**SOME SPOILERS AHEAD**UGH. Worst PKD book I've read thus far and I've read a lot. It reads like it was lifted from a bad soap opera that needed one more storyline for filler, only in that context, it would have been tolerable since you'd also have 6 other storylines running parallel so you'd only have to deal with the boredom for a few mins at a time. Listening to this straight through was painful and I almost gave up. If I'd been actually reading this in print, I would have but it doesn't take any real effort to just drive along and listen to the drivel. The plot was nonexistent, the characters' motivations were nonexistent and so the whole thing just seemed to ramble on endlessly. The best part was the bit where the reader says "We hope you have enjoyed this recording of 'The Broken Bubble' by Philip K. Dick, read by..." In a nutshell, this book is about an adult radio personality who is suspended from his job and, in all his newfound free time, starts hanging out with an awkward teenaged listener. The boy is married, to another teenager, and they're really pretty clueless about life. The DJ initially wants to help them financially as the girl is pregnant. Eventually, the DJ brings his ex-wife over to introduce them to these kids for no apparent reason and the ex-wife screws the teenaged boy in the car while they're on a liquor run. Why? Who the hell knows. Certainly not PKD. He probably just read "Lolita" and got inspired or something. The ex-wife keeps up a bizarre affair with this kid wherein she alternates between envisioning herself as his mother and as his wife and envisioning him as her son and as the DJ. Yes, she decides for a few pages that she is screwing her ex-husband by proxy and so this ephebophilia will bring her closer to him. Did I mention she's engaged to someone else entirely? PKD doesn't even bother to explore her motivations or develop her character enough that you might be able to assume some. This may sound exciting but, trust me, it's not. Then there are some side...well...I'd call them sideplots but there is no plot so let's call them simply "asides." There are some asides with other characters that are so far apart that you forget about them until they pop up again and don't advance the story at all apart from, in a very roundabout way, showing that teenagers are treated unfairly by society. Really, he could have established this by simply writing in the end event of a giant ball of water being tossed off a roof and none of the backstory. This, I think, is really PKD's message with The Broken Bubble, that kids are treated poorly. That or he may have been doing a character study on how a 17yo differs from a 27yo. Who knows what possessed him.Despite the bizarre and scandalous subject matter, PKD managed to make this book dreadfully boring. That's talent, I guess, just not the kind of talent that makes for a good story.
PKD's characters have a way of being... not flat, never flat, not exactly, but subdued, I suppose, just, very collected in their knowledge of their ultimate failure, which I find fascinating. This novel is not horror (at least not in the typical way) and it isn't science fiction. PKD wrote a bunch of novels that were sort of slice of life, and this is truly a slice of trippy, strange life, though I was forced to admit as weird and crazy as the things going on were, we actually lead lives much more absurd and strange than these ones, we just think they are 'normal'. The story deals with a strange chain of romances -this is not a typical romance, I don't think this book is a typical *anything*. It questions the purpose of life, our self worth in front of society, the role of work in our self assessments, how we relate to others and why sometimes we fail, despite everything. It also deals with a divorced man who looses his job, his ex wife seducing an 18 year old married boy, the 17 year old pregnant wife deciding to seduce the older guy, an attempt at suicide, lots of train wreck drama, an abusive relationship, codependency, and the story from which the book takes its name, a stripper being pushed around by a bunch of orthodontists inside a huge plastic bubble. Come for the bizarre, stay for the impossible-to-avert-your-eyes drama.
What do You think about The Broken Bubble (1988)?
Mais que s'est-il passé dans la tête de Philip K. Dick lorsqu'il a écrit ça?! Chez cet auteur, c'est particulièrement les romans de SF que l'on connaît. Blade Runner, Total Recall, Substance Mort, etc. Ici, nous sommes face à un "simple" roman, se situant dans les USA des années 50. Un animateur radio qui a la loose, son ex-femme un peu fragile et aux penchant alcoolique, un jeune couple en situation précaire : voilà la situation initiale à partir de laquelle l'auteur fait tourner son roman. Chaque personnage va faire son cheminement, plus ou moins pertinent d'ailleurs ^^'Certaines situations n'ont pas manqué de me faire bien rigoler, et sinon c'est un roman qui se lit assez facilement, malgré les références qu'on ne saisit pas forcément si on est pas un spécialiste des Etats-Unis de cette époque. Agréable et divertissant !
—Lady Stardust
Mais um retrato da década de 50, cheio de relações complicadas envolvendo adultos cheios de angst e jovens que não sabem muito bem o que querem. Esta fase do autor com este livro e Mary and the Giant apresentou uma liberdade de escrita sexual, que eu diria que parece muito à frente do seu tempo, A angústia da personagem feminina que se envolve numa relação perdida e desorientada com um jovem de 17 anos é descrita de uma forma intensa e iinebriante. É um retrato apesar de tudo interessante da década de 50, mas talvez menos apelativo que Mary and The Giant. Mostra porém a multifaceta do autor como escritor inovador para o seu tempo a retratar as angústias da psique humana.
—Bruno Silva
I like quite of bit of Phillip K. Dick’s writing, but find it to be a hit and miss affair. The Broken Bubble is an unqualified miss. The plot-line ambles, the characters are wooden, and the story plods along in a drab and listless fashion. I can’t imagine what Dick was aiming for with this tale of a love quadrangle.The book was written in the 1950s, but was rejected for publication at the time (and rightfully so). It was published in posthumously in 1988, I’m assuming in a cynical attempt to cash in on Dick’s later fame.
—Todd Martin
