I have no idea how to even begin summarizing Valis. I suppose the simplest way would be to say that it’s about a character called Horselover Fat who throughout the novel attempts to come to terms with the suicide of a friend and an event where he believed he experienced God.

But don’t be fooled. This is in no way a simple novel. Not even close. In fact I found it so densely packed with theories of all kinds—religious, psychological, metaphysical, true, false and the characters’ theories on all these things and what is happening—that I found the first half in particular a real struggle to get through. Adding to this was the fact that I didn’t find it very entertaining. It has little in the way of conventional plot, being a book more about ideas.

In that respect, I could see a bit of a parallel with Virginia Woolf, which is what kept me going. I’m torn between whether the confusion was deliberately induced in the reader to mimic the state of madness Horselover Fat experiences or whether it is simply written badly. I lean towards the former, given how highly Dick is generally regarded.

Also, the ambiguous relationship between the narrator (who happens to be Dick himself) and the protagonist of Horselover Fat shows great skill from Dick in leaving the reader off-balance (or perhaps it should be unbalanced). On the whole, you’re never quite sure where you stand. The biography at the end adds to this by suggesting that there is some autobiographical basis in some form for the plot.

If you’re interested in madness and insanity, particularly in relation to religion and time, this is definitely a must-read book. Just don’t necessarily expect it to make sense.