Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

This is one of my favourite books, and I think it's the best thing Douglas Adams ever did.Some readers seem disappointed because they expected another volume of [b:The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 11 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1) Douglas Adams https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1531891848l/11.SY75.jpg 3078186]. Well, the Hitchhiker's Guide was written as a radio comedy series, and this was written as a novel: not the same thing at all.Furthermore, although this novel has frequent humorous touches, at which you may laugh, it's not primarily a comedy. It's a kind of mystery-fantasy-science-fiction novel, the main mystery being how the author is going to tie together so many strange and disparate characters and events that don't seem to go together. The marvel is that he does it in the end.I can think of two features that this novel has in common with the Hitchhiker's Guide: the protagonist, Richard MacDuff, is a relatively normal man, not very different from Arthur Dent; and the existence of the human race comes under threat. Oh, and there is a spaceship involved; but it makes only a brief appearance in the story, and the characters don't travel anywhere in it.Dirk Gently is of importance to the story, he serves to tie it all together; but it's not told from his point of view. He's an eccentric and unique character, who seems intelligent and yet barely capable of earning a living, such is his eccentricity. An interesting creation.I've met one person who avoided this book because he doesn't like detective stories. Well, Dirk Gently claims to be a detective, and does succeed more than anyone else in understanding what's going on; but to describe it as a detective story would be seriously misleading. Some people have observed that you have to read the book more than once to understand it, and I suppose this is true. Anyone reading the early chapters for the first time (as I did in 1987) can only be bewildered by the apparently pointless and disconnected fragments of story that are initially revealed. Indeed, when I gave it to my mother to read, she abandoned it in disgust. However, if you like fantasy/science-fiction mysteries, continue reading, and your patience will be rewarded.The book references and quotes from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, two poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834). Some familiarity with these poems may be helpful in understanding the story, although I don't think it's essential.