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Dice Man #1
The Dice Man
The cult classic that can still change your life...Let the dice decide! This is the philosophy that changes the life of bored psychiatrist Luke Rhinehart - and in some ways changes the world as well. Because once you hand over your life to the dice, anything can happen. Entertaining, humorous, scary, shocking, subversive, The Dice Man is one of the cult bestsellers of our time.
541 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
1108 people are currently reading
18764 people want to read
About the author
Luke Rhinehart
29 books437 followersLuke Rhinehart was the pen name of the author George Cockcroft.
He was born in the United States, son of an engineer and a civil servant. He received a BA from Cornell University and an MA from Columbia University. Subsequently he received a PhD in psychology, also from Columbia. He married his wife, Ann, on June 30, 1956. He has three children.
After obtaining his PhD, he went into teaching. During his years as a university teacher he taught, among other things, courses in Zen and Western literature. He first floated the idea of living according to the casting of dice in a lecture. The reaction was reportedly of equal parts intrigue and disgust, and it was at this point he realized it could become a novel. Cockcroft began experimenting with dice a long time before writing The Dice Man, but this made progress on the novel rather slow.
In 1971, London-based publisher, Talmy Franklin, published The Dice Man, Cockcroft's first novel as Luke Rhinehart. Soon afterwards, Cockcroft was engaged in the creation of a dice center in New York City.
In 1975, he was involved in a round-the-world voyage in a large trimaran ketch. Later, he spent some time in a sailboat in the Mediterranean, where he taught English and from there moved to a former Sufi retreat on the edge of a lake in Canaan, New York.
On 1 August 2012, at the age of 80, Cockcroft arranged for his own death to be announced, as a joke.
Cockcroft passed away (for real) at the age of 87 on November 6. 2020.
He was born in the United States, son of an engineer and a civil servant. He received a BA from Cornell University and an MA from Columbia University. Subsequently he received a PhD in psychology, also from Columbia. He married his wife, Ann, on June 30, 1956. He has three children.
After obtaining his PhD, he went into teaching. During his years as a university teacher he taught, among other things, courses in Zen and Western literature. He first floated the idea of living according to the casting of dice in a lecture. The reaction was reportedly of equal parts intrigue and disgust, and it was at this point he realized it could become a novel. Cockcroft began experimenting with dice a long time before writing The Dice Man, but this made progress on the novel rather slow.
In 1971, London-based publisher, Talmy Franklin, published The Dice Man, Cockcroft's first novel as Luke Rhinehart. Soon afterwards, Cockcroft was engaged in the creation of a dice center in New York City.
In 1975, he was involved in a round-the-world voyage in a large trimaran ketch. Later, he spent some time in a sailboat in the Mediterranean, where he taught English and from there moved to a former Sufi retreat on the edge of a lake in Canaan, New York.
On 1 August 2012, at the age of 80, Cockcroft arranged for his own death to be announced, as a joke.
Cockcroft passed away (for real) at the age of 87 on November 6. 2020.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,409 reviews
April 28, 2011
I let the dice dictate what review I write.
My review should be...
1. a normal one
2. just 1 word
3. a fairy-tale
4. in rhyme
5. a hatemail
6. non-existent
I roll a... 4
As the author of this book already said,
Never create an option on which you don't want to bet.
So now I am stuck with having to write a review in rhyme :-(
But imagine having the dice control your life every single time
For that is what Dr. Rhinehart in this book sets out to do
The dice control what he eats, when he sleeps, when he goes to the loo.
In his eyes the dice will liberate mankind
And though in itself this is quite an interesting find,
The book is just too long and has too much sex for my taste
I would have preferred it shorter and a bit more chaste.
So though I enjoyed it and liked the principle idea,
Out of 5 this book for me scores only a simple 3.
My review should be...
1. a normal one
2. just 1 word
3. a fairy-tale
4. in rhyme
5. a hatemail
6. non-existent
I roll a... 4
As the author of this book already said,
Never create an option on which you don't want to bet.
So now I am stuck with having to write a review in rhyme :-(
But imagine having the dice control your life every single time
For that is what Dr. Rhinehart in this book sets out to do
The dice control what he eats, when he sleeps, when he goes to the loo.
In his eyes the dice will liberate mankind
And though in itself this is quite an interesting find,
The book is just too long and has too much sex for my taste
I would have preferred it shorter and a bit more chaste.
So though I enjoyed it and liked the principle idea,
Out of 5 this book for me scores only a simple 3.
September 22, 2009
Author Too in Love with his Own Concept to See the Gaping Blindspots
This is a novel which was recommended to me by friends as "if you liked Fight Club you'll love this." Though I can see the comparison, I liked Fight Club and I really didn't like this one. Fight Club was lean and taut, this was bloated and outdated - like some lecherous late middle-aged guy you run in to at a party, who proceeds to trap you in a conversation you’d rather not be in.
Once I started reading I discovered that my friends' explanation of this book made more sense and appealed more than the book itself does. Yes, if you decide to assign random actions to different sides of dice and throw them - you will (by your own made up rules) have to go do the thing it lands on. But don't you dare lose track of the fact that you're the one who put those six outcomes on that die. You're still in control, stupid.
Psychologist narrator decides one day to just play with possibilities. His very first one is "if this die is a one, I'll go rape my neighbour." It is. He does. Lovely. How very free.
I'd been told about this bit, but I'd always assumed it was further along in the book, something dark and disturbing which he builds up to. But nope - it happens straight away, which doesn’t strike me as very good plotting. Also, the neighbour loves it, so it's not really rape. Women are always gagging for it, aren't they?
Rad, dude.
The problem at the core of this book is that narrator Luke Reinhart and the author Luke Reinhart are, (I’d venture) pretty much one and the same in their viewpoints . And it's a one-dimensional, pseudo-revolutionary viewpoint with no regard for other human beings. They both think that living randomly is awesome. Like, so totally awesome that the narrator throws away most of his established life in the process of following this dumb idea of the roll of the dice. He loses his job, wife and family along the way but it's cool, 'cause now he's living wild and crazy and free and doing stuff he’d never normally do. Well, it’s definitely wild and crazy, but I fail to see why that's the stated aim, and I don’t believe the new experiences are worth what each ‘Dice Experiment’ character throws away in the process.
Frustratingly, the plot does light on all my counter-arguments (always put forward by the narrator's psychologist colleagues), but they're always just brushed aside as unhip. Nevermind this square life where you don't rape your neighbours - this dude's living free! They fired him at work? Great: now he can really get on with his work! It's the same dumb TV logic which sees cops only catching the murderer once they're suspended from the case.
This book is a big-assed brick of a novel, and if you're not charmed and amused by the narrator, or if you're not into the machismo - yet lack of sense of self (ie personality or scruples) - which the narrator character enthuses about for most of the book, it's going to be a trudge.
I wonder how different my reading of this might have been if I'd read it in social context when it came out in 1971 (the same year as the Stanford Prison Experiment, as it so happens). It seems to be bourne of that same Stanford Prison Experiment thinking which is willing to risk treading on people en route to gaining a deeper psychological understanding of human nature. I also wonder how different this novel would be if it hadn't been written in the early 70s. The two seem inextricably linked, and not in a good way. Like I said – think bloated middle-aged guy at a party. Oh, and he’s just bought his first motorbike and wants to tell you all about it. “It’s really powerful, sensual, raw. You should try it some time, come for a ride with me.”
All in all - Luke Rhinehart - you're icky and please take your midlife crisis elsewhere.
This is a novel which was recommended to me by friends as "if you liked Fight Club you'll love this." Though I can see the comparison, I liked Fight Club and I really didn't like this one. Fight Club was lean and taut, this was bloated and outdated - like some lecherous late middle-aged guy you run in to at a party, who proceeds to trap you in a conversation you’d rather not be in.
Once I started reading I discovered that my friends' explanation of this book made more sense and appealed more than the book itself does. Yes, if you decide to assign random actions to different sides of dice and throw them - you will (by your own made up rules) have to go do the thing it lands on. But don't you dare lose track of the fact that you're the one who put those six outcomes on that die. You're still in control, stupid.
Psychologist narrator decides one day to just play with possibilities. His very first one is "if this die is a one, I'll go rape my neighbour." It is. He does. Lovely. How very free.
I'd been told about this bit, but I'd always assumed it was further along in the book, something dark and disturbing which he builds up to. But nope - it happens straight away, which doesn’t strike me as very good plotting. Also, the neighbour loves it, so it's not really rape. Women are always gagging for it, aren't they?
Rad, dude.
The problem at the core of this book is that narrator Luke Reinhart and the author Luke Reinhart are, (I’d venture) pretty much one and the same in their viewpoints . And it's a one-dimensional, pseudo-revolutionary viewpoint with no regard for other human beings. They both think that living randomly is awesome. Like, so totally awesome that the narrator throws away most of his established life in the process of following this dumb idea of the roll of the dice. He loses his job, wife and family along the way but it's cool, 'cause now he's living wild and crazy and free and doing stuff he’d never normally do. Well, it’s definitely wild and crazy, but I fail to see why that's the stated aim, and I don’t believe the new experiences are worth what each ‘Dice Experiment’ character throws away in the process.
Frustratingly, the plot does light on all my counter-arguments (always put forward by the narrator's psychologist colleagues), but they're always just brushed aside as unhip. Nevermind this square life where you don't rape your neighbours - this dude's living free! They fired him at work? Great: now he can really get on with his work! It's the same dumb TV logic which sees cops only catching the murderer once they're suspended from the case.
This book is a big-assed brick of a novel, and if you're not charmed and amused by the narrator, or if you're not into the machismo - yet lack of sense of self (ie personality or scruples) - which the narrator character enthuses about for most of the book, it's going to be a trudge.
I wonder how different my reading of this might have been if I'd read it in social context when it came out in 1971 (the same year as the Stanford Prison Experiment, as it so happens). It seems to be bourne of that same Stanford Prison Experiment thinking which is willing to risk treading on people en route to gaining a deeper psychological understanding of human nature. I also wonder how different this novel would be if it hadn't been written in the early 70s. The two seem inextricably linked, and not in a good way. Like I said – think bloated middle-aged guy at a party. Oh, and he’s just bought his first motorbike and wants to tell you all about it. “It’s really powerful, sensual, raw. You should try it some time, come for a ride with me.”
All in all - Luke Rhinehart - you're icky and please take your midlife crisis elsewhere.
August 3, 2024
The novel is a cult black comedy lavishly laden with the zeitgeist…
A game of chance… A life of chance… The Dice Man considers himself to be a religious person but he substitutes God with a throw of the dice…
He is a dice messiah… And the duty of any messiah is to preach…
He recalls his past… He used to be bored with everything … He used to be disappointed… En passant he was jeering at all the contemporary fads: counterculture, sexual revolution, drugs, Zen and even his own walk of life – psychoanalysis…
Then he discovers a possibility of living by chance… The die is cast… Dice are tumbling… All the pleasures and troubles begin… His life becomes an appendage to the probability theory and madness settles in…
How much of our life is chance and how much of it is a pattern?
A game of chance… A life of chance… The Dice Man considers himself to be a religious person but he substitutes God with a throw of the dice…
I am admired and praised by thousands of dicepeople throughout the nation but have twice been a patient in a mental institution, once been in jail, and am currently a fugitive, which I hope to remain, Die willing, at least until I have completed this 379 page autobiography.
My primary profession has been psychiatry. My passion, both as psychiatrist and as Dice Man, has been to change human personality. Mine. Others’. Everyone’s.
He is a dice messiah… And the duty of any messiah is to preach…
Life is islands of ecstasy in an ocean of ennui, and after the age of thirty land is seldom seen. At best we wander from one much-worn sandbar to the next, soon familiar with each grain of sand we see.
He recalls his past… He used to be bored with everything … He used to be disappointed… En passant he was jeering at all the contemporary fads: counterculture, sexual revolution, drugs, Zen and even his own walk of life – psychoanalysis…
‘We must be wrong. All psychotherapy is a tedious disaster. We must be making some fundamental, rock-bottom error that poisons all our thinking. Years from now men will look upon our therapeutic theories and our techniques as we do upon nineteenth-century bloodletting.’
Then he discovers a possibility of living by chance… The die is cast… Dice are tumbling… All the pleasures and troubles begin… His life becomes an appendage to the probability theory and madness settles in…
Ego, my friends, ego. The more I sought to destroy it through the dice the greater it grew. Each tumble of a die chipped off another splinter of the old self to feed the growing tissues of the dice man ego.
How much of our life is chance and how much of it is a pattern?
November 7, 2019
[Original review, Dec 2009]
The basic plot of The Dice Man is simple. The hero, pretty drunk, is cleaning up one evening after a party. He sees a die lying under a playing card, and a thought comes into his head: if it's a one, I'll rape Arlene. He picks up the card, and it is, indeed, a one!
So he goes downstairs to his neighbor, and says he's going to rape her. As it happens, no rape is needed, since she'd anyway been thinking that he was rather hot, and what a shame he'd never tried anything. They begin an affair, which works out nicely. After a while, he starts making more and more decisions by throwing dice. Many of these decisions result in him having various kinds of sex that he wouldn't otherwise have had.
It's easy to say what's wrong with this book; Hannah does a fine job in her review, and I don't have much to add to that. But here's what I think is good about it. People are generally brought up to believe that they are in control of their lives. In particular, they are encouraged to assume that, when they have sex with someone, it's because they decided to do it, for good reasons that they thought about carefully.
But if you're honest with yourself, you probably won't have much trouble thinking of at least a couple of occasions when you've had sex with someone, or made another important decision, for no very good reason at all. What Luke Reinhart is doing here is foregrounding that. He's saying that, once you admit that these things sometimes just happen, you feel a sense of liberation. You aren't completely in control, and external circumstances are sometimes more important than your will and your judgment; you might as well accept it.
I think some people interpret the book a bit too literally. Of course, if you take it at face value, and decide that you really should make all your decisions randomly, your life will rapidly collapse around you. I would say he's just telling you that, if you embrace the idea that your existence is a combination of both planning and random chance, you could enjoy it more.
Now roll a die and decide on what to do next. If it's a six, you can post an angry comment...
____________________
[Update, Dec 2019]
If you're curious to know more about the background, here is an interesting article from this morning's Guardian.
Note that the description of the initial dice episode misquotes the book. The narrator definitely says "I'll rape Arlene", not "I'll sleep with Arlene"; I found an online copy of the text and checked.
The basic plot of The Dice Man is simple. The hero, pretty drunk, is cleaning up one evening after a party. He sees a die lying under a playing card, and a thought comes into his head: if it's a one, I'll rape Arlene. He picks up the card, and it is, indeed, a one!
So he goes downstairs to his neighbor, and says he's going to rape her. As it happens, no rape is needed, since she'd anyway been thinking that he was rather hot, and what a shame he'd never tried anything. They begin an affair, which works out nicely. After a while, he starts making more and more decisions by throwing dice. Many of these decisions result in him having various kinds of sex that he wouldn't otherwise have had.
It's easy to say what's wrong with this book; Hannah does a fine job in her review, and I don't have much to add to that. But here's what I think is good about it. People are generally brought up to believe that they are in control of their lives. In particular, they are encouraged to assume that, when they have sex with someone, it's because they decided to do it, for good reasons that they thought about carefully.
But if you're honest with yourself, you probably won't have much trouble thinking of at least a couple of occasions when you've had sex with someone, or made another important decision, for no very good reason at all. What Luke Reinhart is doing here is foregrounding that. He's saying that, once you admit that these things sometimes just happen, you feel a sense of liberation. You aren't completely in control, and external circumstances are sometimes more important than your will and your judgment; you might as well accept it.
I think some people interpret the book a bit too literally. Of course, if you take it at face value, and decide that you really should make all your decisions randomly, your life will rapidly collapse around you. I would say he's just telling you that, if you embrace the idea that your existence is a combination of both planning and random chance, you could enjoy it more.
Now roll a die and decide on what to do next. If it's a six, you can post an angry comment...
____________________
[Update, Dec 2019]
If you're curious to know more about the background, here is an interesting article from this morning's Guardian.
Note that the description of the initial dice episode misquotes the book. The narrator definitely says "I'll rape Arlene", not "I'll sleep with Arlene"; I found an online copy of the text and checked.
December 13, 2022
I understand the appeal of the concept. It's very intriguing, but the main character is a childish, racist, homophobic imbecile. People who love this book are enamored by a narcissist who supplies them a guilt free method to behave like psychopaths.
March 27, 2020
Turgid, flabby, lackluster prose struggling to elevate an obscene and immoral wiseass. I should have abandoned it as soon as I saw the page count, because as I suspected it is overblown, overlong, and over-the-top. This is a shame because the world of mental illness has not been all that well-depicted in fiction and the narrator starts out with quite a few choice and well-phrased insights about depression and living with suicidal ideation. It's just that they're anchored to such an unlikable pretentious windbag that I found it impossible to empathize.
1.5 stars. Think American Psycho but more docile. A Clockwork Orange but with less personality. Small wonder that a book that explicitly promises to change your life takes itself too seriously to be much fun.
1.5 stars. Think American Psycho but more docile. A Clockwork Orange but with less personality. Small wonder that a book that explicitly promises to change your life takes itself too seriously to be much fun.
June 27, 2019
Random
I can't believe I actually finished this book. It's considered a cult classic and with my eclectic reading choices, I would always give something like this a chance. I wish the dice had landed differently 😂.
I suppose at times we all wonder what it would be like to be totally unpredictable and random, so I thought this could be a great premise for a book. Do we fall into a rut with life, sticking to what we are comfortable with and trying nothing new? Is variety truly the spice of life? The principle behind it reminded me to a certain extent with Who Moved My Cheese, although that's based in a personal development genre about forced change to facilitate constant learning and fulfilling our potential. This book is a story about providing change options that are darkly desireable, unsavoury, criminal, self-destructive, and leaving it up to the throw of the dice to which option to choose. As you can imagine the story's appeal is the morally questionable options that get chosen.
Interesting Idea, Bad Delivery!
The storyline doesn't flow well, forget about characterisation it's all about the shock factor. Some of the events that the dice are used for are really uncomfortable including rape. I didn't like any of the characters and I suppose it was always going to play into the sense of a person being shallow.
I found it difficult to maintain any interest and really couldn't recommend this book to anyone.
I can't believe I actually finished this book. It's considered a cult classic and with my eclectic reading choices, I would always give something like this a chance. I wish the dice had landed differently 😂.
I suppose at times we all wonder what it would be like to be totally unpredictable and random, so I thought this could be a great premise for a book. Do we fall into a rut with life, sticking to what we are comfortable with and trying nothing new? Is variety truly the spice of life? The principle behind it reminded me to a certain extent with Who Moved My Cheese, although that's based in a personal development genre about forced change to facilitate constant learning and fulfilling our potential. This book is a story about providing change options that are darkly desireable, unsavoury, criminal, self-destructive, and leaving it up to the throw of the dice to which option to choose. As you can imagine the story's appeal is the morally questionable options that get chosen.
Interesting Idea, Bad Delivery!
The storyline doesn't flow well, forget about characterisation it's all about the shock factor. Some of the events that the dice are used for are really uncomfortable including rape. I didn't like any of the characters and I suppose it was always going to play into the sense of a person being shallow.
I found it difficult to maintain any interest and really couldn't recommend this book to anyone.
December 18, 2020
(You can see my video review for the book here: https://youtu.be/XxsyKwDa3iQ )
In The Dice Man, the first time the protagonist picks up the dice to choose what the rest of his life will look like, the moment is given an appropriate amount of weight. His standard existence up to this point has been described as comfortable, if a little banal, while the option of shattering it is an exciting possibility achieved through a completely amoral act: The rape of his neighbour's wife.
It's a bold opening that would be hard to forget in any instance, but what's amazing is that Luke Rhinehart succeeds in creating a story that actually lives up to this moment. In point of fact, he doesn't just exceed expectations for a chapter or two - he continually tops himself right up until the very end.
There's a legend that the author adopted a bit of The Dice Man's lifestyle when plotting the novel. If he wasn't sure where the story should go, he'd simply roll the dice and let faith decide. It's a handy exercise for anybody who's dealt with writer's block, but it doesn't give Mr. Rhinehart the credit he's due.
We've all read books that didn't glue together. You might feel like the events in these duds simply felt like a bunch of stuff happening with little meaning or motivation behind it all. Sure, you can have some exciting set pieces and stick them together with a bit of chewing gum and duct tape, but it takes a lot of talent to maintain a sense of momentum from one happening to the next.
At no point in my reading of the Dice Man did I feel it lose its footing. This despite the fact that the entire draw of the book was to generate a constant flow of insanity. It felt to me like running down a rocky mountain, completely exhilarated that even though I might trip and fall at any moment, my foot sprang from one step to the next and always found steady ground. I really want to reiterate this point: Not every author can achieve this sense of pace. Even in Luke Rhinehart's sequel, The Search for the Dice Man, he seemed to have lost the knack for controlled madness. But that's neither here nor there. He did it once and once is wonderful enough.
I don't usually re-read old favourites, but I fully intend to pick up The Dice Man again someday. I wholeheartedly encourage you to give it a try if you haven't read it before.
(Don't forget to check out the video review: https://youtu.be/XxsyKwDa3iQ )
In The Dice Man, the first time the protagonist picks up the dice to choose what the rest of his life will look like, the moment is given an appropriate amount of weight. His standard existence up to this point has been described as comfortable, if a little banal, while the option of shattering it is an exciting possibility achieved through a completely amoral act: The rape of his neighbour's wife.
It's a bold opening that would be hard to forget in any instance, but what's amazing is that Luke Rhinehart succeeds in creating a story that actually lives up to this moment. In point of fact, he doesn't just exceed expectations for a chapter or two - he continually tops himself right up until the very end.
There's a legend that the author adopted a bit of The Dice Man's lifestyle when plotting the novel. If he wasn't sure where the story should go, he'd simply roll the dice and let faith decide. It's a handy exercise for anybody who's dealt with writer's block, but it doesn't give Mr. Rhinehart the credit he's due.
We've all read books that didn't glue together. You might feel like the events in these duds simply felt like a bunch of stuff happening with little meaning or motivation behind it all. Sure, you can have some exciting set pieces and stick them together with a bit of chewing gum and duct tape, but it takes a lot of talent to maintain a sense of momentum from one happening to the next.
At no point in my reading of the Dice Man did I feel it lose its footing. This despite the fact that the entire draw of the book was to generate a constant flow of insanity. It felt to me like running down a rocky mountain, completely exhilarated that even though I might trip and fall at any moment, my foot sprang from one step to the next and always found steady ground. I really want to reiterate this point: Not every author can achieve this sense of pace. Even in Luke Rhinehart's sequel, The Search for the Dice Man, he seemed to have lost the knack for controlled madness. But that's neither here nor there. He did it once and once is wonderful enough.
I don't usually re-read old favourites, but I fully intend to pick up The Dice Man again someday. I wholeheartedly encourage you to give it a try if you haven't read it before.
(Don't forget to check out the video review: https://youtu.be/XxsyKwDa3iQ )
October 25, 2010
Well this book provided me with a first - it is the first book (as an adult) I have started reading and not finished. Usually, no matter how dull a book gets, I plough on to the end in hope of a revival 3/4 of the way through, but of The Dice Man, 140 pages were all I could bear before it was thrown in a charity shop bag.
On reading the back of the book I had high hopes - the concept sounded fantastic, really interesting and fun - I thought I'd found a real page-turner.
But no - how wrong I was. I am astounded at what a let-down this turned out to be.
I have got a degree in psychology and therefore I can't blame my dislike of The Dice Man on 'not getting it' (not that you need a degree in psychology to understand the concept of the book). Equally, I think I have a pretty good sense of humour and I would be reluctant to say 'I missed the humour of it'. In short, I just thought it was absolutely rubbish!
Without going into too much detail (I've wasted enough time on this book already!!) I found the thoughts, actions and justifications of Luke Rhinehart utterly ridiculous - so much so I rolled my eyes and cringed on reading some of it. We weren't really introduced to the concept of the dice-led decisions in great detail and it seems like it was just a convenient way of justifying and writing sexual fantasies. Actually, the book constantly goes on and on about sex (don't be fooled - this did not make it interesting - it was not good, passionate sex!).
I think the thing that put me off the most was the way it actually trivialised some extremely dispicable behaviours and almost made light of some extremely sensitive subjects.
I found it just ...... rubbish. An utter waste of time.
On reading the back of the book I had high hopes - the concept sounded fantastic, really interesting and fun - I thought I'd found a real page-turner.
But no - how wrong I was. I am astounded at what a let-down this turned out to be.
I have got a degree in psychology and therefore I can't blame my dislike of The Dice Man on 'not getting it' (not that you need a degree in psychology to understand the concept of the book). Equally, I think I have a pretty good sense of humour and I would be reluctant to say 'I missed the humour of it'. In short, I just thought it was absolutely rubbish!
Without going into too much detail (I've wasted enough time on this book already!!) I found the thoughts, actions and justifications of Luke Rhinehart utterly ridiculous - so much so I rolled my eyes and cringed on reading some of it. We weren't really introduced to the concept of the dice-led decisions in great detail and it seems like it was just a convenient way of justifying and writing sexual fantasies. Actually, the book constantly goes on and on about sex (don't be fooled - this did not make it interesting - it was not good, passionate sex!).
I think the thing that put me off the most was the way it actually trivialised some extremely dispicable behaviours and almost made light of some extremely sensitive subjects.
I found it just ...... rubbish. An utter waste of time.
July 4, 2022
The Dice Man resembles comic narratives set in academia, such as David Lodge's Small World: An Academic Romance or Robert Grudin’s Book. However, this is not only a satire of the psychiatric industry in America; at times, it reads like the type of radical re-thinking of reality that often accompanies the emergence of a new religion. Its protagonist is Luke Rhinehart, a professional psychiatrist who decides early in the novel to let dice determine his actions. Before long, his dice-throwing has serious consequences both in his personal and professional life.
Not long ago, I wrote a negative review of Terry Southern’s The Magic Christian; there, I complained about the lack of depth in the main character and the somewhat formulaic plot. For me, The Dice Man makes obvious what I find problematic with Southern’s novel. Rhinehart’s protagonist is complex, and while some of his dice-dictated behaviours are merely whimsical and eccentric, others go against his own sense of morality. The question, then, is how far is Rhinehart willing to go in allowing the dice to decide for him? In addition, in contrast to Southern’s Guy Grand, who is wealthy and can afford to lose money, Rhinehart frequently experiences real loss as a result of his dice-throwing, and is almost always at risk of losing more.
The novel half-seriously includes passages from “The Book of the Die,” a fictional work that comments on the “dicelife” in language that parodies the Bible. I refer to this as “half-serious” because in fact the novel makes a strong argument that throwing dice to make decisions is just as sane and wise as any other method of determining one’s future actions. In this respect, The Dice Man resembles some of the great novels of ideas, like The Brothers Karamazov or The Magic Mountain. In its philosophical gestures, The Dice Man is not too far from the work of Herman Hesse.
Although the book gets into big ideas, the writing is rarely abstract. In this, the author follows Henry James’s writing in the preface to Daisy Miller that the novelist must “dramatize.” Nor does Rhinehart experiment with prose; apart from the scriptural parodies, most of the passages that stand out stylistically are those depicting sexual actions. In addition, the prose has a very contemporary tone to it—apart from some references to Vietnam and encounter groups, there is little making this novel feel “dated.”
The novel is well-plotted. As Rhinehart refers more and more of his decisions to the dice, there is an escalation of the amount of the risk into which he puts himself. For much of the narrative, this increased risk results in comic situations. Late in the novel, however, Rhinehart’s dice-throwing involves some life and death decisions (and there is one such decision that some readers may find has turned out a little too conveniently—but if it had turned out much differently, this would have been a different kind of novel). The author maintains the plot well and, in comparison to many other novels, the conclusion to which the narrative builds is one of the most satisfying I have seen; it is certainly one of the best kinds of conclusions one could employ with regard to the ideas the novel explores.
To sum up, The Dice Man is entertaining, funny, philosophical and worth the time. Read it, and you too may find yourself questioning what is “normal.”
Acquired Apr 15, 2010
Powell's City of Books, Portland, OR
Not long ago, I wrote a negative review of Terry Southern’s The Magic Christian; there, I complained about the lack of depth in the main character and the somewhat formulaic plot. For me, The Dice Man makes obvious what I find problematic with Southern’s novel. Rhinehart’s protagonist is complex, and while some of his dice-dictated behaviours are merely whimsical and eccentric, others go against his own sense of morality. The question, then, is how far is Rhinehart willing to go in allowing the dice to decide for him? In addition, in contrast to Southern’s Guy Grand, who is wealthy and can afford to lose money, Rhinehart frequently experiences real loss as a result of his dice-throwing, and is almost always at risk of losing more.
The novel half-seriously includes passages from “The Book of the Die,” a fictional work that comments on the “dicelife” in language that parodies the Bible. I refer to this as “half-serious” because in fact the novel makes a strong argument that throwing dice to make decisions is just as sane and wise as any other method of determining one’s future actions. In this respect, The Dice Man resembles some of the great novels of ideas, like The Brothers Karamazov or The Magic Mountain. In its philosophical gestures, The Dice Man is not too far from the work of Herman Hesse.
Although the book gets into big ideas, the writing is rarely abstract. In this, the author follows Henry James’s writing in the preface to Daisy Miller that the novelist must “dramatize.” Nor does Rhinehart experiment with prose; apart from the scriptural parodies, most of the passages that stand out stylistically are those depicting sexual actions. In addition, the prose has a very contemporary tone to it—apart from some references to Vietnam and encounter groups, there is little making this novel feel “dated.”
The novel is well-plotted. As Rhinehart refers more and more of his decisions to the dice, there is an escalation of the amount of the risk into which he puts himself. For much of the narrative, this increased risk results in comic situations. Late in the novel, however, Rhinehart’s dice-throwing involves some life and death decisions (and there is one such decision that some readers may find has turned out a little too conveniently—but if it had turned out much differently, this would have been a different kind of novel). The author maintains the plot well and, in comparison to many other novels, the conclusion to which the narrative builds is one of the most satisfying I have seen; it is certainly one of the best kinds of conclusions one could employ with regard to the ideas the novel explores.
To sum up, The Dice Man is entertaining, funny, philosophical and worth the time. Read it, and you too may find yourself questioning what is “normal.”
Acquired Apr 15, 2010
Powell's City of Books, Portland, OR
February 7, 2008
this book fundamentally changed my perspectives on decision making, our roles in society, and the whole idea of the individual self. Rhinehart suggests that the idea of the self is a crutch that pigeonholes us and prevents us from experiencing things that we would not experience if we were "being ourselves".
the premise of the book is that luke rhinehart, a psychologist, decides one day to make all his decisions based on the roll of the die. he writes down six options for what he might do, then rolls the die, and obeys its command unwaveringly. the events that unfold after this cannot be described in a book review. shit gets crazy to say the least.
anyway, i cant recommend this book enough. my life is so much more exiting when i embrace the ideas set forth in this novel. READ THIS BOOK!!!!!!
also, swedish metal band "at the gates" cites this book as a major influence for many songs on the album "slaughter of the soul". excerpts from the book are in some of the songs. this book - much like the music of at the gates - is fast paced and chaotic.
the premise of the book is that luke rhinehart, a psychologist, decides one day to make all his decisions based on the roll of the die. he writes down six options for what he might do, then rolls the die, and obeys its command unwaveringly. the events that unfold after this cannot be described in a book review. shit gets crazy to say the least.
anyway, i cant recommend this book enough. my life is so much more exiting when i embrace the ideas set forth in this novel. READ THIS BOOK!!!!!!
also, swedish metal band "at the gates" cites this book as a major influence for many songs on the album "slaughter of the soul". excerpts from the book are in some of the songs. this book - much like the music of at the gates - is fast paced and chaotic.
October 1, 2023
Kas jis, absoliutus psichopatas ar genialus psichiatras? Netikėtai sukūrė sistemą, laužančią asmenybę ir visus standartus, kuri peraugo į judėjimą ir netgi įsteigė mokymo centrus. Prasidėjęs kaip nekaltas žaidimas, padedantis apsispręsti kasdieniuose pasirinkimuose, pavirto į nuolatinius savo galimybių bandymus, bei visišką ribų nebuvimą. Pradžia knygos įtraukė, ir buvo tikrai įdomu, man patiko kaip jis sugebėdavo paaiškinti visą šią savo sukurtą sistemą, kuri jo akimis ir žodžiais tikras atradimas. Sistema turinti privalumų, leidžianti eksperimentuoti ir daryti tai ko šiaip niekada neišdrįstum, kasdien būti tuo - kuo nori būti. Visą savo gyvenimą paskyręs eksperimentui, slėpęs nuo artimiausių žmonių, kurie nesuprato kas vyksta, laužė savo asmenybę ir gyvenimą į daug smulkių detalių ir vienintelis džiaugėsi savo 'pergalėm', bei atradimais. Ir vis tik, gale autorius taip viską sujaukė, kad pagrindinis lūžis, turėjęs šokiruoti, nugrimzdo kaip į liūną, buvo visiškai persistengta, pernelyg ištempta, per daug subjaurota.. Ir ties ta vieta mano vertinimas knygai krenta. Bet, tai kūrinys palikęs daug minčių, keliantis daug diskusijų ir manau tikrai įsimintinas.
🖋️ ...aš nekenčiu pasaulio ir savęs, nes nepajėgiu žvelgti į savo paties ir gyvenimo ribotumą ir su juo susitaikyti.
🖋️ ...kur tik nematydavo mane pažįstantys žmonės - niekada nebūdavau savimi, normaliu "aš".
🖋️ ... kauliukų sprendimai, kad ir kokie malonūs kartais būdavo... tolino mane nuo kitų žmonių.
🖋️ Žmonės neturi būti varžomi apribojimų, šablonų ir normų, kad galėtų naujai mąstyti, jausti ir kurti.
🖋️ Nors ir kaip stengiausi rodyti savo naująsias asmenybes vien nepažįstamiems, o tarp draugų ir kolegų išlikti daugiau ar mažiau normalus, visada duodavau kauliukui bent menkutę tikimybę mane sužlugdyti, o kadangi kauliukas buvo Dievas, jis negalėjo ilgai atsispirti.
🖋️ Vadinamoji kauliukų gyvensena tėra dar vienas lėtos savižudybės būdas tiems, kurie per silpni, kad išmėgintų patikimesnį.
🖋️ ...aš nekenčiu pasaulio ir savęs, nes nepajėgiu žvelgti į savo paties ir gyvenimo ribotumą ir su juo susitaikyti.
🖋️ ...kur tik nematydavo mane pažįstantys žmonės - niekada nebūdavau savimi, normaliu "aš".
🖋️ ... kauliukų sprendimai, kad ir kokie malonūs kartais būdavo... tolino mane nuo kitų žmonių.
🖋️ Žmonės neturi būti varžomi apribojimų, šablonų ir normų, kad galėtų naujai mąstyti, jausti ir kurti.
🖋️ Nors ir kaip stengiausi rodyti savo naująsias asmenybes vien nepažįstamiems, o tarp draugų ir kolegų išlikti daugiau ar mažiau normalus, visada duodavau kauliukui bent menkutę tikimybę mane sužlugdyti, o kadangi kauliukas buvo Dievas, jis negalėjo ilgai atsispirti.
🖋️ Vadinamoji kauliukų gyvensena tėra dar vienas lėtos savižudybės būdas tiems, kurie per silpni, kad išmėgintų patikimesnį.
January 25, 2015
This is it. This is the worst book I have ever read.
I pretty much hated everything about it, so these are only a few things I took issue with:
- The main character is a borderline psychopath, but without the entertainment value of someone like Patrick Bateman from American Psycho.
- The book constantly tries to shock with its numerous depictions of sexual violence and other forms of physical and psychological abuse, but these scenes have no other purpose: They're completely gratuitous.
- The levels of misogyny, racism and homophobia in this book are truly astonishing. I'm not the type of person who sees a racist/sexist/homophobic protagonist and rushes to call the author a bigot or whatever, because I realise that it could just be part of the story/characterisation, but in this case I just cannot believe that the author himself isn't a massive dickhead.
- The entire book is predicated on one concept that the author never manages to sell, and I quickly got tired of its pseudo-philosophical bullshit. You could tell that the author was really happy with himself for coming up with this stuff, when really a six year old could've done the same thing.
- It's also horribly, horribly written - the sex (or, more commonly, rape) scenes are particularly bad and filled with stupid metaphors, like "I encouraged her to baptize the uncircumcised child with the sacred water of her mouth." Unfortunately this is not the worst line in the book.
I honestly think I am worse off for having read this book. I felt bored and vaguely disgusted throughout the whole thing, and I didn't learn anything from it. This last point is particularly worrisome because I usually learn something from every book I read, even those I don't like. This is a glaring exception.
I pretty much hated everything about it, so these are only a few things I took issue with:
- The main character is a borderline psychopath, but without the entertainment value of someone like Patrick Bateman from American Psycho.
- The book constantly tries to shock with its numerous depictions of sexual violence and other forms of physical and psychological abuse, but these scenes have no other purpose: They're completely gratuitous.
- The levels of misogyny, racism and homophobia in this book are truly astonishing. I'm not the type of person who sees a racist/sexist/homophobic protagonist and rushes to call the author a bigot or whatever, because I realise that it could just be part of the story/characterisation, but in this case I just cannot believe that the author himself isn't a massive dickhead.
- The entire book is predicated on one concept that the author never manages to sell, and I quickly got tired of its pseudo-philosophical bullshit. You could tell that the author was really happy with himself for coming up with this stuff, when really a six year old could've done the same thing.
- It's also horribly, horribly written - the sex (or, more commonly, rape) scenes are particularly bad and filled with stupid metaphors, like "I encouraged her to baptize the uncircumcised child with the sacred water of her mouth." Unfortunately this is not the worst line in the book.
I honestly think I am worse off for having read this book. I felt bored and vaguely disgusted throughout the whole thing, and I didn't learn anything from it. This last point is particularly worrisome because I usually learn something from every book I read, even those I don't like. This is a glaring exception.
August 14, 2015
You're on a blind date with a dude who isn't much (but he thinks very highly of himself). You were set up by a friend you usually trust, who convinced you this dude was super cool.
Dude explains to you his greatest idea, which he finds very clever.
You nod and you mumble: 'mhm, okay', because you're a polite person.
He's puzzled at your lack of enthusiasm. Must be because you're too stupid to get his clever idea. He has to explain again. And again. And again. 'See, you assign outcomes to the faces of a die, and then you roll it, and you have to do what the die picked! The die rules your decisions! It's an amazing concept! IT CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE!'
'Mhm', you nod, and you smile. You look at your watch. You wonder how long until you can make up some reason to leave. Or maybe you could just go to the ladies' room and never come back.
'Don't you see? This is the solution to our mediocre, repressed lives! It's genius! It's amazing! Everyone should try it!'
'Why don't we talk about something else?' you suggest, on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Dude agrees, and proceeds to talk about his sex life. His sex life is awesome. All women want to have sex with him. All women are secretly nymphomaniacs waiting for a word from him to release their inner sex beast and follow him into the bedroom. You, too, will want to have sex with him before you know it.
You yawn and look at your watch again.
This is basically what reading this book was like for me. Couldn't finish it.
Dude explains to you his greatest idea, which he finds very clever.
You nod and you mumble: 'mhm, okay', because you're a polite person.
He's puzzled at your lack of enthusiasm. Must be because you're too stupid to get his clever idea. He has to explain again. And again. And again. 'See, you assign outcomes to the faces of a die, and then you roll it, and you have to do what the die picked! The die rules your decisions! It's an amazing concept! IT CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE!'
'Mhm', you nod, and you smile. You look at your watch. You wonder how long until you can make up some reason to leave. Or maybe you could just go to the ladies' room and never come back.
'Don't you see? This is the solution to our mediocre, repressed lives! It's genius! It's amazing! Everyone should try it!'
'Why don't we talk about something else?' you suggest, on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Dude agrees, and proceeds to talk about his sex life. His sex life is awesome. All women want to have sex with him. All women are secretly nymphomaniacs waiting for a word from him to release their inner sex beast and follow him into the bedroom. You, too, will want to have sex with him before you know it.
You yawn and look at your watch again.
This is basically what reading this book was like for me. Couldn't finish it.
February 24, 2013
SPOILER LEVEL: Moderate.
I met an interesting girl at a party once. Certainly not the world’s most unique of circumstances, but what drew my interest to her was what drew me to this book.
There this person stood, drink in hand and no stranger to hobbies branded as unusual. She it turned out was a contortionist and juggling extraordinaire. But most fascinating of all, she referred to herself as The Dice Lady. My eyes darted to her ears where the sides of a mutilated die punched holes and mutilated her in turn. She then showed me a tattoo of a die to confirm her passion. It was even her birthday that day and by way of gifts, her many friends had gifted her with set upon set of rare and unusual dice. She was most certainly The Dice Lady, just as advertised. I naturally asked her how she came by such a fixation, and she told me; The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart. I made a Christmas present of it to myself.
The concept is a simple one. Letting dice determine every aspect of your life and influencing every decision that you make. It is about the destruction of the pattern that makes you “you” and the creation of the totally random man. A slave to the deity of chance.
It is indeed a simple concept, but an exciting one. Every person has known boredom in their life, but few go to such lengths to relieve themselves of it. Reading through the pages as Luke Rhinehart leaves his self behind and transitions into The Dice Man is as exciting as it is unpredictable. I could not wait to see what the dice would tell him to do next.
Concept: + 10.00
The character of Luke Rhinehart is a hard one to pin down. He is a man capable of rape, murder and subverting his own government. The Dice Man destroys his marriage and distances him from his children. He is a complete and total slave to the dice, but a very charismatic slave at that. Despite many of his practices being morally deplorable, I found myself absorbed in his philosophy and theory.
Other characters take a back seat to Luke and his dice. They all have their moments but he is always at the centre. They are merely there to react to his antics and eventually be converted by him as he rises into cult status. Fortunately for the book, Luke Rhinehart is an interesting enough protagonist to carry the story without a strong supporting cast.
Characters: + 2.00
Narratively the book tends to vary on a chapter by chapter basis. Often in first person, sometimes in third. Sometimes it is even a transcript or dramatisation of events Luke Rhinehart is not privy to. On occasion it is excerpts from ‘The Book of the Die’ that treats the whole movement as if it were a religion. This style of writing certainly suits the random vibe but can be hit and miss sometimes with its inconsistency. Personally I found ‘The Book of the Die’ excerpts to be tedious and heavy handed. A lot of it coupled with letters from fans makes it feel a tad masturbatory. It also glosses over some events that become relevant later in the book ‘because the die told him to leave them out’.
Inconsistent narrative: – 0.50
Book of the die excerpts: – 1.00
Glossing over key story elements: – 2.00
KEY MOMENTS
The die dictated murder: + 1.00
His first dice decision: + 2.00
The institution escape: + 1.00
Dramatisation of near expulsion: + 0.25
OTHER FACTORS
Pacing: + 1.00
Satisfaction: + 2.00
Entertaining Dialogue: + 2.00
Dice Concept Masturbating: – 1.00
OVERALL BOOK VALUE: €16.75
I met an interesting girl at a party once. Certainly not the world’s most unique of circumstances, but what drew my interest to her was what drew me to this book.
There this person stood, drink in hand and no stranger to hobbies branded as unusual. She it turned out was a contortionist and juggling extraordinaire. But most fascinating of all, she referred to herself as The Dice Lady. My eyes darted to her ears where the sides of a mutilated die punched holes and mutilated her in turn. She then showed me a tattoo of a die to confirm her passion. It was even her birthday that day and by way of gifts, her many friends had gifted her with set upon set of rare and unusual dice. She was most certainly The Dice Lady, just as advertised. I naturally asked her how she came by such a fixation, and she told me; The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart. I made a Christmas present of it to myself.
The concept is a simple one. Letting dice determine every aspect of your life and influencing every decision that you make. It is about the destruction of the pattern that makes you “you” and the creation of the totally random man. A slave to the deity of chance.
It is indeed a simple concept, but an exciting one. Every person has known boredom in their life, but few go to such lengths to relieve themselves of it. Reading through the pages as Luke Rhinehart leaves his self behind and transitions into The Dice Man is as exciting as it is unpredictable. I could not wait to see what the dice would tell him to do next.
Concept: + 10.00
The character of Luke Rhinehart is a hard one to pin down. He is a man capable of rape, murder and subverting his own government. The Dice Man destroys his marriage and distances him from his children. He is a complete and total slave to the dice, but a very charismatic slave at that. Despite many of his practices being morally deplorable, I found myself absorbed in his philosophy and theory.
Other characters take a back seat to Luke and his dice. They all have their moments but he is always at the centre. They are merely there to react to his antics and eventually be converted by him as he rises into cult status. Fortunately for the book, Luke Rhinehart is an interesting enough protagonist to carry the story without a strong supporting cast.
Characters: + 2.00
Narratively the book tends to vary on a chapter by chapter basis. Often in first person, sometimes in third. Sometimes it is even a transcript or dramatisation of events Luke Rhinehart is not privy to. On occasion it is excerpts from ‘The Book of the Die’ that treats the whole movement as if it were a religion. This style of writing certainly suits the random vibe but can be hit and miss sometimes with its inconsistency. Personally I found ‘The Book of the Die’ excerpts to be tedious and heavy handed. A lot of it coupled with letters from fans makes it feel a tad masturbatory. It also glosses over some events that become relevant later in the book ‘because the die told him to leave them out’.
Inconsistent narrative: – 0.50
Book of the die excerpts: – 1.00
Glossing over key story elements: – 2.00
KEY MOMENTS
The die dictated murder: + 1.00
His first dice decision: + 2.00
The institution escape: + 1.00
Dramatisation of near expulsion: + 0.25
OTHER FACTORS
Pacing: + 1.00
Satisfaction: + 2.00
Entertaining Dialogue: + 2.00
Dice Concept Masturbating: – 1.00
OVERALL BOOK VALUE: €16.75
August 18, 2019
The hero of this novel (sharing the author’s name) is a psychologist who, jaded and sunk into ennui, decides on a whim based on the turn of a die to "rape" (read: seduce) his colleague’s wife. After the success of his seduction, he turns to aleatory direction more and more (creating his own options and letting the die decide which to do), until he’s built a whole religion or cult after the Dice, complete with nationwide centers where inductees are required to cast away all inhibitions and identity, acting only and totally according to the "will" of chance.
It’s an intriguing idea, all right, but I'm probably too old for this kind of foolishness. It reminded me of Robert Anton Wilson’s “reality tunnel” idea (found in, I think, Illuminatus!), where he encourages people to try the world views of others, including Nazis and perverts. Rhinehart’s book is exciting in its way, and propelled along by a sort of plot, but it’s weighed down by 300 pages, a ‘70s attitude toward women and sex (as in the cavalier use of the word “rape” above), and marred by truly abysmal sex scenes (such prose as “round bowls of her meat roiling on my bone” and “her fold opening and swallowing with honeyed tongues”— more informed, I’m afraid, by the very worst of Penthouse than any erotic sensibility).
It’s an intriguing idea, all right, but I'm probably too old for this kind of foolishness. It reminded me of Robert Anton Wilson’s “reality tunnel” idea (found in, I think, Illuminatus!), where he encourages people to try the world views of others, including Nazis and perverts. Rhinehart’s book is exciting in its way, and propelled along by a sort of plot, but it’s weighed down by 300 pages, a ‘70s attitude toward women and sex (as in the cavalier use of the word “rape” above), and marred by truly abysmal sex scenes (such prose as “round bowls of her meat roiling on my bone” and “her fold opening and swallowing with honeyed tongues”— more informed, I’m afraid, by the very worst of Penthouse than any erotic sensibility).
June 24, 2011
If I could give this negative stars, I would weigh it down so heavily it would sink to the bottom of the ocean, through the sea bed itself, and burn, burn, burn in the magma of the earth's core.
This book is so badly written that it only attains one thing - it holds the prize for the greatest discrepancy between quality of the idea vs. execution in literary (if it can be so called) history.
Abominable. So bad in fact that the prominence it is always given in bookstores - because they know people will buy it based on the concept alone - irks me as I enter them.
Avoid at all costs - a cliche-ridden piece of badly scrawled trash. Simply unfit for human consumption.
This book is so badly written that it only attains one thing - it holds the prize for the greatest discrepancy between quality of the idea vs. execution in literary (if it can be so called) history.
Abominable. So bad in fact that the prominence it is always given in bookstores - because they know people will buy it based on the concept alone - irks me as I enter them.
Avoid at all costs - a cliche-ridden piece of badly scrawled trash. Simply unfit for human consumption.
April 25, 2025
One of the most glorious opening chapters I've ever read followed by one of the most mediocre novels.
The plot concerns a (bored) psychiatrist who, one day, rapes his downstairs neighbour Arlene. Except, he doesn't really rape her because she's (conveniently) into it. But the experience of spontaneity encourages him to contemplate how he makes his choices in life. This results in him using a die to pick from six options and whatever the die tells him to do, he must comply. These options range from the banal (go to the zoo, eat at a certain place, etc) to the more extreme (punch someone, fuck a woman, fuck a dude). As he becomes more invested in this lifestyle, more seemingly liberated, he introduces the system to others (starting with Arlene, even his kids), and presents it as a kind of psychiatric treatment which eradicates the ego from decision making. Slowly but surely more join him until there is a cult following which spreads (think Fight Club) across America. Ultimately, this dice-living acts as a personal revolution against the constraints of modernism.
I can only imagine this book has a cult following because it dabbles in a few transgressive (albeit obvious) ideas most of which will appeal to people who have the mental age of a teenage boy (who has been recently kicked in the head by a horse). Because honestly, the book is just relentless self-indulgent banality. The writing would make Dan Brown cringe and the naughty bits (by modern standards) are immensely forgettable and dull. I dunno, maybe it's the idea of having your decisions taken out of your control or acquiring a greater degree of freedom in an otherwise bland life that appeals to people. But I really did find this neither interesting nor creative, just endlessly predictable and obvious. Perhaps by 1971 standards it has a quaint notion of being dangerous and subversive but even that feels like a stretch (I've read books from the 1920s that took greater risks than this, all while producing significantly better prose and themes). This just comes across as juvenile drivel, not to mention lazy and cliched. The book is over written and over long. Obvious and dated. But again, maybe in the early seventies, this was mind-blowing or something. It wasn't diffucult to read (prosaic but readable language) but I found it mostly tiresome.
As I said, the opening chapter really did get me excited. His description of a creeping ennui which was debilitating, oppressive, even inevitable, and the boredom of a modernity which was already present in the swinging sixties (even as the sexual liberation narrative was still going), was quite profound and engaging. I was completely onboard...
Excellent. Right up my street. Here we go... I thought. I was anticipating a novel of ideas, opinion, unique thought, nihilism, and maybe a touch of the romantic, the exquisite. But instead (after chapter one), I got a dialogue heavy story about a dull New York psychiatrist and his boring wife and kids followed by some juvenile crap about dice making his decisions so he could bang his neighbour. Then others join in, then a cult following, then... yawn. It was just very bland. It reminded me of Portnoy's complaint in the sense that it was another self-obsessed New Yorker spouting whiny psycho-analytical nonsense about his rather comfortable life. But here comes the transgressive part. Are you ready? Look, people who are homosexuals -- wow, can you imagine!! Crazy stuff.
Honestly, this was painfully average and immensely forgettable. Apparently all the sequels were massive flops too so perhaps even his fans, those who massively overrated it, realised that even they (eventually) have to grow up.
Now, should I watch telly and eat crisps or do the dishes? If only there was a way to take this decision out of my hands.
The plot concerns a (bored) psychiatrist who, one day, rapes his downstairs neighbour Arlene. Except, he doesn't really rape her because she's (conveniently) into it. But the experience of spontaneity encourages him to contemplate how he makes his choices in life. This results in him using a die to pick from six options and whatever the die tells him to do, he must comply. These options range from the banal (go to the zoo, eat at a certain place, etc) to the more extreme (punch someone, fuck a woman, fuck a dude). As he becomes more invested in this lifestyle, more seemingly liberated, he introduces the system to others (starting with Arlene, even his kids), and presents it as a kind of psychiatric treatment which eradicates the ego from decision making. Slowly but surely more join him until there is a cult following which spreads (think Fight Club) across America. Ultimately, this dice-living acts as a personal revolution against the constraints of modernism.
I can only imagine this book has a cult following because it dabbles in a few transgressive (albeit obvious) ideas most of which will appeal to people who have the mental age of a teenage boy (who has been recently kicked in the head by a horse). Because honestly, the book is just relentless self-indulgent banality. The writing would make Dan Brown cringe and the naughty bits (by modern standards) are immensely forgettable and dull. I dunno, maybe it's the idea of having your decisions taken out of your control or acquiring a greater degree of freedom in an otherwise bland life that appeals to people. But I really did find this neither interesting nor creative, just endlessly predictable and obvious. Perhaps by 1971 standards it has a quaint notion of being dangerous and subversive but even that feels like a stretch (I've read books from the 1920s that took greater risks than this, all while producing significantly better prose and themes). This just comes across as juvenile drivel, not to mention lazy and cliched. The book is over written and over long. Obvious and dated. But again, maybe in the early seventies, this was mind-blowing or something. It wasn't diffucult to read (prosaic but readable language) but I found it mostly tiresome.
As I said, the opening chapter really did get me excited. His description of a creeping ennui which was debilitating, oppressive, even inevitable, and the boredom of a modernity which was already present in the swinging sixties (even as the sexual liberation narrative was still going), was quite profound and engaging. I was completely onboard...
Life is islands of ecstasy in an ocean of ennui, and after the age of thirty land is seldom seen.
Excellent. Right up my street. Here we go... I thought. I was anticipating a novel of ideas, opinion, unique thought, nihilism, and maybe a touch of the romantic, the exquisite. But instead (after chapter one), I got a dialogue heavy story about a dull New York psychiatrist and his boring wife and kids followed by some juvenile crap about dice making his decisions so he could bang his neighbour. Then others join in, then a cult following, then... yawn. It was just very bland. It reminded me of Portnoy's complaint in the sense that it was another self-obsessed New Yorker spouting whiny psycho-analytical nonsense about his rather comfortable life. But here comes the transgressive part. Are you ready? Look, people who are homosexuals -- wow, can you imagine!! Crazy stuff.
Honestly, this was painfully average and immensely forgettable. Apparently all the sequels were massive flops too so perhaps even his fans, those who massively overrated it, realised that even they (eventually) have to grow up.
Now, should I watch telly and eat crisps or do the dishes? If only there was a way to take this decision out of my hands.
October 13, 2019
OMG THIS BOOK.
Haha okay just to set the scene, I'm reviewing here when I read it, like, a decade ago. Back in the day when I was studying psychology and thought this would be fascinating.
But it was SO WEIRD YO.
Basically this guy live his life by rolling die to make decisions. I liked the idea and the implications but the actual context got batsh*t insane and from what I recall he was having messy, graphic affairs and basically devolving into an absolutely disgusting excuse for a human being. It was made even more confusing by the author using himself as a main character? (You know that meme with the dude smiling in confusion with question marks all around his head? This is me.)
It was crazy.
I got so mad at it LOL. I expected it to have some seriously deep insight into breaking unspoken societal rules and freedom and expression and bravery etc. but it was basically 'if the dice says I have to be a horrible human being then I guess I have no choice but to be a horrible human being'. Which is, like, obviously the whole messed up point - it's about taking away choice through choice. *scratches head* I got no clue.
But it was so FKD UP because I was trying to work out if it was an autobiography?! And why wasn't this dude in jail??!
So yeah this is another one I wanted to throw across the room on finishing because it was so fkn BIZARRE and absolutely NOT what I expected at all.
Anyone read it recently? Coz I would be keen to hear some more recent thoughts on this mess.
Haha okay just to set the scene, I'm reviewing here when I read it, like, a decade ago. Back in the day when I was studying psychology and thought this would be fascinating.
But it was SO WEIRD YO.
Basically this guy live his life by rolling die to make decisions. I liked the idea and the implications but the actual context got batsh*t insane and from what I recall he was having messy, graphic affairs and basically devolving into an absolutely disgusting excuse for a human being. It was made even more confusing by the author using himself as a main character? (You know that meme with the dude smiling in confusion with question marks all around his head? This is me.)
It was crazy.
I got so mad at it LOL. I expected it to have some seriously deep insight into breaking unspoken societal rules and freedom and expression and bravery etc. but it was basically 'if the dice says I have to be a horrible human being then I guess I have no choice but to be a horrible human being'. Which is, like, obviously the whole messed up point - it's about taking away choice through choice. *scratches head* I got no clue.
But it was so FKD UP because I was trying to work out if it was an autobiography?! And why wasn't this dude in jail??!
So yeah this is another one I wanted to throw across the room on finishing because it was so fkn BIZARRE and absolutely NOT what I expected at all.
Anyone read it recently? Coz I would be keen to hear some more recent thoughts on this mess.
July 8, 2016
What an ingenious idea. In fact I'm surprised no one thought of this earlier.
Psychiatrist Luke Rhinehart bored with life so he devises a scheme where all his life decisions are taken up by choosing twelve options and rolling a pair of dice. Some of the options range from simple choices to killing his son. As the word spreads Rhinehart gains a cult following and then things go from weird to bizarre, the overblown ending is akin to an action film.
The Dice Man is a good book of ideas. It is a bit silly but it's a ton of fun and for it's length it's pretty breezy. It screams cult classic.
March 8, 2023
One of the most unusual and beguiling books I have ever read. Maybe it should have been called Tales of the Unexpected and as noted in The Burlington Files series, Bill Fairclough actually lived by the dice with a gang of Brazilian burglars! So do also read Beyond Enkription - The Burlington Files which is equally unpredictable but true. By the way, Beyond Enkription is an intriguing raw factual thriller and a super read as long as you don’t expect John le Carré’s delicate diction, sophisticated syntax and placid plots.
April 26, 2025
My feelings are best summarised by this quote from one of the characters in the book:
“You know this hospital is a farce, but tragic, suffering—a tragic farce. You know there are nuts running this place—nuts!—not even counting you! [...] You know what American racism is. You know what the war in Vietnam is. And you toss dice! You toss dice!! [...]
I’m leaving. Thanks for the pot, thanks for the silences, thanks even for the games, but don’t say another word about tossing your fucking dice, or I’ll kill you.”...
April 13, 2020
Bored psychiatrist Luke Rhinehart decides to give up fate to the roll of the dice, and changes is life, and maybe the world itself! [Rhinehart's real name is George Cookcroft.] This 'cult classic', known as being 'anti-psychiatry', about a psych letting the role of a dice determine his life and how he then extends this to a de-facto religion with followers, 'dice-centres', and the accompanying literature. I found it all rather juvenile to be honest! 4 out of 12.
December 10, 2020
"It's the way a man chooses to limit himself that determines his character. A man without habits, consistency, redundancy-and hence boredom-is not human. He's insane."
I first heard mention of The Dice Man in a walking magazine of all things, of using a dice to decide which direction you should take (within limits) when you got to a path junction, so when I spotted it only a couple of weeks later I couldn't resist picking it up. Imagine living your life at the whim of a roll of a dice, every decision you make left to chance.
Luke Rhinehart, a Manhattan psychiatrist,finds himself stuck in a rut. He has a successful practice, a loving wife and two kids but feels his life is empty. Even worse, he sees no possibility of it improving. One night, he decides to roll a die to determine whether he should go and rape the wife of one of his friends and neighbour. The die tells him to do it and so he proceeds to the neighbours apartment where the woman quickly consents. From that point forward, Rhinehart gradually turns all of his decisions over to the dice and as he throws off his own restraints, so he also begins to preach the virtues of “dice living” to the general public, causing many people to abandon their lives to the whims of the dice.
There is certainly a sardonic humour here as it questions the norms of civilised society and what constitutes madness but it is more bludgeoning than subtle:
“This is a great land of freedom but it isn’t made for people who insist on insisting on their own ideas”
“Tell me the manner in which a patient commits suicide and I’ll tell you how he can be cured".
It also touches on some pretty thorny topics like religion, homosexuality, child molestation and murder amongst others, however, far too much of the book seems to simply centre on the author's sexual fantasies. I certainly would not regard myself as a prude but after a while these simply became repetitive, like something that you would find in "Playboy" or a similar publication.
Set in 1969 and written in the early 1970's towards the end of 'free love' and the height of the Cold War when world annihilation seemed a real possibility this is a book that sets out to shock. Whilst some of the humour could certainly be described as edgy (some of the character names are certainly amusing)and I found myself wanting to turn the pages to find out what happened next I also felt that it rather ran out of steam, as if the author had run out of ways to shock the reader, meaning that some of the jokes fell flat. As such this book although it still has the power to shock and offend it also feels of it's time.
This is certainly what can best be described as a Marmite book, some will certainly love it, some will hate it but everybody will find something distasteful about it. However, it also asks the reader a question. Will breaking the patterns of our lives lead to fuller ones?
“From children to men we cage ourselves in patterns to avoid facing new problems and possible failure; after a while men become bored because there are no new problems. Such is life under the fear of failure”
I first heard mention of The Dice Man in a walking magazine of all things, of using a dice to decide which direction you should take (within limits) when you got to a path junction, so when I spotted it only a couple of weeks later I couldn't resist picking it up. Imagine living your life at the whim of a roll of a dice, every decision you make left to chance.
Luke Rhinehart, a Manhattan psychiatrist,finds himself stuck in a rut. He has a successful practice, a loving wife and two kids but feels his life is empty. Even worse, he sees no possibility of it improving. One night, he decides to roll a die to determine whether he should go and rape the wife of one of his friends and neighbour. The die tells him to do it and so he proceeds to the neighbours apartment where the woman quickly consents. From that point forward, Rhinehart gradually turns all of his decisions over to the dice and as he throws off his own restraints, so he also begins to preach the virtues of “dice living” to the general public, causing many people to abandon their lives to the whims of the dice.
There is certainly a sardonic humour here as it questions the norms of civilised society and what constitutes madness but it is more bludgeoning than subtle:
“This is a great land of freedom but it isn’t made for people who insist on insisting on their own ideas”
“Tell me the manner in which a patient commits suicide and I’ll tell you how he can be cured".
It also touches on some pretty thorny topics like religion, homosexuality, child molestation and murder amongst others, however, far too much of the book seems to simply centre on the author's sexual fantasies. I certainly would not regard myself as a prude but after a while these simply became repetitive, like something that you would find in "Playboy" or a similar publication.
Set in 1969 and written in the early 1970's towards the end of 'free love' and the height of the Cold War when world annihilation seemed a real possibility this is a book that sets out to shock. Whilst some of the humour could certainly be described as edgy (some of the character names are certainly amusing)and I found myself wanting to turn the pages to find out what happened next I also felt that it rather ran out of steam, as if the author had run out of ways to shock the reader, meaning that some of the jokes fell flat. As such this book although it still has the power to shock and offend it also feels of it's time.
This is certainly what can best be described as a Marmite book, some will certainly love it, some will hate it but everybody will find something distasteful about it. However, it also asks the reader a question. Will breaking the patterns of our lives lead to fuller ones?
“From children to men we cage ourselves in patterns to avoid facing new problems and possible failure; after a while men become bored because there are no new problems. Such is life under the fear of failure”
July 28, 2016
The Dice Man is a book I'd heard about and was happy to read when it was suggested for book club. It started off well; a depressed psychiatrist roles a dice to determine his fate, starting a random chain of events that challenge his identity and steer him further and further from his comfortable middle class life. In it's anarchic and comic way, the novel asks why we stick to the narrow scripted roles we're familiar with, when we have the ability to chose from a much wider range of life's possibilities? Where do the boundaries lie between what is sane and insane? etc etc . Sounds quite good? Well, you've only heard half of it....
It's funny in places, but not funny enough to stretch over 500 pages. After the half way mark it becomes rather repetitious. I disliked most of the characters and the women, were just there so that Luke, the main character, could have plenty of sex. Yes, there is PLENTY of sex in this novel, but it's very technical and seriously UNsexy and after a while it's just boring... This is such a blokes' book. A young, arrogant, sexist kind of a bloke at that! I should have noticed the quote on the cover, before I started: 'Novelist of the Century' according to LOADED Magazine.... The other thing is that it feels SOOOO dated. It was written in 1971 and you can really tell. Supposedly 'shocking' and 'revelatory', I really felt I'd been there before. It reminds me a little of Catch-22, but not half as good.
It's funny in places, but not funny enough to stretch over 500 pages. After the half way mark it becomes rather repetitious. I disliked most of the characters and the women, were just there so that Luke, the main character, could have plenty of sex. Yes, there is PLENTY of sex in this novel, but it's very technical and seriously UNsexy and after a while it's just boring... This is such a blokes' book. A young, arrogant, sexist kind of a bloke at that! I should have noticed the quote on the cover, before I started: 'Novelist of the Century' according to LOADED Magazine.... The other thing is that it feels SOOOO dated. It was written in 1971 and you can really tell. Supposedly 'shocking' and 'revelatory', I really felt I'd been there before. It reminds me a little of Catch-22, but not half as good.
January 17, 2011
Thank goodness that's over.
I re-read this book as preparation for a talk that I'm giving about chance. I remember hating the book the first time I read it (probably about a decade ago). I hate it more now.
Essentially, the plot is that a psychotherapist (named Luke Rhinehart, as is the author of the book) is bored of his mundane life, and decides to improve it by assigning options to a 6-sided dice, rolling it, and then living his life according to the options. Unfortunately, the options that Rhinehart assigns to the different sides of the dice are self-destructive and, quite often, inconsiderate and selfish (e.g. raping, killing, leaving his family). Inexplicably, in the book, this way of living catches on, and dice-life centres open up across the United States.
The book was written in the Seventies, which doesn't fully explain the phenomenal amounts of misogyny that pepper the plot. There are few consequences or repercussions for the selfish behaviour that Rhinehart and the other dice-adherents exhibit, and I found the message of the book to be hollow and unsatisfying. Ugh. At least it doesn't take long to read.
I re-read this book as preparation for a talk that I'm giving about chance. I remember hating the book the first time I read it (probably about a decade ago). I hate it more now.
Essentially, the plot is that a psychotherapist (named Luke Rhinehart, as is the author of the book) is bored of his mundane life, and decides to improve it by assigning options to a 6-sided dice, rolling it, and then living his life according to the options. Unfortunately, the options that Rhinehart assigns to the different sides of the dice are self-destructive and, quite often, inconsiderate and selfish (e.g. raping, killing, leaving his family). Inexplicably, in the book, this way of living catches on, and dice-life centres open up across the United States.
The book was written in the Seventies, which doesn't fully explain the phenomenal amounts of misogyny that pepper the plot. There are few consequences or repercussions for the selfish behaviour that Rhinehart and the other dice-adherents exhibit, and I found the message of the book to be hollow and unsatisfying. Ugh. At least it doesn't take long to read.
February 23, 2021
Am pretty sure the double asterisk AND backdoor have used this method of decision-making for years, whereas others posit a line and chaos theory.
May 12, 2019
NOPE. All of the fucking nope.
I picked this up because I work with a psychiatrist that we joke makes decisions by tossing a coin (yes, this is as much of a problem as you think it is, no we're not getting into that now). Any way, because we joke about that all the time, this book came up in conversation and I decided I'd go ahead and read the damn thing. It should be entertaining, right?
Wrong. This is satire in the most The Catcher in the Rye way, and if you know me at all you know that is the least complimentary thing I could say. It is not fun, it is ponderous and heavy and sucks the joy and fun out of everything it touches. It made me want to time travel so I could kick the author in the balls repeatedly until he gave up on his dream of writing this garbage.
I'm not sure if this angered me because I associate it with a specific person, if it angered me because everyone is awful, if it angered me because it's a professional abomination or if it angered me because it's fucking far too close to home about how mental health really treated people in the 60s/70s. Probably all of the above. As a profession we've a history of being far too fucking cavalier with people's lives and well-being and this book proceeded to make a fucking mockery of it in the most unfunny way. If you're going to point out how shitty mental health services have been, maybe make the point in a way that ACTUALLY MAKES THE POINT rather than leaving the reader wondering. Because from our perspective now, it seems like it would be obvious that running a sex experiment where you (the researcher) pretend to be someone else and pressure a client to sleep with you is fucking wrong as shit they were ACTUALLY DOING SHIT LIKE THAT in the 60s. Readers when the book came out wouldn't have had our perspective and that fucking creeps me the hell out.
And this fucking main character. Ugh. Put him in the bin of annoying white men who think they are entitled to be "special" at the rest of the world's expense. Like he's the only person who has ever been bored by life or who's life didn't turn out the way he wanted it to. Hey fuckstick, you're not entitled to anything and you're not that fucking special. He's bored, so he decides that he's going to completely fuck up his life (fine, do you); his wife's life (asshat); his business (dick); and his children (unacceptable, you fucker). Like, whatever, you want a divorce and to start again, fucking go. But be a grown up about it. This whole book is him being a fucking child and pretending like he has no control and is whimsical when really he's just a bag of dicks.
I put it down. I had to. I hated the book, I hated the author for writing it and I hated myself for reading it. Do yourself a favor and skip it.
I picked this up because I work with a psychiatrist that we joke makes decisions by tossing a coin (yes, this is as much of a problem as you think it is, no we're not getting into that now). Any way, because we joke about that all the time, this book came up in conversation and I decided I'd go ahead and read the damn thing. It should be entertaining, right?
Wrong. This is satire in the most The Catcher in the Rye way, and if you know me at all you know that is the least complimentary thing I could say. It is not fun, it is ponderous and heavy and sucks the joy and fun out of everything it touches. It made me want to time travel so I could kick the author in the balls repeatedly until he gave up on his dream of writing this garbage.
I'm not sure if this angered me because I associate it with a specific person, if it angered me because everyone is awful, if it angered me because it's a professional abomination or if it angered me because it's fucking far too close to home about how mental health really treated people in the 60s/70s. Probably all of the above. As a profession we've a history of being far too fucking cavalier with people's lives and well-being and this book proceeded to make a fucking mockery of it in the most unfunny way. If you're going to point out how shitty mental health services have been, maybe make the point in a way that ACTUALLY MAKES THE POINT rather than leaving the reader wondering. Because from our perspective now, it seems like it would be obvious that running a sex experiment where you (the researcher) pretend to be someone else and pressure a client to sleep with you is fucking wrong as shit they were ACTUALLY DOING SHIT LIKE THAT in the 60s. Readers when the book came out wouldn't have had our perspective and that fucking creeps me the hell out.
And this fucking main character. Ugh. Put him in the bin of annoying white men who think they are entitled to be "special" at the rest of the world's expense. Like he's the only person who has ever been bored by life or who's life didn't turn out the way he wanted it to. Hey fuckstick, you're not entitled to anything and you're not that fucking special. He's bored, so he decides that he's going to completely fuck up his life (fine, do you); his wife's life (asshat); his business (dick); and his children (unacceptable, you fucker). Like, whatever, you want a divorce and to start again, fucking go. But be a grown up about it. This whole book is him being a fucking child and pretending like he has no control and is whimsical when really he's just a bag of dicks.
I put it down. I had to. I hated the book, I hated the author for writing it and I hated myself for reading it. Do yourself a favor and skip it.
October 31, 2018
The idea itself sounds interesting, but after a couple of hundred pages, you feel you're losing some interest in the book, and you've come up with the idea itself.
The concept of the book is ritualistic and makes you think it is an absolute genius, but it feels as if the writer is not a tree lover. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain why the original idea of the book documented in 440 pages, 300 of which feel superfluous and make you lose Interest.
Note that there are quite a few pages that document sexual events that are not suitable for children, and I am quite sure that many adults will not like to read them either.
In any case, I must say that this book has made me think a lot about our society and life and change my way of thinking a bit, so it may be something that is worth reading.
The concept of the book is ritualistic and makes you think it is an absolute genius, but it feels as if the writer is not a tree lover. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain why the original idea of the book documented in 440 pages, 300 of which feel superfluous and make you lose Interest.
Note that there are quite a few pages that document sexual events that are not suitable for children, and I am quite sure that many adults will not like to read them either.
In any case, I must say that this book has made me think a lot about our society and life and change my way of thinking a bit, so it may be something that is worth reading.
Want to read
November 7, 2019On the one hand, this interesting article! On the other hand, 500 pages.
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