Mary And The Giant

“Fifty or a hundred years from now, Dick may very well be recognized in retrospect as the greatest American novelist of the second half of the twentieth century . . . once time erodes the significance of sales figures and cultural fads, hype and, fleeting fame, ghetto categorizations and literary politics, his work will stand alone on its own terms: unique, vast, and almost too deep to comprehend in the fullness of its vision”

—Norman Spinrad

“On finishing the book, you might think, ‘Damn, Philip K. Dick was a pretty good mainstream writer, too.’ And then it creeps up on you, remembering all the things he did so well in the book, and you realize it’s more than ‘pretty good.’ It’s deceptively quiet-oh, there’s sex and violence, but not in the usual dosage, nor is it presented luridly (even for the 1950’s, when Mary’s relationship with a black man would have been controversial, to say the least). Only after you’ve finished it do you realize that Dick’s slice-of-life is more clear sighted, thoughtful, and sensitive than most so-called classics”

—Pat Cadigan

“Boy, that guy was good! It’s a fine strong portrait of a waking soul in a sleeping culture, and how (if you care to read it that way) the only satisfactory solution offered in that sleeping culture is for her to quench herself in its rituals. The fact that Mary is not a genius, nor an artist, and that she comes from a small town of no distinction, makes the story wonderfully refreshing and only strengthens the impact.”

—Suzy McKee Charnas