip K. Dick completist. Don't get me wrong; there's a reason why this novel was rejected for publication in 1960: this is not Dick's best work, and I haven't loved any of Dick's mainstream fiction. I liked this, though. ****1/4
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
A Feather, Not a Hammer
By Michael R. Seidl
Philip K. Dick's Humpty Dumpty in Oakland is classic PKD. It tells the intertwined stories of used-car-lot operator Al Miller and garage owner and mechanic Jim Fergusson. When the aging Fergusson decides to sell his garage, and the adjoining lot leased by Miller, Miller's life is thrown into turmoil. When Fergusson then considers investing the sale proceeds in a new and uncertain venture, Miller inserts himself into the process in a way that brings into focus the delusions of both Fergusson and Miller and that perhaps unearths a tremendous conspiracy.
The book is devoid of SF elements and is both subtle and nuanced. While it contains many familiar PKD elements--psychological realism, paranoia, conspiracy, religion, and ethics--in Humpty Dumpty Dick tickles with the feather rather than pounding with a hammer. Other reviewers have commented that this is the popular PKD in nascent form. Upon my reading, it appears rather that popular PKD is the equivalent of Humpty Dumpty with all subtlety deleted. Successor PKD books read almost as if the author threw up his hands and said to himself, "Look, they're not getting it--I'm going to have put these ideas in the future and in the foreground." The closest "popular" PKD book to Humpty Dumpty would, in my opinion, be The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, 90% of which is pure social-psychological realism and 10% of which is self-debunking SF and/or supernaturalist--if you liked Transmigration, you'll find a similar style in Humpty Dumpty.
Symbolically, Humpty Dumpty is about the tiny push that it takes to shove the ordinary person off the perch of the everyday, creating a shattering effect that neither the kings horses nor the kings men will remedy again.
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