Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul
Adams, Douglas. 1991. Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul. Pocket.
Rating:
8
Summary:
Unlike Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, this book focuses much more on Dirk Gently and his ‘detective’ efforts. Dirk is hired by Geoff Anstey to do ‘something’ relating to Mr. Anstey’s contract selling his soul to a demon from another dimension. When Dirk remembers that he is supposed to be helping Geoff Anstey and heads towards his home he ends up finding Mr. Anstey’s head separated from his body. As are all things in Dirk Gently’s world, this job is interconnected with the bolt of lightening that destroyed a service desk at Heathrow airport a few days before. As it turns out, a disgruntled potential passenger who turns out to be the Norse god Thor was so upset by the mistreatment he was receiving that he called a bolt of lightning from the sky to destroy the service desk (a very literal ‘act of god’). Though Thor was frustrated by the airline employee, Kate Schechter, an American journalist, actually tried to help him out leading to him wanting her help later on. Well, Kate and Dirk are sucked into a an adventure revolving around the selling of the Norse gods power by their king, Odin, to an advertising executive and a lawyer that happen to live next door to Geoff Anstey. Everything is interconnected in Douglas Adams novels.
Review:
A second, and perhaps more funny, novel in the Dirk Gently series.
The book is hilarious (though not quite as funny as the Hitchiker’s Guide). I liked the fact that the focus was on Dirk Gently and we were even more exposed to his bizarre antics. Also, though it is never actually specified, it is hard to distinguish whether or not this book takes place before or after the first book in the series (I believe it takes place before). The only thing I felt was left unresolved, though Adams’s resolutions are typically one to two pages and sometimes leaving you wanting, was what happened to Geoff Anstey’s son who was spellbound and remarkably violent in his TV watching. Perhaps it was just meant to be funny, but it seemed like it should have more of a role in the book. Other than that small distraction, the book actually tends to stay mostly on track (other than Kate’s trip to the mental hospital and the characters she meets there).
As is the case with most of Adams’s work, if you like it, you like it. And, I would submit, this could actually be a good introductory book for someone that would like to become familiar with Adams’s work. Great book; lots of fun.