'Do you know what I'm really doing every day?... They know, but I don't' (p. 129)

Ragle Gumm make a comfortable living by means of his mastery of a newspaper competition called 'Where Will The Little Green Man Be Next', and lives with his sister Margo and brother-in-law Vic. However, as elements of his existence cease to exist and resolve themselves into pieces of paper, so he begins to question whether the reality he finds himself in is indeed real. With a sense of unease, Gumm comes to believe that he is 'the man with the KICK ME sign pinned on him. No matter how hard he tries, he can't whirl around fast enough to see it. But his intuition tells him it's there' (p. 115).

Like Ragle Gumm, Philip K. Dick experienced a number of 'leaks in [his] reality' (p. 87). Much of the pleasurable labour of reading his works lies in attempting to discern where the leaks are getting in, and what they mean. Meaning in PKD's novels is prone to disintegrate under the influence (in several senses) of philtres and filters. Drink, drugs, psychoanalysis and a tangible paranoia which the author often proves to be entirely justified permeate his canon. Whilst Ragle Gumm passes on the carbon tetrachloride he is offered in Time Out Of Joint, and has more phantom memories of drinking warm beer on a pacific atoll than he actually consumes during the course of the novel, Gumm finally discovers that his 'lunacy' is not madness, but a consequence of his involvement on behalf of both sides in an interplanetary civil war.

Jim Carrey vehicle The Truman Show was clearly heavily influenced by Time Out Of Joint, and Gumm's psychological conditioning has been borrowed by any number of SF novels and TV shows. The Federation's manipulation of Roj Blake, protagonist of cult 1970s British SF space opera Blake's 7 springs to mind, for one.

There is a level at which this text operates as metaphor for the alienation of contemporary life. Gumm's tantalising glimpses of another world and his desire to escape from a reality he believes to be an illusion are highly engaging. 'I know that I almost got away... I almost got over the edge and saw things the way they are. Not the way they've been arranged to look' (p. 154).

'Reality... I give you the real' (p. 156).

First published at http://sfandfantasymasterworks.blogsp...

One of Dick's early attempts at pure paranoia, this tells the story of Ragle Gumm, a man who lives with his sister and her family, and who makes a living by winning a newspaper contest with an incredible accuracy. His idle suburban 1950s existance soon begins to slip away from him as he begins to realize that it might not, in fact, be real.

Nobody could rip aside the facade of reality quite like Dick, and this novel shows that talent distilled to its purest form: A man who notices the holes in the way things work and nearly kills himself trying to see through them. With its building sense of discomfort and dread, this is one of the best of Dick's early novels. Not a necessary read, but an entertaining one.

(This review originally appeared on zombieunderground.net) ( )

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This is my first Phillip K Dick novel. He is most famous for works such as Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly and most famously Do Androids Dream of electric Sheep aka Bladerunner. This is an early novel written in the 1950s.

This was an excellent introduction. We are introduced to Ragle Gumm and his very mundane suburban existence. He is a serial competition winner who lives in an ordinary house with his sister and her normal family. Things however are not all that they seem. Is this world real or simply a faade? What is going on underneath and why does the man who wins a newspaper competition, apparently become the most important in the world. Or is this just paranoia? The sense of mystery is gripping and I finished it in a day.

Things indeed are not all they seem and a chase for escape and reason begins. This is in many ways a forerunner of other books and films based on this theme e.g. Truman Show. It was a great read and I will be trying some of the others.

The only slight criticism is that the ending is all a bit sudden. It comes almost as if it is grafted on to explain the mystery. But it takes nothing away from an excellent read. ( )

I would recommend this to anyone -- the "science" of the science fiction isn't so in your face; in fact, when you start reading it you'll say "this is sci-fi?" The writing is very good, the characterization is excellent and the story itself is wonderful.

basic plot
If you read the afterward in this book, you'll see that this is one of PK Dick's early attempts to break away from the grind of writing according to what the public wants in a sci-fi novel and branching out into his own turf, with moves away from the traditional sci-fi fare of the 1950s. I really had trouble believing that this was written in the late 1950s -- time hasn't hurt or dated this novel.

Ragle Gumm, his sister Margo, her husband Vic and her son Sammy all live together in a house in what could best be described as stereotypical suburbia. Vic is a grocer, but Ragle doesn't work -- instead he fills his days by solving an ongoing newspaper contest. Everyone knows Ragle because of his continuous winning streak. Life is pretty much picture perfect in this town. But the author right away alludes to some strange contradictions: there are no radios anywhere in the town; Uncle Tom's Cabin is featured in the Book of the Month Club, Margo is envious watching a friend drive her Tucker automobile, Marilyn Monroe is featured in a magazine but nobody's heard of her. While on an outing one day, Ragle goes to the soft-drink stand, puts his money on the counter and watches while his money disappears into the wood, then where the soft-drink stand was, he sees only a slip of paper that says "soft-drink stand." He thinks he's going crazy and takes the slip of paper, adding it to several others he has collected and stored in a metal box he carries around. It's not only Ragle, either. Vic notices some odd occurrences; together the two decide to investigate what's going on.

I have to say that I thought the outcome was a little bit of a letdown - but it was so well written and such an amazing story that I can overlook it. The book looks at such themes as what does it mean to be sane/insane, paranoia, what really constitutes reality and what is only a signifier, etc. I highly recommend this one and now am ready to plow through the rest of my books by Philip K. Dick. ( )