Grouchogandhi - A Punch-Drunk Filter of FACTs: Reviews for A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick

Reviews for A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick

"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."

— 1 Corinthians 13:12

I recently re-read A Scanner Darkly the last few days in anticipation of Richard Linklater's vision of the novel to film. It's probably been 15 years since I last read the book.

A Scanner Darkly reads much better than I remember. Course, that might have something to do with those 15 years since the last read-through. Less said about that, the better.

So, anyway, I decided I'd look around for some reviews and commentary on the novel, discover what others took from it.

Here's what I found:

This book is primarily an examination of what drug use can do to people, as Dick makes clear in the Author's Note at the end of the book, although as he says "there is no moral in this novel."
— Eric Weeks
A Scanner Darkly is by no means an easy read, as you are drawn into the minds of the central character. Once you catch on, it becomes one of the deepest, most moving books ever written by Dick. His ability to immerse the reader into the psychological heart of paranoid narcotics abuse has never been so apparent.
— Deckard
Yes, Philip K. Dick makes you look away - look away from normality, look away from what you know to be the truth. It's the ultimate suspension of disbelief trip - for in a suspension of disbelief con to work things have to stay mostly normal and you throw a narrative or psychological spanner in the works on top of that.
— Mike Philbin
The most annoying book I ever forced myself to finish.
— John
[A Scanner Darkly] then must be considered as an integral part of that corpus of Philip K. Dick's "religious books", part of a message that connects through the centuries to the secret doctrines of the Nag Hammadi and the Qumran manuscripts.
— Paolo Prezzavento