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The Restaurant At The End of The Universe
"I always thought that about the Garden of Eden story," said Ford.
"Eh?"
"Garden of Eden. Tree. Apple. That bit, remember?"
"Yes, of course I do."
"Your God person put an apple tree in the middle of a garden and says, do what you like guys, oh, but don't eat the apple. Surprise surprise, they eat it and he leaps out from behind a bush shouting 'Gotcha!' It wouldn't have made it any different if they hadn't eaten it."
"Why not?"
"Because if you're dealing with somebody who has the sort of mentality which likes leaving hats on the pavement with bricks under them you know perfectly well they won't give up. They'll get you in the end."
"Life is wasted on the living."
Women
"I was glad I wasn't in love, that I wasn't happy with the world. I like being at odds with everything. People in love often become edgy, dangerous. They lose their sense of perspective."
"It made me feel low that I couldn't praise him without reservation. But then if you lied to a man about his talent just because he was sitting across from you, that was the most unforgivable lie of them all, because that was telling him to go on, to continue which was the worst way for a man without any talent to waste his life, finally. But many people did just that, friends and relatives mostly."
Head-to-Head
Characters: To be fair, both of these books contain one-dimensional tropes in the shoes of characters. However, while I elaborated at length in its first match that I was willing to take Women as a period piece and accept its prejudices, it doesn't forgive the fact that the characters are limited to (in period terminology) a few broads and a scallywag.
Advantage: The Restaurant At The End of The Universe.
Setting: The entire universe versus a run-down apartment in San Francisco. Or maybe it was Los Angeles.
Adams is simply painting on a larger canvas.
Advantage: The Restaurant At The End of The Universe.
Plot: Both feel about equally realistic to me.
That said, Restaurant was a spotfest with its plot acting mostly as a vehicle to carry the characters to the next punchline. Alternately, Women honestly left me waiting for the next unfortunate girl to walk through the door and eventually yell at Chianski for being a piece of shit. It was strangely captivating for a comedy, and that gives it an edge.
Advantage: Women.
Ending: Women does an excellent job of being a snapshot, which causes the minor drawback that the story doesn't really end in the frame of its pages. Contrast that to Restaurant, where the closing pages contain some of the best comedy bits in the entire Hitchhiker's Guide series. No contest.
Advantage: The Restaurant At The End of The Universe.
Language/Writing: Bukowski turns a phrase masterfully. A quick trip to Google will prove as much; his quotes are endlessly embossed over images to give added effect. Adams, meanwhile, represents hundreds of years of sharp British wit: able to meticulously place an absurd joke into an otherwise benign sentence. If you skim the words of either author, something is bound to be missed.
Advantage: The main draw of both books is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a draw.
Philosophy: If I were to summarize the philosophy of both books with a song title from Dr. Dre's 1992 debut album The Chronic (and why not?), Women would, of course, be relayed by the timeless Bitches Ain't Shit. Meanwhile, Restaurant has more of a Let Me Ride vibe. One reads like a carefree spin through space and time, while the other is burdened with the objectification of women.
...Seriously, though: the merits of Restaurant are in its brief moments of societal commentary, while the depiction of a rockstar lifestyle in Women sounds like a bundle of fun while skipping the merit part.
Advantage: The Restaurant At The End of The Universe.
Winner Winner Turkey Supper
Ah, Bukowski. Women will always be a guilty pleasure of mine; I've had to defend my appreciation of it more than once. That said, the better-aging, probably-funnier, definitely-more-accessible book moves on.
The Restaurant At The End of The Universe is on to its third course.
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