The Broken Bubble
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"The Broken Bubble" is an early non-Science Fiction novel by noted Science Fiction Author Philip K. Dick. It was written somewhere around 1956 under the longer title, "The Broken Bubble of Thisbe Holt," and was rejected for publication in the 1950s, as, indeed, were all of Phil's "Straight" (Non-SF) novels at the time. It was published posthumously with a somewhat shortened title in 1988.
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[edit] Plot
The lives of two couples intertwine in mid-50s California, and all learn important lessons about life. Jim Briskin is a classical music DJ. He and his ex-wife Pat Briskin are still very much in love, but have divorced because he is sterile. The two divorcees meet a teenaged married couple named Art and Rachel, and essentially swap partners. Pat passionately loves Art, almost as though he were her child, and the two of them have an abusive relationship in which he beats her on at least one occasion. Meanwhile, Jim and Rachel hook up and Rachel offers to ditch Art and move to Mexico with Jim, where Jim will adopt her baby and raise it as his own. In the end, life continues to not work out the way all the players wish it would, and they all end up swapping back to their original partners.
[edit] Details
The Titular Miss Holt is actually a fairly minor character in the book. She is a large-breasted stripper who performs at Optometrists conventions. Her act consists of getting naked and climbing into a large clear plastic ball (The "Broken Bubble" of the title, it's something like a hamster ball) which the optometrists then roll around the meeting hall.
[edit] Spoilers
Eventually, the ball gets broken when it's repeatedly kicked by an optometrist.
[edit] Trivia
- As with many of the principle characters in Phil's unpublished non-SF novels, Jim Briskin shows up again in several later novels and stories, such as "The Crack In Space". For the most part, these are not actual sequels, but rather are an example of Phil re-using a carefully-crafted character from a book that was unlikely ever to be published. This is more of a "same character, different lives" kind of thing than a true sequel, although Briskin (now inexplicably black) turns up as a central character - now a news anchor - in two related short stories. These stories are not related to either "Thisbe Holt" or "Crack" however.
