The Man in the High Castle (1962)

A few notes from the re-read:

* the Mickey Mouse watch didn't figure as prominently as I recalled. This may be because a 1938 Mickey Mouse watch now has about the same prized kitsch status as in the novel, making its appearance less jarring than 25 years ago.

* the dialog is awful: articles dropped inconsistently, idioms pointedly mis-stated. Seems to be an attempt at what the red-staters might call Chinglish. Unfortunately the same mistakes are made by all non-American characters, regardless of their national origin.

* I suspect that PKD thought the I Ching was of Japanese origin until midway through the novel, when somebody told him and it was too late to redo the whole thing.

* Tagomi hypnotizes himself into appearing in the real word, i.e. the one PKD inhabits - a scene that the non-San Franciscan might misinterpret as just a surreal moment devoid of pedicabs.

* The novel ends when the I Ching reveals to the characters that they are living in a novel (or at least, a false reality). Super meta and a big cop-out at the same time, like a lot of PKD endings. ( )

Got it from the wait list at the library and found it impossibly boring. I hated the premise and just could not get interested at all. It is most likely just not my genre and might be a good read for someone who is into Sci-Fi. I quit at about four chapters. ( )

Fantastic set up, chilling description of the Nazi Reich cobbled from the memories and thoughts of those on the outside. let down by a slightly anticlimactic ending, but otherwise superb alternative reality fiction ( )

I wanted to like this more than I did. I did really like the idea - what would the world be like if Germany and Japan had won WWII? That aspect of the book was interesting to think about and to explore that alternate world. But I didn't care about any of the characters and nothing much happened, so there was not a lot of plot. It was sort of "a day in the life" exploration instead. ( )

Dick's second best novel after Ubik. But most non-scifi readers are going to like this more than Ubik. Alternate history that points to actual history. The Germans and the Japanese have won WWII, it is the 1960s, and they are not too fond of each other. That's as much as I'm going to give you. The usual Dick theme of shifting realities. Very well drawn characters and a plot supposedly determined by the I Ching that leads to several interesting climaxes. Dick tends to be a bit dated now, pointing to the 60s and 70s for themes, culture, and language, but Castle isn't hampered by this like some of his other novels.

This is a genre bender that I would only hesitantly call science fiction. Everyone I have ever recommended it to that hates scifi still loves this book. Despite the usual Dick weirdness at times he tones it down and maintains coherence enough to appeal to the non-genre/non-Dick fiction reader. Just enough for Dick fans, but not too much for the rest.

If you are mainly a hard scifi fan, Dick is going to be a tough pill to swallow. He utilizes the usual scifi tropes at times but doesn't really care how consistent they are and doesn't dwell on them except as necessary to get whatever his point or theme is across. He is primarily literary and only secondarily scifi.

This is really a beautiful little novel and definitely in my top 25 books of all time. One of the VERY few books I would even consider reading a second time. ( )