The Man Who Japed
by Philip K. Dick
Somewhere in another quite evening broken in half from a stellar Value City Furniture commercial, I finished what was, (at least) my 13th full-sized novel by PKD! This estimated number is a conservative number and not accounting, in any form, the five collections of his short-stories that defy any amount of calculation consideration... The Man Who Japed isnt PKDs best book, in my opinion, but isn't his worst either. His best/worst novel ratio is at least 4-1 which may be a conservative estimate. Japed is a middle-of-the-road read and coming from PKD, one of fictions undisputed kings, is saying much more than its not. Yeah, the PKD trademarks are there... The eternal struggles of a dystopic future, ample amounts of paranoia, the questioning of moral fortitude and those special WTF moments that propel the novel from one place to the next with a hurried pace. You read PKD the way he designed and wrote them, in a speed-fever with fast dinners of meat not fit for human consumption. I'm not about to give ya a whole run-down of the plot... Like I said earlier, its not my favorite novel of his and not his worst. If you can find a copy of this book cheaply, and your in the mood, then, by all means, get this and read it.
Struggling to figure out my next read, I had Tetherballs of Bouganville by Mark Leyner and The Sequel of Dangerous Minds by Chuck Barris called Bad Grass Never Dies, both as choices before finally deciding upon the collected limited series b&w graphic novel, The One, from Rick Veitch to switch things up. I've taken to re-reading some of my favorite comics from my youth, again, as an adult. Squadren Supreme, The Watchmen and now The One. Back in my comic book days (first stint) I remember buying copies of the The One as a limited series that, for whatever reason, I remembered being in color... But hey, thats memory for ya! It was the 80's, shit was weird and it's about to get weirder!
