Rating: 
Summary: Only Apparently Real
Review: This is Lawrence Sutin's best book (well, of the three that I've read). It's also the best book on Dick I've found, and it's about as engrossing as some of Dick's better novels. There's a lot of stuff in here, but I wolfed it down pretty quickly.The various troubled relationships, paranoid experiences (and attitudes), drug experimentation, and transcendental experiences are discussed here in some detail. We get lots of stories from Dick's ex-wives and such discussing his writing habits and nervous behavior. I found particularly helpful the bibliography (with plot summaries) at the end of the book. It's depressing how much of Dick's work is still out of print. A great book on a great American writer. Anyone who wants to go further might look at IN SEARCH OF VALIS, also by Sutin.
Rating:
Summary: Intense
Review: Why, indeed, is Philip K. Dick not more appreciated in this country? Sutin shows us why he indeed should be better studied in American, perhaps, in my mind, on the level of Aldous Huxley or above. His books deal with startling questions about reality and human perception. If you don't go for that, you can at least be impressed by the paranoia, wackiness, and record-breaking output of this man. On the latter, consider: He wrote twelve, TWELVE, full length novels between 1964 and 1965, including some of his BEST. 140 words a minute, 8 to 9 hours of work a day; he once wrote 200 pages in a 48-hour period. Sure, it was all fueled by speed, but what inspiration! As a writer, I swallowed this book. What a guy!
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