and the books are the same theme but completely different stories.
VALIS is certainly the most auto-biographical of PKD's novels, PKD is a character himself.
Radio Free Albemuth was written as VALIS System A IIRC. PKD's editors sent the manuscript back after their edits. PKD started fresh and wrote Valis and gave the manuscript of what was to be Radio Free Albemuth to Tim Powers. After PKD, passed away, the original book was published as Radio Free Albemuth. Radio Free Albemuth is now a completed film that is planned for release in 2012.
PKD pondered much about what is real and the nature of existence. PKD had a short, wild ride of a life and had some experiences (the Pink Light) he could not explain and spent years trying to make sense of his experiences.
The Valis Trilogy (Valis plus Divine Invasion plus Transmigration of Timothy Archer) make more sense when one is familiar with early Christian gnosticism. I recommend Elaine Pagel's The Gnostic Gospels. I found Divine Invasion one of the hardest PKD reads and Transmigration one of the easiest. Transmigration also came out after PKD passed on. The lead character is PKD's best female character ever. Maybe PKD finally integrated his dead twin sister?
I went through a Tom Robbins phase and Jitterbug Perfume was a favorite. Back in the mid 80's I had hiked alone to Paradise Lake at the base of King's Castle in the Marble Mountains Wilderness of NW California, the last part untrodden snow and the meadow and lake just opening up for the Spring. One could literally watch the snow retreat and snow lilies bloom over the course of an afternoon, dragonflies were in abundance, and a pair of black bears tumbled down the hill into my camp. I was glad to rapidly they were more interested in each other and the buzzing rites of Spring than me; a perfect time and place to read Jitterbug Perfume.
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