stefaniemasters 's review for:

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

2.5

mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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⭐️⭐️.5

I’m so glad I watched the series before I read this novel. I don’t know that the scenes or characters would have been as easy to follow otherwise. Honestly, it’s impressive that the show was able to come from this book. It was choppy. Frankly the last chapter was the best one, but the ending might have sent me into an existential crisis, like Mrs. Abendsen. Oy! 

The characters fell flat. The store shop owner Robert Childan seems to be the fullest character . . .  His chapters are almost narrated by him. His thoughts and feelings (while still shallow) appear to be on display. I would argue the book is actually about him and his experience in the ‘Japanese West’, at least until the last couple of chapters. The only actual dimension Juliana was given seems to be superficial, it was weird and uncomfortable. She and Betty Kasouras were overly sexualized. 

For such a short novel there were pages and pages of descriptions of items, clothes, boobs, the park sights, and sounds. 

$4 for a book (today’s price ≈ $43)

$200 for a dress (today’s price ≈ $2,100)

Quotes:

‘ It’s a sort of brain defect, like a lobotomy - that maiming those German psychiatrists do as a poor substitute for psychotherapy. ‘ 

(pg. 36, ch 3)

“Afraid I do not care for modern art,” Mr. Baynes said. “I like the old prewar cu ists and abstractionists. I like to a picture to mean something, not merely to represent the ideal.” He turned away.

“But that’s the task of art,” Lotze said. “To advance the spirituality of man, over the sensual. Your abstract art represented a period of spiritual decadence, of spiritual chaos, due to the disintegration of society, the old plutocracy. - “ (pg. 39-40, ch. 3)

‘ It is not hubris, not pride; it is inflation of the ego to its ultimate - confusion between him who worships and that which is worshiped. Man has not eaten God; God has eaten man. ‘

(pg. 43, ch. 3)

‘ He glanced at the girl beside him. God, they read a book, he thought, and they spout on forever. ‘

(pg. 69, ch. 3) 

The way women are spoken about and perceived…

‘ But he went on examining the book and nodding. "Yes," he said, "this does look interesting. I would very much like to read it. I try to keep up with what's being discussed." Was that proper to say? Admission that his interest lay in book's modishness. Perhaps that was low-place. He did not know, and yet he felt that it was. "One cannot judge by book being best seller," he said. "We all know that. Many best sellers are terrible trash. This, however -" He faltered.

Betty said, "Most true. Average taste really deplorable." ‘

(pg. 114)

So this gross phrase has been used for a long time…?!

‘ Even the I Ching, which they've forced down our throats; it's Chinese. ‘

(pg. 117)

Example of the superficially that was placed upon Juliana’s character:

‘ She always liked people to look at her, admire her; anybody. I guess most women are like that.

They crave attention all the time. They're very babyish that

way.

He thought, Juliana could never stand being alone; she had to have me around all the time complimenting her. Little kids are that way; they feel if their parents aren't watching what they do then what they do isn't real. ‘

(pg. 141)

"I like Verdi and Puccini. All we get in New York is heavy German bombastic Wagner and Orff, …”

(pg. 165)

"Are you reading straight through?" Joe asked. "Or skipping around in it?"

She said, "This is wonderful; he has us sending food and education to all the Asiatics, millions of them."

"Welfare work on a worldwide scale," Joe said.

"Yes. The New Deal under Tugwell; they raise the level of the masses — listen." She read aloud to Joe:

(pg. 166)

‘ "Listen, I'm not an intellectual - Fascism has no need of that. What is wanted is the deed. Theory derives from action. What our corporate state demands from us is comprehension of the social forces - of history. You see? I tell you; I know, Juliana." His tone was earnest, almost beseeching. “Those old rotten money-run empires, Britain and France and U.S.A., although the latter actually a sort of bastard sideshoot not strictly empire, but money-oriented even so. ’

(pg. 170)

‘ As he was taken upstairs, one of the cops said, "Will he be booked here?"

"No" another said. "We'll hold him for the German consul.

They want to try him under German law."

There was no list of attorneys, after all. ‘

(pg. 207)

‘ And what will that leave, that Third World Insanity? Will that put an end to all life, of every kind, everywhere? When our planet becomes a dead planet, by our own hands?

He could not believe that. Even if all life on our planet is de stroyed, there must be other life somewhere which we know nothing of. It is impossible that ours is the only world; there must be world after world unseen by us, in some region or dimension that we simply do not perceive.

Even though I can't prove that, even though it isn't logical - I believe it, he said to himself. ‘

‘ Things happen fast, during the time of transition in a totalitarian society. ‘

(pg. 258)