Puttering About in a Small Land (1985)
Written in 195, Puttering About in a Small Land is set in the mountains of Southern California. It is a realistic novel filled with details of everyday life and skillfully told from three points of view. It is powerful, eloquent, and gripping.
New: Foreign editions of Philip K. Dick books.
American Editions
- Academy Chicago 1985, 291 p, $16.95, hard cover
- Academy Chicago 1992, 291 p, $11.95, trade paperback
- Tor Books 2009, 320 p, 26.99, hard cover
- Tor Books 2011, 320 p, 15.99, trade paperback
British Editions
- Paladin 1987, 286 p, £3.95, trade paperback
Cover Gallery
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| Academy Chicago, 1985 | Paladin, 1987 | Academy Chicago, 1992 | Tor Books, 2009 | Tor Books, 2011 |
Foreign Editions
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| MON ROYAUME POUR UN MOUCHOIR | BRICOLER DANS UN MOUCHOIR DE POCHE | UNTERWEGS IN EINEM KLEINEN LAND | IN QUESTO PICCOLO MONDO | |
| france | france | germany | greece | italy |
| 1993 | 2012 | 2009 | 1991 | 2003 |
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| IN QUESTO PICCOLO MONDO | IR TIRANDO | |
| italy | japan | spain |
| 2007 | 1986 | 1988 |
Back Covers of Books
From the Back cover of the Academy Chicago 1992 edition
When Roger and Virgimu Undahl enroll their son Gregg in Mrs. Alt's Los Padres Valley School in the mountains of Southern California, their marriage is already in deep trouble. Roger is a slight, insecure, tense man; Virginia is tall, slim, intelligent and somewhat overbearing, but not as difficult as her mother, Marion Watson, whose presence is a constant irritant to Roger. The Lindahls meet Chic and Liz Bonner whose two sons also board at Mrs. Alt's school. Chic is an ambitious, conventional businessman and Liz is pretty, plump, careless and loving. This meeting is a catalyst for a complicated series of emotions and traumas, set against the backdrop of suburban Los Angeles in the early fifties.
This is a realistic novel rich in insight, filled with details of everyday life, and skillfully told from three points of view. It is powerful, eloquent and gripping.
Now in paperback for the first time, Puttering About in a Small Land proves conclusively that Philip K. Dick did not have to leave Earth to hold the reader's attention.
Philip K. Dick was a prolific writer known primarily to readers of science fiction. His work has been translated into at least 19 languages with editions in 26 countries. Puttering About in a Small Land is one of a handful of mainstream, non-science fiction novels written by Dick in the late fifties to late sixties; it had been with Dick's papers in the Special Collections of California State University at Fullerton.