For his many devoted readers, Philip K. Dick is not only one of the "one of the most valiant psychological explorers of the 20th century" ("The New York Times") but a source of divine revelation. In the riveting style that won accolades for "The Adversary," Emmanuel Carrere follows Dick's strange odyssey from his traumatic beginnings in 1928, when his twin sister died in infancy, to his lonely end in 1982, beset by mystical visions of swirling pink light, three-eyed invaders, and messages from the Roman Empire. Drawing on interviews as well as unpublished sources, he vividly conjures the spirit of this restless observer of American postwar malaise who subverted the materials of science fiction--parallel universes, intricate time loops, collective delusions--to create classic works of contemporary anxiety.

Reviews

French screenwriter and novelist Emmanuel Carrere (The Adversary) relies heavily on analysis of the novels of SF giant Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) in his painful and unconventional biography, I Am Alive and You Are Dead: A Journey into the Mind of Philip K. Dick, translated by Timothy Bent. Carrere portrays Dick as a Cold War Don Quixote, flailing at the totalitarianism he suspected was taking over 1950s-1960s America. Aimed at hardcore Dick fans, it's a powerful treatment of a difficult subject. Agent, Fran?ois Samuelson Intertalent. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

"Strange, fascinating man, and this a strange, fascinating book." --"The San Diego Union Tribune
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"Emmanuel Carrere's "I Am Alive and You Are Dead: A Journey into the Mind of Philip K. Dick" is remarkable--a depth charge, a CAT scan, and an exorcism. Carrere, whose own eerie novels include "The Adversary," proves that it's still possible for the French to write like Voltaire rather than Derrida. Informed, affectionate, sardonic, he is also crystal clear." --John Leonard, "Harper's
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"Consistently fascinating and brilliantly written . . . Carrere combines fact and fiction to form a new sort of genre, blending literary criticism and cultural history with a novelist's earnest speculation." --"Los Angeles Times Book Review"
"The story of a remarkable life marked by great burst of creativity and equally frequent bouts of mental turmoil . . . Carrere wisely eschews the 'and then he wrote' approach to literary biography . . . He neither overstates Dick's gifts nor belittl