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==External links== |
==External links== |
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*[http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2009/02/16/slog_commenter_book_report_12 Review and analysis] |
*[http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2009/02/16/slog_commenter_book_report_12 Review and analysis] |
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*[http://www.philipkdickfans.com/pkdweb/teeth.htm History and Notes] |
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{{Philip K. Dick}} |
{{Philip K. Dick}} |
Revision as of 05:53, 28 January 2012
Author | Philip K. Dick |
---|---|
Cover artist | Dell Harris |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre | Novel |
Publisher | Mark V. Ziesing |
Publication date | 1984 |
Media type | Print (Hardback) |
Pages | 223 pp |
ISBN | ISBN 0-9612970-0-X Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
OCLC | 11304017 |
813/.54 20 | |
LC Class | PS3554.I3 M27 1984 |
The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike is a realist, non-science fiction novel authored by Philip K. Dick. Originally completed in 1960, this book was initially rejected by potential publishers, and posthumously published by a small press in 1984, two years after Dick's death.
Plot summary
Sometime between 1958 and 1962, Leo Runcible, a Liberal Jew, is working in the real estate field. On learning that Walt Dombrosio, Leo's neighbor, has had a Black visitor to his house in a "lily-white" suburb of Marin County, California, potential purchasers interrogate Runcible about the matter and ultimately incur his wrath over their narrow-minded bigotry. He thereby fails to close the deal and forfeits their friendship and a precious commission as well.
But according to Leo's tortured logic it is Walt who's at fault for this unforeseen little debacle. So in retaliation Runcible opportunistically reports Dombrosio's later episode of drunk driving, leading to the loss of the latter's motor vehicle operator's license for a period of six months.
Walt's wife Sherry then drives him to and from work every day, eventually landing a job working alongside her husband. Walt, however, being as he is an insecure, misogynistic, manipulating headcase, quits his own position over this incident and continues to fume over it as the weeks and months roll by. He eventually humiliates and manhandles his wife in front of their neighbors as a prelude to forcefully impregnating her with an unwanted child which she unsuccessfully threatens to abort.
At the same time, Runcible has found what he believes to be Neanderthal remains in Carquinez, Marin County, and envisages rising property prices due to incipient archaeological interest and the avalanche of media coverage that naturally follows. As it turns out, however, Dombrosio is the culprit who modified and planted the modern human remains there to begin with. They are a legacy of the local 'chuppers' who developed facial, cranial and spinal deformations as a supposed result of the pollution of the local water supply.
The novel ends with Walt Dombrosio, by far the most despicable character of the novel, essentially coming out on top. He discusses his flirtation with bankruptcy, via his purchase of the local substandard water company, with the local grammar school teacher, and he makes himself out as quite the unflinching hero in the process. There is also an extended scene, dovetailing almost imperceptibly into this conversation, in which Dombrosio visualizes his little family several years later after Sherry has presumably given birth to a malformed baby boy due to the possible teratogenic properties of the local water supply.
References
- Brown, Charles N. "The Locus Index to Science Fiction (1984-1998)". Retrieved 2008-01-14.
{{cite web}}
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- Chalker, Jack L. (1998). The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923-1998. Westminster, MD and Baltimore: Mirage Press, Ltd. pp. 751–752.
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