This book has been on my to-read list since high school and I finally got around to reading it!
I was in the sci-fi fantasy club in my high school and hung out with geeks, so of course I knew all about this book. I saw the movie when it came out in 2005 and I think in sci-fi club we read a scripted version, so I was very familiar with this material before reading it.
Turns out it’s not as much fun when you already know half the jokes.
Don’t get me wrong. I still enjoyed reading this book, but so much of it relies on surprises and subverting expectations that it loses a lot when you already know what’s coming.
That said, there is a lot to be said for some jokes I get now that probably went over my head when I was a kid. There are a lot of jokes about government, power, and bureaucracy that I probably thought I understood as a teenager, but really didn’t, as evidenced by the fact that I don’t remember anything about that part of the story from my earlier introduction to it. The fact that the president of the galaxy holds what is presumably the most powerful position in the galaxy, but doesn’t really have any power, and that he’s really good at his job even though part of his brain is missing is spot on. Given the origins of the book, it’s probably based on the British government, but it could just as easily be applied to American government, especially after the four years we just had to endure.
Now that I’ve read the book, I’d really like to go back and see the movie because so much of this book is very visual. Yes, many of the jokes rely on dialogue, but the beginning of the book describes a very hungover Arthur Dent seeing the bulldozers outside his house without registering what they are.
One reason this book is so short is because Adams tells you exactly what you need to know and nothing else. Not only does that make the jokes better, it makes the book as a whole better and I was glad I could devour this in a few days and then move onto my next read.