TIME OUT OF JOINT
Back covers
RAGLE GUMM was his name. He lived at his brother-in-Iaw's house and people thought the way he earned his living was peculiar. You see he had a mathematical genius which he used to solve complicated puzzles appeadng in each day's newspaper. Then, almost imperceptibly, one day his equations took over and started changing the natural order of things, until he, and everybody around him, was caught in a spinning, incredible vortex of fear, hate, greed and lust in a world where time was out of joint.
1977 Belmont edition
TOMORROW TODAY
Ragle Gumm, mathematical genius, earned his living In a queer way, solving complicated puzzles in the daily newspaper. But soon, imperceptibly, his vast network of equations began to go out of control. . . Everythlng was out of its natural order. . . and the world, and time were out of Joint!
1979 Dell edition
THE BUM
Ragle Gumm had it easy, living with relatives and making enough to get by on just by doing newspaper puzzles-and winning all the time. He h;ld to admit. he was essentially a bum...but a happy one. But then...a refreshment stand disappeared in front of his eyes and a slip of paper inscribed SOFT DRINK STAND fluttered down...messages about him came in on his nephew's crystal set...and a tattered old magazine he found featured things he knew had never existed-such is a supposedly famous actress named Marilyn Monroe.... Ragle Gumm knew that either he was going mad... or the universe was.
Bluejay edition
TIME OUT OF JOINT
One of Philip K. Dick's most subtle and intriguing novels, Time Out of Joint explores the boundaries of rationality and reality. In a fine perceptual trick, Dick dares to ask, "What is a sane response to an insane world?" This edition features a new Afterword by Lou Stathis.
1976 Penguin edition
Ragle Gumm was the biggest winner in town. Every day he sent in his entry to the competition in the Gazette. Every day he won. He was something of a celebrity. A bit of a bum as well- he didn't have a job and he was fooling about with his neighbour's wife. Then things started going wrong. A soft drink stand dematerialized in front of him. It was 1959, but he'd never heard of Marilyn Monroe. His nephew discovered radio waves and the messages were about Ragle.
Ragle started thinking he was the centre of the universe. All the evidence seemed to back him.
The trouble was - which universe?
1984 Penguin edition
Ragel Gumm described himself as a bum.
He spent all day doing puzzles in the newspaper . and fooling about with his neighbour's wife. He was also aware of another world and another time that seemed to be conspiring against him. But it wasn't a simple case of being a paranoiac drop-out. Ragel Gumm was the centre of the Universe - the Universe of 1999 - or was it 1959?
2003 Gollancz edition
Ragle Gumm is an ordinary man leading an ordinary life, except that he makes his living by entering a newspaper contest every day -- and winning, every day. But he gradually begins to suspect that his life -- indeed his whole world -- is an illusion, constructed around him for the express purpose of keeping him docile and happy. But if that is the case, what is his real world like, and what is he actually doing every day when he thinks he is guessing 'Where Will The Little Green Man Be Next?'