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3.33 AVERAGE
3.33 AVERAGE
The best word to describe this book would be: strange.
I’m not sure why one cover for this book shows us a robotic Hitler, when only three robots are even made. Another cover shows a simulacra of a futuristic-looking woman. These covers are obviously just meant to sell the book and I admit that I got fooled. With the description of the book sounding interesting and the covers looking so good I just had to give it a go.
The sci-fi elements are very minimal and the science of the simulacras are more science fantasy than sci-fi.
The story begins with the main character as an average Joe. Then as the first split of the story happens he, out of nowhere, goes through a mental breakdown and (again, out of nowhere) falls desperately in love with a teenager.
Read it if you think you'll like it, but I personally wouldn't recommend it.
I’m not sure why one cover for this book shows us a robotic Hitler, when only three robots are even made. Another cover shows a simulacra of a futuristic-looking woman. These covers are obviously just meant to sell the book and I admit that I got fooled. With the description of the book sounding interesting and the covers looking so good I just had to give it a go.
The sci-fi elements are very minimal and the science of the simulacras are more science fantasy than sci-fi.
Spoiler
It's split into three parts: a beginning, a random subplot and then a random subplot.The story begins with the main character as an average Joe. Then as the first split of the story happens he, out of nowhere, goes through a mental breakdown and (again, out of nowhere) falls desperately in love with a teenager.
Read it if you think you'll like it, but I personally wouldn't recommend it.
challenging
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
adventurous
challenging
funny
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"We Can Build You," by Philip K. Dick, has a lot of familiar PKD tropes. Mental illness; an unclear reality; a much-discussed, mysterious, powerful man. It's bizarre, but not so bizarre as to be inaccessible (although also not as desperately, and satisfyingly, confusing as some of his other works (e.g., Ubik; Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said)). It's darkly funny--PKD entertainingly blurs the line between human and simulacrum, having famous automatons (namely, a robot Lincoln) suffer from human failings, and humans effectuate cold, automatonic-like perspectives. Like all PKD books, it unravels towards the end, as the protagonist experiences a psychotic break (or a feigned psychotic break?); but, even then, the book, in its expression of unrequited love and dreamed intimacy, feels relatable.
Two things make "We Can Build You" unique for a PKD novel. First, the book intertwines mental illness with romantic love. Louis Rosen's mental illness is triggered by his sudden, seemingly unrequited love for Pris Frauenzimmer (and, as a lesser plot point, Abraham Lincoln lapses into a deep depression, as he recalls his failed relationship with Ann Rutledge). Louis's loss of control and desperate need to be with Pris is familiar, but taken to the extreme--at the end, he vacillates between living in a hallucinogen-induced state where he's with Pris, and a reality in which she's absent. The obsessiveness of his love is discomfiting, but feels real. Second, the book integrates historical figures (namely, Lincoln and Edwin Stanton) into PKD's familiar questions of reality and conscience. In one scene, simulacrum Lincoln and the novel's villain, Sam Barrows, argue over the differences, if any, between man and machine, with the latter arguing that simulacra are not human as they're not flesh and blood, and the former arguing that humans are but machines themselves. I'm not doing it any justice describing it here, but it's an entertaining, thoughtful discussion. Tied into all this is PKD's normalization of mental illness (in this near future, most people, including the President, have been, at some point, institutionalized) and weird satirization of its diagnosis and treatment (schizophrenia is diagnosed by a "proverb" test, wherein patients are asked to explain familiar sayings; mental institutions feature clinicians meeting patients naked in saunas, and patients being regularly given hallucinogens to reduce their libidic impulses). In mixing history and comedy into consciousness and sanity, PKD (I think) suggests the fuzziness between it all.
Two things make "We Can Build You" unique for a PKD novel. First, the book intertwines mental illness with romantic love. Louis Rosen's mental illness is triggered by his sudden, seemingly unrequited love for Pris Frauenzimmer (and, as a lesser plot point, Abraham Lincoln lapses into a deep depression, as he recalls his failed relationship with Ann Rutledge). Louis's loss of control and desperate need to be with Pris is familiar, but taken to the extreme--at the end, he vacillates between living in a hallucinogen-induced state where he's with Pris, and a reality in which she's absent. The obsessiveness of his love is discomfiting, but feels real. Second, the book integrates historical figures (namely, Lincoln and Edwin Stanton) into PKD's familiar questions of reality and conscience. In one scene, simulacrum Lincoln and the novel's villain, Sam Barrows, argue over the differences, if any, between man and machine, with the latter arguing that simulacra are not human as they're not flesh and blood, and the former arguing that humans are but machines themselves. I'm not doing it any justice describing it here, but it's an entertaining, thoughtful discussion. Tied into all this is PKD's normalization of mental illness (in this near future, most people, including the President, have been, at some point, institutionalized) and weird satirization of its diagnosis and treatment (schizophrenia is diagnosed by a "proverb" test, wherein patients are asked to explain familiar sayings; mental institutions feature clinicians meeting patients naked in saunas, and patients being regularly given hallucinogens to reduce their libidic impulses). In mixing history and comedy into consciousness and sanity, PKD (I think) suggests the fuzziness between it all.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a bizarre book that 100% feels like a predecessor to PKD's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? From creation of the androids themselves, the Rosen family owning the factory that produced the androids, Pris being the one who originally designed the androids, and the plot journey of planning to send them to the moon to encourage people to move there... it is a natural companion to that novel. The blurb focuses on the Lincoln android, but that is far from the main plot of the novel--think Elon Musk trying to swindle his way to make money on moon real estate, mental health, selfhood, and capitalism in general. I enjoyed this one and am glad I'd read Do Androids Dream... before it.
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes