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What are readers saying about The Dice Man?
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-10-15 01:08:07.
(Language: Lithuanian)
 
fantastika...ar kas pasiryžtumėt prarast save,išmest,išdalint į dalis ir vėl atrast. pasiduot atsitiktinumui....neliktų - o kas būtų,jeigų būtų, liktu tik kauliukas ir jo valia,noras,įsakymas,patarimas.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-12-30 12:24:43.
(Language: English)
Top book, prepare to immerse yourself into the world that is controlled by the dice and whatever unfolds based on the result of the roll. This book certainly made me think about how easy decisions can be made by a simple roll of the dice. However, not to be taken literally as the consequences can be unexpected.Luke took the dice life too far and this book lets you into his world before and after he discovered the dice. A must read (also check out the 2nd book in the sequel, Search for the Dice Man)
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-08-26 06:23:21.
(Language: English)
While well-written and often well-observed this absurdist foray into freedom and order left me cold. I quit it about a quarter of the way in because there was way too much rape going on. It seemed to be the default setting for Rhinehart as a means of shocking. I rolled a die to see if I should seek the author out and rape him instead, but the roll came back dead on that count and I just put the book to go out.
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A Reader posted a review at 2011-08-09 03:56:54.
(Language: English)
Read this book. Next time you see a die, tell me if you will feel the urge to roll it and let it govern your life. Funny, twisted, shocking read. Anyone out there feeling brave enough to play the dice game...?
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-05-12 11:16:46.
(Language: English)
Highly recommend this book. Check it out if you haven't read it already! From wikipedia: The Dice Man is a semi-comedic novel published in 1971 by George Cockcroft under the pen name Luke Rhinehart and tells the story of a psychiatrist who begins making life decisions based on the casting of dice. Cockcroft wrote the book based on his own experiences of using dice to make decisions while studying psychology.[1] The novel is noted for its subversivity, anti-psychiatry sentiments and for reflecting moods of the early 1970s. Due to its subversive nature and chapters concerned with controversial issues such as rape, murder and sexual experimentation, it was banned in several countries.[2] Upon its initial publication, the cover bore the confident subheader, "This book can change your life" and quickly became a modern cult classic[citation needed]. The book hearkens back to the earlier concept of Flipism.
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Thom posted a review at 2009-10-26 06:19:39.
(Language: English)
This autobiography (of a fictional person) is an engrossing read. Being to let into the mind of this man is sometimes disturbing, many times pornographic and occasionally life-affirming. You are not supposed to like this man, it would be quite easy to throw the book away as soon as he starts to talk about raping people at the whim of a dice toss. However, the chilling possibilities of living a life dictated by the die, and it's cult of followers, often ends in sublime happiness. This is an expertly written story that is very entertaining, funny and keeps the surprises coming throughout
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-05-25 03:04:12.
(Language: English)
Boken er skrevet som en selvbiografi. Psykiateren Luke Rhinehart finner ut på slutten av sekstitallet at livet hans er et fengsel av rutiner og forventninger. Hva med alle mulighetene som vi aldri får realisert fordi vi alle er fanget i dette mønsteret? Hva om vi faktisk hadde gjennomført alle tingene vi ofte tenker på å gjøre, men aldri gjør - som å skille seg fra ektefellen, voldta nabokona eller begå et drap? Rhinehart har funnet ut at terningen gir løsningen. Gjennom å kaste terning, åpner han etterhvert opp for alle de mulighetene som hans gamle liv utelukket. Spørsmålet er om han blir mer fri eller fremdeles er fanget? Boken leker med spennende tanker. Det er imidlertid ikke alltid like lett å følge den røde tråden, slik at den litterære fremstillingen trekker karakteren litt ned. God underholdning for lesere som betrakter seg selv som intellektuelle.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-03-08 10:37:43.
(Language: English)
Just read this again after 10 years. Just as disturbing as I remembered. Although I had forgotten how sexist, racist, and otherwise intolerant it is. I guess it WAS writen in1971, and the protagonist IS a psychiatrist. Had also forgotten how much gratuitous sex there was,given that our hero(?) seemsto use the dice constantly as a relinquishing of responsibility for his mid-life crisis. He SAYS he is disintegrating the personality,but HE is the one providing the options for the die to chose from. The die decisions are only random within the limits of the input, which is the personality. This book blew me away when I read it about 10 years ago. I didn't own a copy, so when I saw it in the bookshop this morning I bought it. Must see how it feels 10 years later. The sales woman who took my money said she had watched a documentary about the guy who wrote it and a whole society that had emerged from people who had read the book and decide to live thier lives governed solely on the roll of a dice.But of course there are also whole societies of people who donate all thier money to aleader in an orange robe and marry thier own children while they sit and wait for the aliens to take them away to paradise, so it's not so strange really.Intiguingly ,frighteningly, bizarre.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-06-09 11:53:24.
(Language: English)
interesting concept, reasonably articulated. i think i'd like to try dice therapy myself (only in the short term though). as a psych student, it's funny to see the ways in which the warped logic of psychoanalysis crumbled via the lens of 'the dice man'. psychology has really changed in the last 50 years, but it makes you wonder what people will think about our methods 50 years from now... oh well, at least in modern practice everything isn't related to latent homosexuality or traumatic potty training experiences. i think.
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A Reader posted a review at 2012-07-14 08:42:33.
(Language: English)
"Every personality is the sum total of accumulated suppressions of minorities. Were a man to develop a consistent pattern of impulse control he would have definable personality: he would be unpredictable and anarchic, one might even say, free."
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coinoperated posted a review at 2010-08-14 06:34:36.
(Language: English)
I finally finished The Dice Man. It took a while and I thought I’d given up a number of times, but in the interests of completiveness (should be a word), I persevered. Picture if you will a successful, but not the most successful, psychiatrist in New York in the 1970s. The novel opens with Dr Luke Rhinehart grappling with how dull he feels his life has become. His professional rival, Dr Jake Ecstein, seems to have everything so much better. Plus, he’s got a totty wife who Luke would rather like to bang. The reader is constantly reminded of Luke’s hugeness of stature so that the notion that he ‘just doesn’t fit’ is embedded. It’s a useful one to remember. By chance (of course) Luke discovers a ‘dice life’. At first, his ‘gambling’ is a useful way to alleviate his boredom, although the stakes were shockingly high on his first exercise. As his dicelife (one word) continues, it becomes a habit, a requirement, an obsession, a fetish and a religion. Eventually, Luke stakes everything on the whim of the dice, including his professional and personal reputations, and ultimately his sanity. The novel ends on something of a cliff-hanger (if the reader cares), which was a sure sign of a follow-up. I was just glad to reach the end, frankly. It’s not terrible good stuff. It’s an entertaining and daring concept, and it leaves an impact with the reader. The irony of a psychiatrist losing his mind shouldn’t be lost on anyone, even if it’s a cliché which has been played out all too often in many different scenarios. There’s no doubt that as a piece of writing, much of the last third was unnecessary and repetitious, but I’m not going to complain about that too much because once I reached the end, I knew that I was glad I’d finished it (and probably glad that I wouldn’t have to read it again). I won’t be bothering with The Search for the Dice Man or The Book of the Die because it’s starting to feel a little like a franchise and I’ve seen enough, but I’m glad I’ve finally read The Dice Man to see what all the fuss is about. If you’re going on any excursions or trips this year and you fear you may get bored, grab a copy of this in the airport. It’ll see you through for a while.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-07-29 01:49:28.
(Language: English)
TO be honest, this book just freaked me out.
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A Reader posted a review at 2011-02-04 10:22:35.
(Language: English)
Found this a bit hard to get through but still managed to finish it. The biggest problem I had was that he just decides all his options himself. So yes the dice pick what he's going to do, but it's too easy for him to just put in options he feels like doing. Not random enough I say!
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-07-16 01:58:15.
(Language: English)
Forgive how unladylike this sounds, but this novel is so funny in places that I honestly did nearly wee myself! Humanity has always had control issues, in fact most of todays 'civilised society' is a large scale man-controlled timetable. This novel takes the humdrum tedium of our lives and threatens to shatter our world. The question is not 'will you like this book', because you will - the only question you should ask is 'dare I try it'. Mini Synopsis: When a psychiatrist realises his entire life, with all its predictability, bores the hell out of him, a chance encounter with a dice changes everything. Read this book!
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-12-26 04:18:25.
(Language: English)
Read this book and you'll never look at a die the same way again. What a raucous romp though random, ribald, risquee regions. Contains humour, sex of all kinds (definitely R rated) and anti-religious sentiment. I loved it! The guy was insane but I'm definitely gong to give the dice a go in future decision making. A must read for all broad minded individuals.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-07-07 11:51:52.
(Language: English)
good one
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-06-22 02:45:36.
(Language: English)
When did you finish this? My god i read this a long time ago and I was quite young, one of the first sort of adult books I read and it nearly blew me off my seat! No kidding. Imagine reading such a cynical book in your late teens about the possibilities of a lived future only to be left hanging from a daisy! I loved it and I am still not sure why i didn't want to kill myself after it. But then again, maybe i did and I've blacked it out! I certainly was woearing enough black clothing at the time to suit it. heheh. Been so long but can't remember whether it ultimately proposes a future of pure chaos and chance or some sort of fate described in the dice (I suppose it ends in limbo so it doesn't really promote one or the other) . I hope chaos. I like chaos. Fate is like thumbsucking.
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A Reader posted a review at 2011-08-17 02:21:07.
(Language: English)
This is a book everyone should read at least once in their lives
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A Reader posted a review at 2012-01-12 03:49:19.
(Language: English)
The idea of the book is the following: there is a guy who takes all his decisions (yes or no decisions or multiple options) by the throw of the dice. This, he says, liberates him from the slavery of one single personality and lets him develop all the other other impulses/personalities that are usually supressed (to fit in to society, not to hurt, to avoid conflict, out of fear etc.). This way, says the Diceman, one can live all what is inside, give in to all the personalities within, not having to be bound by one single choice. I was tempted.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-07-16 12:54:09.
(Language: Greek)
Ο άνθρωπος αυτός(ο ήρωας του βιβλίου) ακολουθώντας παράλληλα και συγχρόνως διαφορετικές επιλογές, αντιδράσεις και κατά συνέπεια διαφορετικές μάσκες και προσωπικότητες του Εγώ μάς, αντιλαμβάνεται ότι η ίδια η ιδέα μάς για τόν εαυτό μάς, η μάσκα που έχει κολλήσει πάνω μάς δέν είμαστε στην ουσία εμείς όπως νομίζουμε, αλλά απλά, μιά απο τις πολλές μάσκες και πιθανούς εαυτούς που έχουμε επιβάλει οι ίδιοι στον εαυτό μάς. Εσύ δέν είσαι Εσυ. Ό Εαυτός σου δέν είναι ο Εαυτός σου. Η Μάσκα που φοράς δέν είναι ο πραγματικός Εαυτός σου. Είναι μια πιθανή και “πλειοψηφική” συνεκδοχή τών πολλαπλών και άπειρων ίσως εαυτών μάς, που έχει επιβληθεί πάνω στους άλλους εαυτούς μάς και παίζει ένα θεατράκι μαζί μάς με το οποίο εμείς στο τελος, απο τήν διαρκή αυτη “παράσταση” και προβολή του πάνω μάς, ταυτιζόμαστε και νομίζουμε ότι είμαστε εκείνος. Πρόκειται για ένα παιχνίδι με καθρέφτες. Ένας τρόπος διαφυγής μάς και συνειδητοποίησης απο αυτήν την ασυνείδητη ταυτισή μάς με ένα συγκεκριμένο Εγώ είναι η μέθοδος που πραγματεύεται το μυθιστόρημα The Diceman ή ακόμα και η ίδια η ανάγνωση του μάς βοηθούν πρός αυτήν την κατεύθυνση κατανόησης του γεγονότος αυτού.
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A Reader posted a review at 2011-04-30 01:04:57.
(Language: English)
Riveting, exciting, perverse. An interesting philosophy! Loved it.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-12-19 04:29:00.
(Language: English)
By going completely over the top, this book makes some pretty profound and compelling points about human psychology. In many ways, the dicelife is a pretty exciting idea. I was pretty relieved when I found out that Luke Rhinehart is a fictional character, though! BTW this is also completely hilarious
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-07-12 12:49:10.
(Language: English)
I really liked the concept but was disappointed with both the writing and how the plot developed - could have been so much better. This is the first book in my adult life I have ever regretted buying!
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Rachel posted a review at 2010-08-03 12:44:49.
(Language: English)
I have to see there is a lot of sexual explicit content in this book. i found some of the reactions of characters in the story to certain aspects of their lives to be sort of not to true to life. the art behind the dice and the meaning of its use is a bit confusing and would you let the dice rule your everyday actions? i personally wouldnt, especially if my life turned out like this. i did enj it, but not sure if i'll be reading the next book.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-06-09 12:19:50.
(Language: English)
Read it so long ago but found it one of the most interesting concepts I have ever read. Take choice out of life and all the stresses it brings and simply le the dice decide. Madly far fetched but still found it all intriguing. Sequel was disappointing however but likely only because I loved this one so much - might revisit.
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