With the recent events of last week and the beginning of a real-life dystopian novel in the works, I decided to keep it light this week with reviewing the novel Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. The whole book is one funny, ironic event after another, but the thing that really makes the book are the characters since they are so diverse and differing from usual novels. I don't expect anything different from Adams.
The book begins with a man named Arthur Dent trying to stop city workers from bulldozing his house in order to make a bypass highway in its place. He is lying in front of the bulldozers when his friend, Ford Prefect, finds him and brings him for drinks. Ford reveals to Arthur that he is, in fact, an alien from the planet Betelgeuse (get it? Beetlejuice?) and continues to insist that Arthur get a towel, given the immense value of having one and the impending apocalypse. Confused, Arthur, doesn't believe or understand what Ford is saying until they are brought onto a Vogon, another type of alien, with horrible poetry skills, ship. Ironically, the Vogons destroy Earth to create a space bypass. They are captured by the Vogons and are thrown back into space after being tortured through a reading of the horrible poetry. They are picked up by a ship inhabited by President of the Galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox; human woman, Trillian, originally named Tricia, and a very depressed robot named Marvin. They are aboard a ship named the Heart of Gold, which is powered by improbability and was stolen by Zaphod Beeblebrox. The group search for and find the legendary planet, Magrathea, where they plan to find the answer to the universe. The group is separated on the planet and while the others are kidnapped by extremely intelligent creatures, mice, Arthur is found by a man named Slartibartfast, who reminds me slightly of a scatterbrained combination of Dumbledore and Gandalf. Slartibartfast tells Arthur that the mice created a supercomputer to find the answer of the universe, which happens to be 42. They wanted to know the actual question to go with the answer, but, before they could be told, Earth was destroyed. With Arthur as the last product of the supercomputer and the question is then imbedded in his mind, the mice try to take out his brain. The police come to arrest Zaphod for his crime of stealing the ship and they are able to escape. After the mother ship for the police commits suicide when Marvin tells his view of the universe and they go to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe for lunch.
The whole concept of this book is so fascinating and unique. The irony that the book starts with Arthur Dent's house being bulldozed for a bypass and then Earth being destroyed for a space bypass which sets the mood for the entire book. The absolute ridiculousness of some of the ideas central to the characters, like the importance of the towel, and the answer of the universe being 42. This creates a comic relief that draws in the reader from the very beginning. The first time I read Hitchhiker's, I laughed so much the entire time that my stomach hurt for hours afterwards. I still laugh whenever I read this and after learning that the super intelligent aliens turned out to be mice both surprised and amused me. I mean, mice! They were there the whole time as Trillian’s pets as inconspicuous as anything, but they were behind everything from the beginning. The ludicrous characters, such as Marvin and Zaphod who actually helped to save the day. The entire book is refreshing and gives a laugh to those who need it. I definitely recommend this if you need to get away from the sobering week we had and need a little brightness in your day.
