Sat 23 Aug 2025
Diary Review / SF Stories I’m Reading: ROBERT A. HEINLEIN “The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag.”
Posted by Steve under Diary Reviews , Science Fiction & Fantasy , Stories I'm Reading[5] Comments
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN “The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag.” Novella. First published in Unknown Worlds, October 1942. Collected in The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag (Gnome Press, hardcover, 1959). Reprinted in 6 x H (Pyramid G642, paperback original, 1961), among others.
Jonathan Hoag hires the husband-and-wife team of Randall & Craig, Confidential Investigation to solve the mystery of the dirty fingernails. The nails are his. Under them is a dried brownish blood-like substance. The doctor who analyzes it throws him out of his office, and Hoag discovers that he does not know what he does all day.
The solution, as he sees it, is to have himself shadowed.
But this is no mere detective story, but a powerful fantasy that creates doubts as to the reality of the world around us. Unfortunately is might have been a better story as a mystery, except that the explanation dies have to transcend the limits of everyday detection.
Still, it is too easy to throw away the beginning for the less restrictive.
Rating: ****
August 23rd, 2025 at 8:05 pm
There was a time when Heinlein could do no wrong. Sadly, that time has now passed. But there are still many great stories that read well, that pushed boundaries, and that helped shape science fiction in the last half of the Twentieth century. This was one of them.
August 23rd, 2025 at 9:49 pm
I believe you, Jerry, indeed I do — this was prime time Heinlein, after all — but believe me. too, when I say for the live of me, I can’t remember the ending of this one. Gone completely, and I certainly made sure that nothing I said in the review told anyone else what it was all about, not even me. Even though I never expected that anyone else would ever read the review.
And please don’t you or anyone tell me. I’ll just have to wait till I find my copy of 6 x H, which is where I read it.
And I’ll enjoy the anticipation, that’s what I’ll do.
August 25th, 2025 at 11:30 am
Robert A. Heinlein was my favorite SF writer in the 1950s and early 1960s. I loved STARSHIP TROOPERS! And I read all of Heinlein’s Young Adult SF novels. Great stuff. Then, as Jerry hints, Heinlein went overboard about the time of STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND. His later novels were just plain weird. But for the 1940s and 1950s, Heinlein was King of Science Fiction!
August 25th, 2025 at 1:58 pm
STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND was a landmark in the world SF publishing, and yes it was the beginning of Heinlein’s “weird” stage. It caused a lot on controversy at the time, but the book made the NY TIMES bestseller list, and it eventually won a Hugo. This would have been in 1962 or ’63. The original and uncut version finally came out in the late 80s. I always intended to read the longer book, but I wasn’t reading much SF at the time, and so far I never have. Add that as one of the many regrets in my reading life.
August 31st, 2025 at 1:28 am
I loved this one, largely because like Jack Williamson (DARKER THAN YOU THINK) and Fritz Leiber (CONJURE WIFE) scribes Heinlein managed to really creep me out with that disturbing ending, and a truly mysterious mystery in the cosmic sense as well as the classic meaning.