Paul Giamatti Books

I did not see the movie, "A Scanner Darkly," but it appears to me (from a review on IMDB) that images from the movie were published more or less as is to form this product. As such, the book is faithful to the film. Perhaps too faithful, since the way of narritive development on the screen is not identical to that in book form.

ASD is fairly interesting and easy to read. The USA of "seven years in the future" is suffering a devastating drug plague fomented by terrorists. The government has reponded with heavy surveillance and police tactics. Still, many citizens (and even police!) are drug users, and a sort of addle-brained resistance to the tyranny of the crackdown is emerging. Or not.

The book is fairly innocuous but should be rated R for drug humor, for the occassional (and gratuitous) female topless nudity, for a panel or two of atop-the-sheets sex and for one gory scene. It may be all you need to know that the book does NOT make me long to see the film. Between Keanu Reeves playing his usual doltish character who repeats the last word of whatever is said to him, the long stretches where nothing much happens, and the "helpful" labels ("Back in so-and-so's house") that a true graphic novel would incorporate into the images, this "graphicization" of the movie falls far short of the satisfaction that comes from reading a quality book designed for the genre.

Fantastic book, a classic and a masterpiece in its genre. Dick is the author that, in my opinion, has most revolutionized science fiction. And this book proves it, with the very original ideas of the plot. But there is more to it. In this book Dick has surpassed himself in the geniality of the dialogues. The reader will find similarities in the dialogues to the Joseph Heller of the best novels. Everything is well balanced in this book, the funny ideas and the dramatic introspections, the way the plot develops, the crescendo of confusion in the mind of the main character, everything leads to the surprising end.
Other reviewers have stressed the originality of the subject and the rythm of the story; I like to underline that in this book the reader will be delighted by narrative at its highest levels. Recommended to science fiction enthusiast as well as general fiction readers.

The movie version of "A Scanner Darkly" was one of the most original films I saw last year. I loved it; the animation was innovative and fascinating, while the movie itself was hypnotic. Philip K. Dick has been responsible for writing the novel versions of several recent great films (including "Minority Report") and I was curious to read some of his work. After reading "A Scanner Darkly" I discovered why Richard Linklater made the film version the way he did. The subject matter of the film, its atmosphere could be caught in a live-action film; but I doubt it would have been as good. The book is great! Whether it's better than the movie or not, I really can't say...I barely paid attention to the plot of the movie, it was the animation that kept my eyes glued to the screen. The book is very close to the movie; Fred is an undercover narcotic agent trying to bust Bob Arctor, a man who's believed to be a big-time drug dealer of Substance D (as in death), a drug that causes split personalities in people. Scanners (hidden cameras) have been installed in Arctor's house so the police can have 24-hour surveillance; There's only one problem; Fred is Bob Arctor. He's doing surveillance on himself. His fellow workers don't know this because employees where a scramble suit (a suit which scrambles their facial features and vocal patterns, the movie couldn't have done a better job with it). Bob's life is relatively simple; He hangs out at his house all day dropping D with his two drug-addicted roommates James Barris (the most memorable character in both film and novel) and Ernie Luckman and hangs out with his drug-dealing girlfriend Donna. The only real BIG differences between novel and film are that in the movie, a character named Charles Freck (who plays a small but memorable role in the book) takes the place of a character named Jerry Fabin. And the ending of the book is more drawn out than it is in the film. Hopefully, I've made it clear that this is not a novel of science fiction but rather a novel about drugs. Science fiction does play a small role, but it doesn't deserve top billing. But drugs aren't 100% of it either. The book also captures the paranoia people felt after the Watergate scandal and it does all of it so well. This is a terrific book and is worthy of a read. I guarantee that if you see the movie you'll realize how good the translation to screen was.

GRADE: A-

I feel there are certain books that are necessary for us to read (and I'm sure as I go on reading, I'll find others), and I've just added another to the list--Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly (I like this book so much that I actually consider it tied with Fitzgerald's Gatsby, Twain's Huck Finn, and Kerouac's On the Road as my favorite book). It's a twisted, surreal tale of paranoia and deception. That's the world of illegal drugs, and having done some of the same drugs, I recognize that world that Arctor inhabits (and that Dick once did). It's a touching story that, like Burrough's Junky, makes no judgements.

"A Scanner Darkly" is, at its heart, primarily a story about drug use and abuse, told by watching Bob Arctor/"Fred" the undercover narc as he descends further into the murky realm of use and abuse, falling more into the double role until even he doesn't know who he is. With many blackly comic scenes of mind-tripping conversations, the earlier parts of the story mostly focus on Arctor's interactions with his friends and roommates Barris, Luckman and Freck; as the story progresses, more of the story is told from the outside looking in as Fred watches the holoscans.

Fred is undercover trying to track the source of Substance D, a highly addictive and deadly drug, which invariably burns out its users. When first Arctor's cephscope and then his car are sabotaged, he begins to think someone is onto him. Of course, Arctor himself inevitably burns out and is placed into a substance abuse clinic. Who is friend, who is foe and who is creating Substance D? These questions are answered as almost an afterthought, with the bulk of the story focused on Arctor/Fred's breakdown.

An interesting piece of fiction, if a bit difficult to get through due to the often jarring switches in perspective and topic. Fans of Philip Dick will not be disappointed.