Unknown masterpiece

In the relevant bibliography of Philip K. Dick, "Confessions of a Crap Artist" occupies a special place because it belongs to the small ten-off SF novels published under the label of "classic" literature or "white" . Written in 1959, the novel gives to discover another facet of the multifaceted talent of the American writer: his ability to chew with an unstoppable accuracy characters from the real, to make a tasty and authentic dialogue, comical situations. Therefore, K. DICK slips into the skin of a naturalist writer, embroidering a social novel whose first quality is to dissect with great acuity the links between a small circle of people in the American heartland 60s. Individuals concerned: Jack Isidore, young original twenties, single, marginal in his personal design that made the world and reality. A little silly, a little naive. Indisputably endearing. His saeur, Fay, temperamental woman, married to Charley Hume, two children. The couple, living in opulence through Wage Charley, moved to Marin County in the suburbs of Los Angeles and there flows a pleasant life in the great property they have made but that costs to build them a real fortune to maintain. Finally, the disturbing elements: a newlywed couple having just moved into this tiny locality Nathan and Gwen Anteil. Nat work in the morning in a small estate agency, and the afternoon following correspondence courses at the University of Chicago to earn a degree in history to become a teacher. Well-drawn characters: Fay Isidore proves a decision-wife, emancipated, intelligent, but also insanely selfish, manipulative, temperamental, which occupies in the Marin County community a place of importance, since it initiates and leads most cultural activities of the city. Her husband Charley Hume is a boor to gruff and authoritarian, plant manager, pragmatic to be limited, devoid of subtlety or any artistic sensibility. Between the two spouses, the agreement is not always rosy, and the reader quickly guesses that under the marriage luster, some flaws gallop, basking the building, and Fay, beyond love on she can wear to her husband, he remains committed primarily by material interest Charley ensures indeed easy lifestyle, which guarantees freedom of emancipated women and their daily petty bourgeois ... Also, things is complicated when they encounter Anteil Hume. Immediately, Fay falls under the spell of Nathan-stylish young man, refined, cultured, with whom she can quench her curiosity at the option of long conversations ... Passion, inevitably, soon to appear to exacerbate buried impulses and to expose the characters. Jack Isidore's brother Fay, graciously hosted by its provisionally saeur and his family, witnessing passively witness the development of this extramarital affair that gradually unravels the bonds of marriage and lays the protagonists in a pretty mess.

In many ways, "Confessions of a Barjo" is to rank among the great DICK novels. The unstoppable accuracy with which the writer depicts his characters, the thickness he manages to inspire them, never cease to amaze. Each protagonist sounds terribly accurate, real. Boldness, or in any case, the originality of bias and narrative structure of the novel are not foreign: DICK opts here for alternating views. Jack and Fay are expressed in the first person which allows the reader to slip closer to their thoughts (internal perspective), while Charles and Nat Anteil Humes are presented in the third person (external perspective) . This telescoping focalizations (distancing / close) significantly boosts the story and allows us to enjoy different perspectives on the same event. It takes some brilliantly to hold to term such a narrative device, DICK and acquits himself with an ease never faulted. Another quality of the novel, his dialogues, there still steeped in accuracy, larger than life, not devoid of humor and cynicism of a pest ... They book the reader a few moments of jubilation. Finally, difficult not to acknowledge the foresight and lucidity which demonstrated the writer to dissect the behavior of his characters: even if each has an unfortunate tendency to sink deeper into the problems he instigated in in defiance of reason, reactions, choices, thoughts that grow in doing so we appear fundamentally human. And it is difficult not to subscribe ...

Between social satire and vaudeville, gravity and lightness, fantasy and romance of manners, DICK signs with "Confession of a Barjo" a touching novel and reveals a talent that we did not suspect him, far from the galaxy to which SF spontaneously we connect it.

Most barjo is not always who you think.