Humpty Dumpty in Oakland

By Philip K. Dick

Book Overview

Set in San Francisco in the late 1950s, Humpty Dumpty in Oakland is a tragicomedy of misunderstandings among used car dealers and real-estate salesmen: the small-time, struggling individuals for whom Philip K.Dick always reserved his greatest sympathy. Jim Fergesson is an elderly garage owner with a heart condition, who is about to retire; Al Miller is a somewhat feckless mechanic who sublets part of Jim's lot and finds his livelihood threatened by the decision to sell; Chris Harman is a record-company owner who for years has relied on Fergesson to maintain his cars. When Harman hears of Fergesson's impending retirement he tips him off to what he says is a cast-iron business proposition: a development in nearby Marin County withan opening for a garage. Al Miller is convinced that Harman is a crook, out to fleece Fergesson of his life's savings. As much as he resents Fergesson he can't bear to see it happen and - denying to himself all the time what he is doing - he sets out to thwart Harman.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0765316900
• ISBN13: 9780765316905
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 252 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

All the Car Dealer's Men

It's not exactly a major plot point, but what struck me most about this book was the way the African-American characters fit into it. Philip K. Dick wrote "Humpty Dumpty in Oakland" in 1960, just as the civil rights struggle was gearing up, so it's probably not an accident that race relations tell us a lot about the characters, if not the story itself. Not that the story is at all uninteresting; it's one of the relatively few tales where economic pressure moves events along, rather than political or social or military pressures. As the story opens, Jim Fergesson has just sold his garage for health reasons. The move worries Al Miller, who rents from Jim a vacant lot next to the garage for his used-car business and is likely to lose his spot because of the sale. At the same time, one of Jim's regular customers suggests that he use the sale proceeds to buy into a housing development across the San Francisco Bay. This customer looks like a crook to Al, who spends most of the rest of the novel trying by various means to keep Jim from spending his money. So far, it looks like Jim and his customer are the good guys, and Al nothing more than a spoiler with a bad case of sour grapes. This is where the racial issue comes in. Turns out that Al has a number of black friends - real ones, not the kind some people have just to prove they're not prejudiced. Jim, on the other hand, avoids "the colored" whenever he can, and his customer is an out-and-out racist who seriously believes there's some sort of black conspiracy to take over all the nice neighborhoods. Al is still a loser, his cars are worthless and his wife loses patience with him on a regular basis, but what impact does his racial attitude have on how he comes across in this novel? It's not an easy question, particularly because "Humpty Dumpty in Oakland" sometimes falls prey to that weakness we still see in a lot of work that deals with racial issues. The black people here bear an unfortunate resemblance to the kind of noble "primitives" you see in certain movies; they seem to have access to a kind of unsophisticated wisdom that the white folks lost a long time ago. Unlike most people in PKD's novels, including a lot of his black characters, these folks are not so much characters as types. It's been pointed out before that this is a kind of reverse prejudice, but in 1960 it might have been the best anyone could do, even a master of the imagination like PKD. So he could have done a better job with some of these characters; with others, I have no such complaints. PKD was good at putting characters into unusual situations and watching them react the way a real person might, whether he was writing science fiction or mainstream; what happens in a novel like this may not be very pleasant all the time, but as long as it rings true, it can be exciting or even inspiring to read. Suppose, for instance, that you're an old man with a heart condition, wanting to have a look at a development you're

has the deep feel of a well written character driven historical

In 1950s California bone tired as he still recovers from a heart attack garage owner Jim Fergesson plans to retire. Meanwhile one of his customers used car salesman cynical Al Miller learns that Jim is investing his retirement fund in a shaky real estate deal that in all probability will wipe the elderly man out. Miller decides to help his friend by getting Jim not to invest in a loser. He obtains a job with the party he believes is conning Jim. However even Miller who believes almost everyone is a low life shark out to get you is stunned with what he finds while working undercover. He has landed in the middle of a colossal fraud that targets the ailing elderly. As with the recently reprinted IN MILTON LUMKY TERRITORY, HUMPTY DUMPTY IN OAKLAND is a 1950s contemporary, but has the deep feel of a well written character driven historical that feels even more apropos today with the economy. The full vivid picture of those "Happy Days" is showcased as two Americas; a middle class enjoying the fruits of a growing economy while the other is a victim of prejudice unable to reach the lowest hanging fruit. Fans of Philip K. Dick will observe one of the author's prime themes of an overwhelmed individual battling against the avaricious status quo power brokers. Harriet Klausner

Early Dick rediscovered

When I first started reading Philip K. Dick in the early 1980s, he was just on the cusp of fame, the result of the movie Blade Runner as much as anything. Now, in fact, he is considered one of the greatest science fiction writers (and maybe writers in general) of his era. Unfortunately, Dick - who had lived a rather unhealthy lifestyle - would die just as his writing was being noticed outside the narrow confines of the science fiction community. This new-found fame would not only result in re-releases of his science fiction novels, but also the first-time publication of some of his early, mainstream fiction. This is both a service and disservice to Dick's fans. On the one hand, for someone like me who's read practically everything he's written, this is a chance to read something new. On the other hand, there's often a reason that this work is unpublished. Humpty Dumpty in Oakland, one of his posthumously released works, is not bad, but I'm not sure if it would have been published if not for who wrote it. The novel focuses on two men: Jim Fergesson is a successful auto mechanic who is selling his shop due to a heart condition (Jim is constantly described as old, though he is only in his late fifties; this must have seemed elderly to the young PKD who wrote this, and ironically, he would never reach the age of his protagonist). Al Miller is the young used car dealer who rents space from Jim and whose livelihood is threatened by the garage sale. One of Jim's customers, Chris Harman, is an entrepreneur who turns Jim onto a business opportunity, but the resentful Al suspects Chris is a con man and passes on his suspicions. The relationship between Jim and Al gets more and more strained which threatens Jim's fragile health. As is typical in Dick's stories, there are no true heroes or villains. The main characters are distinctly flawed individuals, always seeking a happiness that eludes them, often because they don't even know what will satisfy them. This is a decent enough novel, but I think it will most likely only appeal to those who want to complete their Dick collections. For others, this is not where to start with Dick's work to get a good feel for his writing; instead, it's better to go with one of his classic science fiction works.

Ambiguities abound

The last of Dick's early realist novels, written in 1960 but not published in 1986, this is an excellent book, full of ambiguities. We view its events mostly from the point of view of Al Miller, a used-car salesman who is discontented with his life. When Jim Fergusson, an older man who is like a father figure to him, sells the property Al's lot is on, Al becomes unhinged. He becomes convinced that Fergusson's friend Harman is a big-time crook and tries to warn Fergusson and his wife Lydia to avoid a real estate deal with the man. We are so involved with Al's perspective that it is not clear until the end of the novel that the only con being perpetrated is Al's own deception of himself. We may see through his stupidities and misperceptions, but we are not inclined to judge him harshly. For Dick has not let us be complacent about what reality really is: there is no absolute certainty about how to interpret the novel's events.