Divine Invasions

Dick, who died in 1982, was one of the most inventive American science fiction writers. His grail-like quest for reality through a chaotic life marked by drug abuse, failed marriages, phobias and suicide attempts yielded dozens of novels and stories exploring such themes as karma, the universe as a unified information system, and the Gnostic concept of evil. In this remarkably candid biography, Sutin cuts back and forth between the messy life and the prolific art, unraveling the inter-connections. In 1974 Dick had a prolonged series of visions; pink rectangles on the walls fired information into his brain; he purportedly began communicating with a superintelligent entity which he named Valis. First book author Sutin doesn't shy away from the weird, darker facets of Dick's personality. A closing chapter summarizes 59 Dick books and rates each on a 1-to-10 scale. Photos. (Dec.)