Humpty Dumpty: An Oval

by Damon Knight

Book Overview

After Wellington Stout is shot in the head in Milan, he finds himself dealing with a world turned upside down, encountering an ancient conspiracy of dentists, an extraterrestrial shoe salesman, and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312863837
• Release Date: August 1997
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.8" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Deceptively simple/Convincingly Complex

This is some book but it you prefer reading books that stay on the surface of the story and don't ask the reader to fill in the blanks you might miss out on some of its more cryptic features.What is consciousness and what is reality? I've seen a lot of explanations before reading Humpty Dumpty by Damon Knight. This may be the best fictional examination of what it means to live inside the frail shells we've been given.If you want a simple book that doesn't ask you to work for or think about the words, you'd be better off with something action-adventure, which is not to denigrate action/adventure, just to say that different books will appeal to different readers, and judging from some of the reader comments, this book obviously won't work for everyone. If you want a complex literary work, and the last novel written by one of America's masters, give Humpty Dumpty a chance.

The Love Child Novel of James Joyce, Vonnegut, and PKD

In this technically brilliant piece of writing, Damon Knight tells the story of an ordinary man experiencing an extraordinary twist of fate. Wellington Stout is a lingerie salesman, a gentle man who thinks his job grants him an intimate understanding of women. It turns out that he's better suited to covering up that which mystifies him; he tries, but he's not up to understanding his topsy-turvy life. When he's shot in the head, his fractured skull serves as a metaphor for a widening fractured world. This literate, funny, surreal, and heartbreaking novel makes me want to re-read Joyce. The surface story is one small part of the novel, and as other readers have noted, the book might not reach everyone who reads it. Readers who enjoy the challenge of literary archaeologic dig will discover hidden truths and surprise through their careful examination of this deeply layered, multidimensional work.

A must have.....

This book is a must have for anyone who is into the "question reality" type books.It started off kind of slow and I didnt think i would like it,but by the end i looked back and realized how good of a book it actually was.The only thing i didnt enjoy was the main character going off for a page or two about womens breasts and other sexual organs,I didnt see the purpose and those pages could have been used to fill in other things instead of talking about breasts.But that is just in the beginning and every once in a while through the book.I could have thought of better things to put int he book and i caught myself making up little things that should have been included but werent.Over all its a very well written book and like i said a must have if you enjoyed the Matrix or any of Philip K Dicks books.

if you like Philip K Dick

It's been tough to find a book in the "mind" of Philip K Dick since his death, except for Michael Bishop's ".. Alas" it seemed the mind-game genre was done and then I found this. Mr. Knight's previous had never floored me (except his true hisotry book "The Futurians") but this is something else. I see lower scores here and figure that the type of story is just "quirky" or "cute" to many readers but if you're really into reality-questioning fiction then this is one not to miss.If you like it, do try the later PKD novels (starting with Maze Of Death) and, this may sound odd but it's true, go back and re-read Socrates for fun.

I LOVED "why I don't want to be a woman" paraaagrah

I don't remember much about the book except that one paragraph detailing "why I don't want to be a woman." I have had to check out the book from the libaray again just to read that one paragraph. I remember enjoying the book, but that one paragraph. When DID I sign up for the beauty contest, anyway? I don't remember.