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Time Out of Joint  By  cover art

Time Out of Joint

By: Philip K. Dick
Narrated by: Jeff Cummings
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Publisher's summary

Ragle Gumm has a unique job: Every day he wins a newspaper contest. And when he isn’t consulting his charts and tables, he enjoys his life in a small town, in 1959. At least, that’s what he thinks. But then strange things start happening. He finds a phone book where all the numbers have been disconnected, and a magazine article about a famous starlet named Marilyn Monroe, whom he’s never heard of. Plus, everyday objects are beginning to disappear and are replaced by strips of paper with words written on them, like "bowl of flowers" and "soft-drink stand". When Ragle skips town to try to find the cause of these bizarre occurrences, his discovery could make him question everything he has ever known.

©1987 Laura Coelho, Christopher Dick, and Isa Dick (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

What listeners say about Time Out of Joint

Average customer ratings
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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Mediocre Mother to Gravity's Rainbow and the Truman Show?

A book that could have inspired both Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow (anticipation of rockets) and the Truman Show (community set up around one man). While I give it points for anticipating a couple generations early the narcissism of the 21st century, the absurdity of American Exceptionalism, the shallow falseness of community on FB, etc., it was in the end just too damn slow. Most of the narrative was underwater. Not as kinetic or beautiful as his later stuff (read, it is sometimes boring). There was no rush. There were no prose daisies to pick as I picked through the pages. It was good just not great. It was PKD, just not great PKD

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20 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Well ahead of his time even in 1959

People who know PKD's works do not need a review.

To hear one of PKD's earlier novels has been a great experience. His stories travel better through time than most of Heinlein's novels. At times I was reminded of 'The Manchurian Candidate' ( Richard Condon, 1959) and of the more recent CIA experiments in mind control.
I was/am keen to again hear Heinlein's 'Moon is a Harsh Mistress' (that I do rank as one of my favouite stories) after listening to this.

Jeff Cummings' reading was good as were the ideas embedded in the story. The quest for the nature of reality and the nature of words in defining percieved reality is interesting at very least. ( Not a spoiler because that is not the story, just following through to his later works.)

For anyone new to PKD this is a mystery story set in a future written over 50 years ago, and not too hard to follow,

For me it was a great listen.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Nice and Easy until Something Gives!

Any additional comments?

The nice and easy fifties, families living their post war lives until one day something odd happens. Discover ever so slowly what is hidden and then hang on for the ride of a lifetime!
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, even though it starts out very slow, almost boring. It is so worth it, because it intensifies the suspense that builds up slowly until suddenly everything falls apart and the reader sits at the edge of the seat until the last page!

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

would PKD do well today?

masterful world building and fascinating storytelling by PKD as usual, thought provoking.
but one has to wonder if his works would have been very well received in today's day and age with some subtle views hinted within the book and the overtone of sexism consistent in all his writings.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Better than I Remember

This is better than I Remembered it being. It is very satisfying. I’ll be listening to this over and over again.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Dystopic future with pastoral past

Time Out of Joint by Philip K Dick is a dystopian future where Earth is at war with lunar colonists and the only individual who can inform defense is living in a 1959 version of the US where solving a daily newspaper puzzle provides the clues for the next planetary strikes. Gumm is surrounded by others most of which have been brainwashed into believing this fantasy. Gradually, he becomes aware of something not right and finally escapes to learn the truth.

Surprisingly, Dick utilizes very little sci-fi, other than the lunar colonization which is only mentioned. 1998 offers little in the way of advancement (other than lunar conquest) in terms of technology. The elaborate nature of the ruse seems overdone as is the ease of which lunar spies and sympathizers can infiltrate.

The narration is reasonable with good pacing that moves the tale along quickly.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Satisfying

Time Out of Joint is a great book. It's a reminiscent of the film Truman Show and the novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. PKD employs some of his usual tropes: constructed reality and government conspiracy, to build a gripping story about a man undergoing a Freudian regression. In this novel the 50's utopia, called "Old Town", is more quaint than creepy, but it's wrought with glitches and non sequiturs. The only reason I didn't give this book a 5 star rating is that it's a small scale read, with a limited world. That said, no questions are left unanswered and it's overall a very satisfying production:) Enjoy!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

The subterfuge 

It was a superb read! Once you finish you will want to start it again.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

wanted to love it..

I love the premise, but did not like the writing style. it was slow and boring.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Another great work by PKD

Great narration, and another great story by PKD. Always keeps you thinking ahead wondering where it’s going.

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