The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Douglas Adams)

Note:

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe is the second novel in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series. If you'd like to read my review for the original guide, click here. Enjoy!

     In my mind, there are four essential elements to a good novel. First, an engaging plot line to keep you wondering. Second, great characters to keep you invested. Third, a thought-provoking message or theme, and finally pure entertainment value. Frankly, both The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe fell miserably flat on three of those points- and aced the fourth.
      Let's get the worst bits over with first. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe has a plot which is at best patchy and at worst utterly meaningless. It's rather tough for me to sum up, in fact. You could say that we follow Zaphod Beeblebrox, ex-president of the galaxy, in his attempts to evade the intergalactic police while searching for information about his past. Even that vague plot line, however, is flawed. In truth Zaphod doesn't seem to care much about what happened before part of his brain was locked off, and nobody seems to give much thought to the police. Anticlimax follows anticlimax, and you begin to understand that the author wasn't too focused on making a legible plot. In truth, it's nothing but a farce designed to bring you from one joke to the next.
Even that seems like giving the plot too much credit. I'll tell you now, once you get into this book and realize that everything that happens will end up underwhelming and inconsequential you begin to wonder why you even care. As a result, you don't. 
      Another recurring problem from the last book is the flat, two-dimensional characters. Most of the comedy in The Restaurant at the end of the Universe stems from the characters being oblivious/stupid/repetitive, or simply not caring about anything that goes on around them. This works well for comedy, but it's infuriating for the reader looking for relatable or indeed likeable characters. There's no character development. No lessons are learned. Everyone in the book is so incredibly predictable that the reader doesn't care  about them, either.
     I believe that I said in my review of Will Grayson Will Grayson that the ultimate goal of fiction should be to somehow make the reader think more deeply about their own lives. One way that an author can do this is by inserting themes or morals into their story. Again, Douglas Adams fell tragically short in this regard. If there is a theme, which I somehow doubt, it's that "The world has gone mad." I didn't walk away from this book thinking any deep philosophical thoughts, let me tell you.
      As if that's not enough, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe committed two more heinous crimes to make me even more ticked at it. First, they introduced time travel. Second, they murdered my favourite character. 
      I don’t know about you, but I just can’t accept time travel in any universe. I simply cannot comprehend how anything can function with people zipping in and out of centuries and mucking about in them. In this case, time travel damaged a plot that was already about to keel over and die. 
      Worse, my favourite character died. As previously noted no characters in the book were particularly likeable, but the one who I did somewhat sympathize with died in a blazing explosion and shows no sign of coming back. To add insult to injury, the other characters continued their theme of never caring about anything and didn't even mention him/her after (s)he died. That really ticked me off, to say the least.
     Clearly, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe has some major issues. Shaky plot, shaky characters, no lesson learned. Three of my hastily made benchmarks for a good novel thrown down the drain.
Still, the fourth benchmark entertainment, and that's where The Restaurant at the End of the Universe found it's stride. It's a hilarious read, and while there were some slower moments, it kept me engaged almost throughout.
The best way to understand why would be to read the book. In light of the fact that your shaking your fist at me now because that's a cheap response, I'll save myself the trouble of trying to explain and instead bring some of the book to you.
Let me set the scene. Dim the lights, and transport yourself a couple billion years into the future and a couple million light years away. You're at an extremely fancy restaurant, filled with people. Above you there's a glass roof, showing you the universe in all its glory. You've come through time and space to be here at this moment; the moment when the universe finally, completely, and literally ends.
There's a stage in the centre of the restaurant, where a humanoid entertainer named Max is at this moment listing some of the distinguished guests to the restaurant that night.
“And thirdly,” he said, “thirdly a party of Young Conservatives from Sirius B, are they here?”
A party of smartly dressed dogs stopped throwing rolls at each other and started throwing rolls at the stage. They yapped and barked unintelligibly.
“Yes,” said Max, “well, this is all your fault, you realize that?"
Isn't that gold? In four sentences that bit conveys the tone of the novel. I feel as though there are dozens of satirical references in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe that go right over my head. That one I caught, and appreciated greatly.
In conclusion, the entire Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series has been a rather interesting journey thus far. It’s certainly not for everyone; I had to cast aside my views as to what makes a good book in order to not hate this one from the outset. You'll have to consciously swallow your doubts about the novel in order to keep it an enjoyable read. If you can lose yourself in the humour of it all, however, you'll find that it'll be worth your while.
7.5/10 stars.

Thanks for reading,

-Mark