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The Man in the High Castle

By Philip K. Dick

(169)

| Paperback | 9780679740674

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Book Description

It's America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. the few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some 20 years earlier the United States lost a war--and is now occupied jointly by Nazi Germany and Japan.

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Critics

Kick over the Scenery

When an art form or genre once dismissed as kids’ stuff starts to get taken seriously by gatekeepers – by journals, for example, such as the one you are reading now – respect doesn’t come smoothly, or all at once. Often one artist gets lifted above t ... (read full critics)

lrb published on Mon, 6 Sep 2010

5 Reviews

1 person find this helpful

Not his best...

...but still an impressive work. The theme of a different outcome of WWII was obviously more interesting in the 60s when PKD wrote this. The characters lack clear features and the plot is not very convincing, at least not when we compare with his other novels.

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Miroku said on Dec 24, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

This book looked at what would have happened if Germany and Japan had won WWII. It was written about 20 years after the war and set and an undetermined point afterwards. The Nazis had destroyed Africa and were colonising space but all the action took place on earth. I do enjoy the proto-cyberpunknes ... (continue)

This book looked at what would have happened if Germany and Japan had won WWII. It was written about 20 years after the war and set and an undetermined point afterwards. The Nazis had destroyed Africa and were colonising space but all the action took place on earth. I do enjoy the proto-cyberpunkness of Philip K. Dick but find him a little odd.</p><p>I enjoyed the setting; Nazi’s had claimed the East coast of America and Japan the West coast. I think my favourite idea was the Japanese becoming obsessed with buying American kitsch artefacts, and the fact that there was such a huge faking industry. It seemed like there may have been too many separate but interwoven storylines as I had a bit of a hard time keeping everyone straight when the story went jumping around between plots. However, I’m sure this was my fault due to not paying enough attention rather than the writers.</p><p>In the book was a novel that told the story of what would have happened if the Nazis and Japanese had lost the war, the book became a focal point for several characters within the actual novel. At first this was so self-referential it was funny but then led on to a more serious discussion about the nature of reality. It was all odd but very good and the more I think about it the more I like it.

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Robot-mel said on Aug 31, 2007 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

Dick's vision of an alternative world divided, after WWII, between Germany and Japan is pretty interesting. His writing style however... Flashes of thoughts, bits of sentences. Like reading through a haze of smoke. Struggled to finish... strange book. Three or four stars? dunno... three. Three, no m ... (continue)

Dick's vision of an alternative world divided, after WWII, between Germany and Japan is pretty interesting. His writing style however... Flashes of thoughts, bits of sentences. Like reading through a haze of smoke. Struggled to finish... strange book. Three or four stars? dunno... three. Three, no more.

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Massimo Ortolano said on Aug 7, 2010 | Add your feedback