The Broken Bubble
by Philip K. Dick
Publication Note
The Broken Bubble was written somewhere around 1956 under the longer title The Broken Bubble of Thisbe Holt, and was rejected for publication in the 1950−s, as were all of Dick’s ‘straight’ (non-SF) novels at the time. It was published posthumously with a shortened title in 1988.
Currently out of print in the United States.
(inner flap of the book)
“The Broken Bubble will provide further evidence that Philip K. Dick is one of our genuine greats, the kind of writer who comes along once every three or four generations (if that often), someone who can write about a specific period of time and give us insights and truths that remain valid in all times.”
“Fifty or a hundred years from now, Dick may very well be recognized in retrospect as the greatest American novelist of the second halt of the twentieth century . . ..”
Philip K. Dick, the world-famous science fiction writer who died in 1982, was unable to obtain publication for the body of his fiction outside the genre. Since his death, however, a number of small presses have printed and sold out various of his unpublished works. Then Arbor House released his novel Mary and the Giant in 1987, and garnered such comments as “Philip K. Dick’s magic time machine ride into the 1950−s is just as amazing as his science fiction excursions into the future” (Ed Bryant); and “As enigmatic as a Beckett play, and at the same time as rooted in real life as a Steinbeck novel, Mary and the Giant is a weirdly compelling story” (Tim Powers); and “Boy, that guy was good!” (Suzy McKee Charnas).
Now Arbor House is proud to present The Broken Bubble, new and complete, for the first time anywhere, by arrangement with the estate of Philip K. Dick. Excitement has been building as the unpublished works of this intriguing writer have continued to appear, with increasingly widespread review attention and a steadily growing cult audience. And this is just the book to satisfy his fans and hook new readers.
The Broken Bubble is a novel of San Francisco in the 1950−s, about the unusual events that mix up and entwine the lives of four people at a turning point in American culture: the rise of rock-and-roll and the teenage life-style. Jim Briskin is a disc jockey on radio KOIF. He’s sill in love with his ex-wife Pat even though she’s about to marry someone else at the station-and she’s vaduating between them. But when he takes her to visit the desperate household of two of his teenage fans, she seduces the boy into abandoning his pregnant wife—who then claims Jim as her protector and support. And all around them the cultural upheaval of postwar American society is manifest, by teenage outcasts who have a remote-controlled Nazi automobile they use to bump into the rich kids’ cars; by Thisbe Holt, the dancer who performs for conventioneers by stuffing herself inside a clear plastic bubble; by blaring used-car ads and the conflict between generations. The solution to this human muddle is a literary triumph equaling in power Dick’s finest novels. Dick gives us a vision of redemption tempered with layered ironies and a lot of real humor. The Broken Bubble now takes its place beside the other major works of this fine writer.
Philip K. Dick was considered by many to be the greatest living author of science fiction. His work won many awards, including the Hugo Award for best novel.
(back cover of book jacket)
“The Broken Bubble is at once terrifying, hilarious, and compassionate. Patricia Gray’s breakdown reads like fingernails on a chalkboard, and the convention of wild optometrists is about as nervously funny a scene as has ever been written. As for the adventure if the remote-controlled Horch— I can’t begin to explain; no writer but Phil Dick could have written it. It’s a novel of evident (astonishing, wild) talent and originality by a writer who has both of these articles to spare.”
“His stories take place not in the depth, where monsters dwell, but on the surface, where they feed.”
And in that universe “As far as I can tell, The Broken Bubble fell across the invisible membrane that separates our universe from one that is similar but not identical to ours. In that other universe, Jack Kerouac is still alive. And in that universe there was never a TV series called WKRP in Cincinnati, but there was a similar program called KOIF in San Francisco. That letter show was based on a novel by Jack Kerouac, called The Broken Bubble. And Jack Kerouac was not Jack Kerouac at all, but a brilliant novelist named Philip K. Dick, who started his career as a science fiction writer but switched to mainstream in the early 1960’s and went on to become world famous and appallingly wealthy.
“If all of this seems the figment of a surrealist’s dream— well, that is entirely appropriate, isn’t it? Remember whom we’re talking about!
“Any fan of Phil Dick’s work will place The Broken Bubble on the highest Shelf!”
The Broken Bubble
1
Luke trades big. Summer is here and Luke is mighty ready to make a deal with you, mighty ready, at three big lots, all of them busting with cars—cars—cars. What’d you think your old car’s worth? Maybe it’s worth more than you think on a brand-new Plymouth or Chevrolet four-door sedan or a Ford custom deluxe Ranch Wagon. Luke is trading big these days, buying big and selling big. Luke thinks big. Luke is big!
Before Luke came, this wasn’t much of a town. Now it’s a really big car town. Now everybody drives a brand-new De-Soto with power windows, power seat. Come see Luke. Luke was born in Oklahoma before he moved out here to great old sunny California. Luke moved out here in 1946 after we beat the Japs. Listen to that sound truck that’s going up and down the streets. Listen to it go; it goes all the time. It pulls that big red signboard along, and all the time it’s playing the ‘Too Fat Polka’ and saying ‘Regardless of the make or condition of your old car . . .’ Hear that? It don’t matter what kind of old heap you got. Luke’ll give you two hundred dollars for it if you can drag walk tow push it into the lot.
Luke wears a straw hat. He wears a double-breasted gray suit and he wears crepe-soled shoes. In his coat pocket he carries three fountain pens and two ballpoint pens. Inside his coat is an official Blue-Book Luke takes it out and tells you what your heap is worth. Look at that hot California sun pouring over Luke. Look at his big face sweat. Look at him grin. When Luke grins, he slips twenty bucks into your pocket. Luke gives away money.
This is Automobile Row; this is the street of cars, Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco. Windows on all sides, all along and up and down, glass with words written in red-and-white poster paint; banners are pasted up high, and flags flutter, and over some lots are wads of colored aluminum strung on wire. And there are balloons and, in the evening, lights. At night the chains go up, the cars are locked, but lights come on, fine spotlights, fine big beams of color frying the bugs. And Luke has his clowns, his painted lady and gent clowns; they stand on top of the building and wave their arms. Luke has his microphones, and the salesmen call to people. Free quart of oil! Free dish! Free candy and cap gun for the kids. The steel guitar sings, and how Luke likes that. It sings like home.