How could I resist this book at the library? If you know much about me at all, you should know that I love Philip K. Dick. In this, like in many other things, I blame my father, who used to include quoted messages from Valis in his letters to me when I was in college. PKD's books deeply affect my brain, so while I have been interested in reading Dick's Exegesis for some time, I've also been vaguely anxious about doing so. This book seemed like a good middle ground -- someone to process/filter Dick's crazy/genius so it couldn't infect my brain directly.

I hadn't read much biographical material on Dick before reading this book, other than a little bit about the "break in" of his house in San Rafael, and, of course, the pink light incident. So all of the information on his early life was very new to me, but was of course, incredibly illuminating. Each chapter of the book investigates a different incident/theme/period of his life -- what happened to him, how it affected him, how that affected his fiction, and both philosophical and psychiatric implications.

I found this book endlessly fascinating, and I'm sure it will color my readings of PKD's works in the future. ( )

The Divine Madness of Philip K. Dick by Kyle Arnold is that often frustrating but usually enlightening type of psychological biography. Frustrating because there are always questions about interpreting a person's life from such a standpoint and enlightening because the places where the explanations click can make the subjects actions (in this case, his writing) so much more meaningful. This biography accomplished both of those things.

It seems that so much of what is analyzed here is based on Dick's own words about his life, which brings into question the accuracy of the accounts. I didn't get the feeling that there was enough confirmation that the facts of his childhood were as he stated them to be. Which makes it a little problematic to then analyze Dick's explanations of his life, since a key element is often how things are explained by a subject compared to known facts about whatever is under discussion. In spite of this, I do believe that the vast majority of Arnold's conclusions are fairly accurate.

Knowing some of what Dick experienced and how it affected him certainly puts his work in a new light. Arnold does a very good job of relating Dick's psychological make-up to various works to illustrate how his work was influenced. For me, these literary discussions were the highlight of the book, namely because reading about his life was interesting but also sad.

I think this will appeal to any fan of Dick as well as fans of biographies that do more than relate events but also attempts an interpretive telling. The discussions of the literature will appeal to any fan or student of Dick and/or science fiction.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )