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A review by dukegregory
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
4.0
4.5
Actually mind-bending. Written with such speed and lack of literary decor, yet Dick creates a peculiar, rich tapestry so effusively paranoid. He leaps between perspectives and created a triple-plot narrative that starts and ends in a state of insanity. The alternative history is brilliantly fascinating as is, but the notion of Americanness is so crisp. What is America if the United States dissolves, and democracy crumbles, and freedom fighters don't particularly succeed or seem to exist? What makes Americans American, if anything? The ending doesn't do much for me, and some if it doesn't coalesce entirely. But this felt like a brilliant gut punch of a novel that takes really challenging routes down its larger conceptual cityscape. Totally unlike what I was expecting. I need more Philip K. Dick (that really is an unfortunate name for such a sentiment)!
Actually mind-bending. Written with such speed and lack of literary decor, yet Dick creates a peculiar, rich tapestry so effusively paranoid. He leaps between perspectives and created a triple-plot narrative that starts and ends in a state of insanity. The alternative history is brilliantly fascinating as is, but the notion of Americanness is so crisp. What is America if the United States dissolves, and democracy crumbles, and freedom fighters don't particularly succeed or seem to exist? What makes Americans American, if anything? The ending doesn't do much for me, and some if it doesn't coalesce entirely. But this felt like a brilliant gut punch of a novel that takes really challenging routes down its larger conceptual cityscape. Totally unlike what I was expecting. I need more Philip K. Dick (that really is an unfortunate name for such a sentiment)!