- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (6 Jun 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0747569193
- ISBN-13: 978-0747569190
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 737,736 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Christopher Tayler, Sunday Telegraph
‘An imaginative biography … lends pathos and dignity to the life of a man’
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Review
'Emmanuel Carrere's I AM ALIVE AND YOU ARE DEAD: A JOURNEY INTO THE MIND OF PHILIP K. DICK is remarkable - a depth charge, a CAT scan, and an exorcism. Carrere, whose own eerie novels include THE ADVERSARY, proves that it's still possible for the French to write like Voltaire rather than Derrida. Informed, affectionate, sardonic, he is also crystal clear' Harper's US 'Startling ... Carrere gets so far inside the head of the deeply troubled author ... the resulting text is remarkably vivid, intimate, often haunting ... ' Philadelphia Inquirer 'What Dick thinks and feels as man and writer is richly developed in this riveting biography. Mr Carrere's book is mesmerizing. Seldom have I read a biographer who drew me so deeply into his subject's world' New York Sun 'Every whorl of Dick's mind, every delusion, every leap through the looking glass, is chronicled. The effect is powerful ... ' Boston Globe
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a fascinating read for anyone with an interest in sci-fi guru Philip K Dick. Not only does it provide a moving account of Dick's 53 years on earth, but explores in detail how the author's personal circumstances influenced his writings - and not just the ones you'd expect (i.e. VALIS).
The story is frequently disturbing - especially as it chronicles the most bizarre epoch of Dick's life, spent in a house with drug-dependent young people, who inspired the characters for his 70s masterwork A SCANNER DARKLY.
Negatives: The book does spend perhaps too much time on simply retelling the plots of various PKD novels (though some of this is certainly needed); photographs would have aided the account; a bibliography would have been good also.
Good Points: The biographer conveys events in a literary yet lucid written style and cleverly mixes demanding passages with lighter anecdotes.
I have never read anything as compelling as this about Philp K Dick.
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Writing a biography is one thing, getting inside Philip K Dick's mind quite another. In this novelisation of the science fiction writer's life the biographical facts are incidental, and reconstructing the amphetamine fuelled thoughts that drove him to write, divorce (four times?), attempt suicide (twice), and invent and inhabit his own fantastic and fear-filled worlds is M. Carrere's objective.
He succeeds brilliantly. It's astounding that in his paranoid delusional state Dick achieved so much, although paradoxically that's what drove him. It's a testament to M. Carrere's skill that his portrait is so lucid. His book could so easily have fallen apart, as Dick did.
If you've seen some of the films (Blade Runner, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly) or read some of the books (The Man in a High Castle, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Ubiq) reading this book will enhance your appreciation of them. You'll suddenly realise what Dick was getting at, where before you'd enjoyed the ride.
It left me wanting a 'proper' biography (which exists, it's by Lawrence Sutin). That's not a criticism, Dick's universe had little room for reality. He discards the bit players in his life when they cease to be relevant. Now I'd like to know about Dick, as they saw him. The 'real' Dick, perhaps.
He succeeds brilliantly. It's astounding that in his paranoid delusional state Dick achieved so much, although paradoxically that's what drove him. It's a testament to M. Carrere's skill that his portrait is so lucid. His book could so easily have fallen apart, as Dick did.
If you've seen some of the films (Blade Runner, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly) or read some of the books (The Man in a High Castle, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Ubiq) reading this book will enhance your appreciation of them. You'll suddenly realise what Dick was getting at, where before you'd enjoyed the ride.
It left me wanting a 'proper' biography (which exists, it's by Lawrence Sutin). That's not a criticism, Dick's universe had little room for reality. He discards the bit players in his life when they cease to be relevant. Now I'd like to know about Dick, as they saw him. The 'real' Dick, perhaps.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you want to read a biography of Philip K. Dick please don't buy this book. The real autobiography is Lawrence Sutin's Divine Invasions. Carrére's book is mostly fiction. It's an avantpop novel where the author mixed facts about Phil's life with invention. It's very well written, and sometime reveals things about Dick's fiction that were ignored by critics and experts; it's very intelligent and a wonderful read; but it is NOT a biography. Some episodes, however moving or funny they may be, are completely invented (for example The Game of the Rat: there is no proof that Dick ever played it, while it's found in a brilliant essay by Thomas M. Disch on Dick, and it's probably Disch--not Dick--who had played that game). Having said that, one must praise Carrère for writing such a wonderful piece of postmodernist fiction, which shows great literary talent and an immense love for Phil Dick and his worlds.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
'Reality'
Philip K Dick is not only the greatest Sci Fi writer of all time, he is also one of the ten most important novelists that have ever lived. Read more
Published on 10 Jan 2010 by A. C. Green
Horselover Facts
Quarter of a century after his death, Philip K. Dick's reputation and status is beginning to transcend mere founding fatherhood of modern science fiction and drift towards a more... Read more
Published on 4 Oct 2009 by O. Buxton
Scan This Book Darkly
I am a great admirer of Dick's philisophical approach to science fiction and was excited (if not a little aprehensive) at the prospect of delving into the man's mind. Read more
Published on 27 Feb 2007 by T. Freeman
Buy it, read it, lend it to your friends...
This is a well written and fascinating tale, which is truly stranger than any of Philip K Dick's fiction. Read more
Published on 19 Feb 2007 by J. Windle
Gripping, but . . . is it really a biography?
The book reads well, and is terribly gripping. I have just one problem with it. How true is any of what it says? Read more
Published on 30 Dec 2005 by J. Porter
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