THE DIVINE MADNESS OF PHILIP K DICK by Kyle Arnold

THE DIVINE MADNESS OF PHILIP K. DICK by Kyle Arnold is not a light read.  Mr. Arnold chronicles Mr. Dick's descent into madness and most notably the divine madness he experienced during February and March of 1971.  For those of you who are wondering who Philip Dick is and why is this important?  Mr. Dick wrote some of the seminal sci-fi books of the 1970's era including my favorite "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" which was later made in to my favorite movie BLADERUNNER.

Interestingly enough, throughout Mr. Dick's life he was plagued by paranoia and beliefs that perhaps he was in fact an android.  He had a total of six wives and lived most of his life in poverty.  He had a jealous hatred of L. Ron Hubbard who he felt was his intellectual inferior yet was somehow rewarded financially for his mediocrity.  Dick was a complex man with the ability to write about other worlds without camp.

His life story was seated in tragedy with the death of his twin sister, Jane, due to neglect.  He nearly died at the same time but was fatefully saved by a nurse that happened to come by the house that was part of the family getting insurance from Met Life.  Dick continues to repeat the vision of his sister as a dark haired, dark eyed girl throughout his life as the unattainable woman0-child he flirts with while married.  His neglectful parents are repeated in themes in his stories and nightmares as the aliens or androids that are never there for him.

Dick becomes addicted to a cornucopia of medication that he is primarily self medicating, most notably handfuls of methamphtamines that he mixes with alcohol and other drugs.  These seem to lead him into his full madness and later death.

The book is well researched with the story moving neathly between his madness, books and personal life.  There are many strange incidences that he references such us a mysterious break in, a pink light, the Zebra and the list goes on.  It seemed that these were not evidence of a psychospiritual event, but rather a break with reality.  It is a sad but interesting read for Dick fans.

Many thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.  This book will be published June 1, 2016.

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