sprite writes
broodings from the burrow

January 31, 2010


into the stacks: 2010.4
posted by soe 1:40 am

NaJuReMoNoMoLife, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams

From the jacket: “Pow! Freeeeoooooo! Pop pop pop! Previous best score … Seven million five hundred and ninety-five thousand, two hundred and … Now join the end-of-the-world party, bring your pink towel and your jogging shoes and find out if potatoes are the answer. Life, the Universe and Everything. Join Arthur Dent, earthling, ‘jerk,’ kneebiter and time-traveler; sexy space cadet Trillian; mad alien Ford Prefect; unflappable Slartibartfast; two-headed, three-armed, ex-head Honcho of the Universe Zaphod Beeblebrox … you’ll learn to fly. Is it the end? Or just the beginning, again. (Over five million copies of the Hitchhiker’s Trilogy books now in the hands of earthlings.)”

My take: I find reading Douglas Adams to be an exercise in contradictions. Really, nothing happens, but Arthur Dent and company save the world. The characters can seem one-dimensional, yet endlessly deep. There is nothing difficult to grasp in the novel, but it tackles all the major issues — y’know … life, the universe, and, well, everything.

In this third book of Douglas’ original trilogy, Arthur Dent is reunited with his old pal Ford Prefect, an alien who saved him, if not his world, when the Earth was slated for demolition. They’re sucked back in time and back to Earth just in time for the conclusion of the Ashes. But not for long, because they’re about to head back into outer space in order to save the universe. Between those two events, they’ll find out that cricket is actually a recreation of a violent interplanetary war, learn how being killed repeatedly by the same man can make you very bitter, and discover that the secret to flying is merely to throw yourself at the ground and miss. Oh, and that quantum physics is much like a restaurant — the math doesn’t add up the same way it does elsewhere in the universe.

A fitting conclusion to the original trilogy of books.


Oh, and it’s worth noting that picking this book up was a pre-destined choice. As I’ve mentioned before, I was having some trouble getting into Jasper Fforde’s Shades of Grey, so went seeking something else to break it up a bit. Jane, a character in the Fforde novel, attracts a lot of undesired romantic attention because of her retroussé nose. Imagine my surprise earlier this evening, when I discovered a retroussé nose in this novel, too! Coincidence? I think not…

Pages: 227

Category: books. There is/are 1 Comment.



Interesting. Over here in my universe of books, Miss Marple recently solved a mystery in which the murder victim had a retrousse nose.

Comment by Karen 01.31.10 @ 8:34 am