Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Hitchhiker's Guide Book 1

I've read this book before when I was in junior high, and while I remember most of it, I read it before I started this blog. So, here I am, rereading it.

Arthur Dent is a regular guy with an unremarkable life. He finds himself one morning, with bulldozers on his front lawn to knock his house down in order to construct a byway. As he's protesting this action by laying down in the mud in front of the truck, his friend Ford, shows up to take him to the pub. Ford tells Arthur that Earth is about to be destroyed and that he should drink as much alcohol as he can. They then hitchhike onto a Vogon destructor ship, and away their galactic adventure goes.

This book is utterly absurd. I hadn't really picked up on that when I was in junior high - I always thought it was funny, but the absurdity was lost on my developing brain. I still very much enjoyed this book, and laughed at the ridiculous side notes from Adams as the narrator and the Hitchhiker's Guide.

The characters in this book are ridiculously mismatched and all have their points in humor. Character growth in the novel is not really the point, and so the characters really don't have much of a development arc. Arthur Dent is pretty much the same person at the end that he is at the start.

The plot is all pretty fast-paced. There isn't much downtime, and something is pretty much always happening. This is a plot driven book, so that's to be expected. The absurdity of the plot and the sarcastic way it's all described make the book funny.

There's quite a bit of social, political, and religious commentary in the novel. It didn't bother me, and is all a bit tongue-in-cheek.

I rated this ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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