Following a trip down to East Anglia for a meeting today, I make it back in time for a Book Group planned tour of the Anthony Burgess Foundation house (following on from our reading of A Clockwork Orange last time). Unfortunately, an incident with a boiler has left the house with water damage that they are trying to put right and so our visit is postponed.
In keeping with our stated endeavours to read a broader range of books, this week we discuss The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which could barely be more of a contrast to the previous selection.
It’s been a long time since I read this book and whilst it may not be great literature I’m charmed once again by the simple flow of the writing and the wit extracted from the utter absurdity of everyday life.
It has of course suffered from endless physics students repeating passages to each other verbatim, but to allow that image to obscure the merit of Adam’s writing is a mistake. His gentle and wry view of the world around us was with us for too short a time. Hitchhiker’s may not change your life, but it will while away many an evening very pleasantly.
1 comment:
The books are good, but they don't even start to live up to the radio series. That is where it began and it is the best medium for a story that has been translated into almost every medium possible (even poetic, thanks to the untiring efforts of Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz)
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