a review in four parts

book: the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy

author: douglas adams

completion date: 22/07/10

method: gift (jake)

forever jake has been asking me and asking me to read these books, and i'm glad i finally did. they're witty and clever and i really adored them. sometimes they got a weee bit confusing but it was like a clockwork orange- you just had to keep reading.

part 1: the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy

for the first book i kind of knew what was going to happen, because jake, alex and i watched the first couple episodes on dvd. what i didn't realize is that the british tv show used almost every line from the book. what was awesome about this is i could pretend that stephen fry was reading the book to me. which coincidentally made it feel like someone was licking my eardrum.

the first book was what i thought was going to be my favourite. i loved it. aurthur dent is the perfect fish out of water for this absurd world that the books introduce us to. without aurthur to relate to i would have been totally lost. what i really like are the little entries from the book within the book: the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. i feel that douglas adams really fleshed out the world before he wrote these books, which gave the novel incredible depth.

part 2: the restaurant at the end of the universe

first off let me preface with: i love this idea. that the universe is always expanding we can witness the end of it but then go back to right before the moment happened and make it entertaining. i'm a little confused about a couple of the details between the first three so forgive me if some things don't belong in one of the books or whatever.

all adams's aliens are so interesting and the history behind the language and the currency. it all seems to boil down to the world (or universe) is too big and too difficult to understand completely, but we do our best. which is really all anyone can ask us to do.

oh and i've forgotten about marvin. oooh marvin. parking cars for centuries and his only meaningful conversation was with a toaster millions of years ago. a robot that is too intelligent to be of any use. douglas adams, way to go.

part 3: life, the universe and everything

i almost disliked this book. i found it so confusing and nonsensical. the other books seemed to have some distant roots in reason, but this one just seemed confusing and unfocused. they talked about saving the universe but i never really understood that it was in danger, and the kricket aliens wanted to blow everything up (?) i think. oh no, they were robots because how they were thwarted was brilliant- marvin plugged himself into their computer and made the robots all too depressed to try and blow up anything anymore.

part 4: so long, and thanks for all the fish

this one was my favourite by far. i know that the first 2 are the best ones, but there were just so many moments in part 4 that i loved so much. i feel that his writing was clearer (or maybe its because i was reading it after universe) and i was able to fall back into enjoying being slightly confused without feeling lost. and its really hard to resist not trying to take the weight off both feet. especially the moment when aurthur and fenchurch make love in the air. these books have many hilarious moments, but very few absolutely beautiful ones, and this was just so beautiful. so simple but fabulously executed.

i liked that these 4 seemed cyclical. aurthur and fenchurch reunite with ford to continue hitchhiking and most likely will have to save the universe again.

i should note that i abandoned mostly harmless. i found that by the time i got there i needed to get my feet back on solid ground. i may read it later on, but it didn't really grab me like the others. i needed something real at the end of it all.

xo-ellebee