Rating: 
Summary: Lesser Adams work -title more describes his career
Review: The title "The Long Dark Teatime Of The Soul" comes from a line used to describe the bored and immortal Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged from his novel Life, The Universe, And Everything, who had entered "the long dark teatime of the soul." However, it may also be an accurate reflection of what Adams had entered re his writing career.Kate Schechter is on her way to Oslo, but that never happens. First, she runs into a tall, angry Norwegian-looking person whom she helps out at the check-in counter at Heathrow Airport. Second, said check-in counter explodes, sending her to the hospital. The papers label the incident an act of God, resulting in several injuries and the disappearance of the apathetic check-in counter clerk who angered the Nord. She recovers, but something leads her to Woodhouse, a hospital for very unusual patients, including a one-eyed old man whose name is Mr. Odwin, has a tiny demonic-looking assistant named Toe Rag, and a certain temperamental son with a hammer named Mjolnir. So where does Dirk Gently come in this? In his usual "fundamental interconnectedness in all things" way, of course. He wakes up hours after he was supposed to meet his client, who's terrified of a green-eyed giant with a scythe. He arrives at the client's house, only to find the police there, his client's head rotating in the middle of a 33 and 1/3 single "Hot Potato" record that keeps skipping. He goes through a series of misfortunes and incidents, including breaking his nose and being attacked by an eagle. The premise, and it may require a few re-readings to fully get what's going on, is interesting enough, but not as the ones he explored in his Hitchhiker novels and the previous Dirk Gently novel. They seem to be a series of disconnected ideas that don't click together. Dirk Gently's quirky, eccentric character works as long there's a more straight-laced foil to respond to his ramblings. Here, there is no Richard MacDuff to help out. Consider those who respond to him. Sally Mills, the nurse whose coffee he steals, isn't too put out by his personality. Kate Schechter, on the other hand, gives him a flea in his ear after he tail-ends her car, but she's more independent-minded than MacDuff, and there's only one segment in the book where she interracts with him. Some ideas that could be funny or further elaborated include an I Ching calculator, which can add up to 4, but any answer above it equals "a suffusion of yellow." One that works is his theory of finding his way after being lost in traffic, and that's to follow a car that seems to know where it's going, the premise being that somehow, he'll end up where he needs to be. As for his writing, Adams' description of Gently's fridge, which hasn't been opened for three months, is something: "the fridge no longer merely stood there in the corner of the kitchen, it actually lurked." And the fridge war between he and his housekeeper is a beaut in writing. There are actually some good writing moments, but other than that... People interested in Adams should, as the chorus to "Hot Potato" goes, "don't pick it up, pick it up, pick it up" and maybe only after they've read Dirk Gently. Getting into it does require a high degree of patience, so only for the most diehard fans. Overall a bit disappointing, like his other work Mostly Harmless.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazingly captivating read.
Review: This was the first book I read by Douglas Adams, after hearing about his famous Hitchhiker's Guide and only being able to find this one at my local library. The story onfolds as Heathrow Airport explodes just adding to our protagonist Kate Schechter's ridiculously bad luck. She then goes on a search trying to find the tall burly Norwegian man she just met before the explosion. Meanwhile, Dirk Gently; our private investigator begins to investigate the case of the exploding airport. The story keeps unfolding until we are immersed by the Norse Gods whose power and notoriety has diminished in the modern world. This book kept me interested through out the whole story. It also got me hooked on Adams's other novels.
Rating: 
Summary: The Gods are alive and kicking
Review: Why would the Norse God Thor be hanging around Terminal Two of Heathrow Airport trying to catch the 15.37 to Oslo? That is exactly the question Dirk Gently, a special kind of detective who uses his spiritual insight for his investigations, needs to get answered as fast as possible. Somehow the exploding Heathrow Airport ticket counter seems to be connected to Dirk's latest -and late- client, found only this morning with his head quite independently revolving atop the hit record "Hot Potato". It is time to get his holistic view on the world in practice, because the hostile attentions of a stray eagle and the murderous dirty refrigerator make the life of our intergalactic sleuth less attractive than he is used to. When reviewing any book written by Douglas Adams, you are immediately forced -by some unseen intergalactic force- to compare it to the Hitchhiker's Guide series. No need in trying to resist this urge, so here it goes: The Gently books are probably not as hilarious as the Hitchhikers Guide series, yet they are still very funny. Voila! Now that that has been cleared, it is time to formulate some useful comments. Be warned! When you decide to read The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul know that you will have to immediately reread it once you turn the last page. The storyline is so complex and mind bogglingly absurd that you will conclude more than once that Douglas must have been completely stoned while writing this novel. But don't panic! In the end everything comes together in an apotheosis of pure grandeur. The denouement is so perplexing that you can only continue by rereading the complete novel.
The jokes and gags are not the strongest point of the book, but the absurd situations and the entertaining storyline compensates this easily.
Since The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul is the sequel to Dirk Gently and the Holistic Detective Agency, I guess it is recommendable to start with the first novel, although I did not do this and still had some great fun.
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