Author | Philip K. Dick |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Publisher | Gollancz |
Publication date | 1986 |
Media type | Print (Hardback) |
Pages | 199 pp |
ISBN | 0-575-03875-6 |
OCLC | 13823287 |
Humpty Dumpty in Oakland is a realist, non-science fiction novel authored by Philip K. Dick. Originally completed in 1960, but rejected by prior publishers, this work was posthumously published by Gollancz in the United Kingdom in 1986. An American edition was published by Tor Books in 2007.
Between 1952 and 1960, Dick wrote eleven non-science-fiction novels, all of which were rejected by multiple publishers. [1] Nonetheless, editor Don Wickenden of Harcourt Brace saw potential in Dick's mainstream works, and in December 1959, the company offered Dick a $500 advance for a new novel, with the promise of a further $500 on completion of a saleable manuscript. Dick was expected to work in collaboration with another editor at Harcourt Brace, Eleanor Dimoff, but he refused to make the flight to New York, so he and Dimoff corresponded by mail. [2] [3]
Dick proposed to rewrite one of his earlier works, A Time for George Stavros. Little is known about this now-lost manuscript, but it is characterized as follows in an index-card written by an employee of the Scott Meredith Literary Agency: [4]
Long, rambling, glum novel about 65 yr old Greek immigrant who has a weakling son, a second son about whom he's indifferent, a wife who doesn't love him (she's being unfaithful to him). Nothing much happens. Guy, selling garage & retiring, tries to buy another garage in new development, has a couple of falls, dies at end. Point is murky but seems to be that world is disintegrating, Stavros supposed to be symbol of vigorous individuality now a lost commodity.
In a letter to Dimoff dated February 1, 1960, Dick outlined his idea for the reworked version of this novel. The garage would become a retail store, and the story would explore the family-like relationship between Stavros and his employees. A new member of staff, Verne Tildon (a character borrowed from Gather Yourselves Together ) would interfere with the cosy dynamic. Initially being like a son to Stavros, he would ultimately attempt to overthrow him, so that "all the apparatus of the son-father clash is transformed into new terms, into salesmen, bookkeepers, floor managers, company policy, etc." [5] Harcourt Brace approved the concept. [4]
During this time, Dick's wife Anne was heavily pregnant. In her 1995 biography, Anne claims that the reason Dick decided to fulfill his contract by rewriting an earlier novel was to give himself more time to help care for the new baby. [3] The manuscript that was finally submitted to Harcourt Brace in October 1960, under the title of Humpty Dumpty in Oakland, bore little resemblance to the story that Dick had outlined in his letter, but followed very closely the plot of George Stavros. Harcourt Brace rejected it, and Dick was forced to return the $500 advance. [4] The book was post-humously published by Gollancz in 1986. [6]
In 1960, 58-year-old Jim Fergesson decides to sell his Oakland-based auto repair business and retire. This threatens to greatly inconvenience his business tenant, used car salesman Al Miller, who rents a lot from Fergesson to sell his battered but superficially reconditioned old jalopies. Chris Harmon, an entrepreneur, advises Fergesson to invest in a new super-garage located in Marin Country Gardens. Jim takes a fall in the mud and has a minor heart attack during a visit to the property to personally verify its existence. Miller is convinced that Harmon is corrupt and makes an amateurish attempt at blackmailing him over his alleged (then-illegal) sale of salacious audio recordings. At the same time Al enters employment with Harmon as a curiously unqualified salesman of Classical Music. This, as it turns out, was an innocent administrative error. Al's actual assignment now involves the mass marketing of Barbershop Music. He sees conspiracies, machinations and double-dealings where there are none and strives mightily, but ultimately fails, to disrupt the final contract-signing between Fergesson and Harmon by playing on old Jim's paranoia. The strain of it all takes its toll on a recently injured, weakened, ailing Fergesson and he dies later that night at home.
Al then discovers that his used car lot has been ferociously vandalised, although the exact time and date remain uncertain. This plays an unexpectedly important role in the unfolding of subsequent events. Things are not quite what they seem, and coincidence plays a starring role here. His wife Julie quits her job and they run off together across Nevada, whilst Lydia, Jim's widow, discovers that her late husband's deal with Harmon was, contrary to what Al had sincerely believed, completely legitimate. Al is temporarily detained after Lydia threatens to sue him for fraud. Julie leaves him forever. In a moment of true serendipity Al starts a new relationship with his married real estate vendor, a vivacious, attractive "colored" woman by the name of Mrs. Lane.
According to Anne, Dick said that Humpty Dumpty "was exceptional because it was a novel about the proletarian world written from the inside, whereas most novels about the proletarian world were written by middle-class writers who didn't really understand the proletarian life". [3] Greg Rickman called it one of Dick's "gloomiest books". [4] Andrew M. Butler observes that Jim Fergesson, who falls over several times throughout the story, might appear to be the Humpty Dumpty of the title, but it is in fact Al Miller who is heading for destruction. [7]
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