SOJALS rating:

Very good (4/5)

I first read this in 1971 and most recently on the 15th October 2012

It is 1950's and Ragle Gumm lives in a small town in America. He has a quiet live but an unusual source of income. He earns his living by winning the daily puzzle in his local newspaper. He wins every day, without fail. But the pressure is is beginning to wear him down.

I haven't read this amazing novel for so long. I could remember little about it except the distinctive Panther cover. The way the novel starts with the suburban domestic scene, perceptively described but slowly with that undercurrent of strangeness. Vic searching for the light cord in the bathroom when there's never been a light cord, only a switch. Junie Black running up the three steps to her porch but there's only ever been two.

Finally, of course, we don't just teeter on the edge of reality but veer off into the unknown with strange transformation of the soft-drink stand.

Absolutely fantastic!

If you want an analysis of the realities embedded in the novel, check out Four Levels of Reality in Philip K. Dick’s Time Out of Joint by Yves Potin.

Let me quote from the book. This always moves me.

"it answered, for him, a need he'd never been aware of. A deep restless yearning
under the surface, always there in him, throughout his life, but not articulated.
The need to travel on. To migrate."