Confessions of a Crap Artist Book

"Science in baffled by the unreason of the hoi polloi. The moods of the mass can't be fathomed, that's a fact."
- Philip K. Dick, Confessions of a Crap Artist



Jack Isadore is a bit a lune. He believes in crack-pot theories about the end of the world, has funky obscessions and ticks. He's a couple nuts short of being a fruit cake. Eventually, he ends up living with his rich sister and her husband. With them, Jack discovers he isn't the only crazy one. It seems most people, even those who seem to have "everything" and fit into our reality better, are only a couple inches away from the void.

I went into this book blind. I've read a bunch of other Philip K. Dick novels, but never realized THIS is his only [one of his few]* non-scifi novel[s]. It shares more with Raymond Carver and Jonathan Franzen than it does with Vernor Vinge and Kurt Vonnegut. I liked it, but it was a bit tedious in parts. Dick's ability to capture characters is on point in this book. All the major characters are amazing, especially Jack's sister Fayy Hume and her husband Charley. Wow. I didn't like them, but after finishing this book I felt like I was RELATED to them.