The Man in the High Castle

by Philip K. Dick

Hardcover, 239 pages

English language

Published October 1962 by G.P. Putnam's Sons.

OCLC Number:: 676600
Goodreads:: 2905378

(6 reviews)

In a hilltop cabin, his "high castle," surrounded by barbed wire, a solitary writer conceives an imaginary account of history—in which FDR was not assassinated, in which Italy betrayed the Axis countries and the Allies won the World War II. His novel, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, is of course banned in the eastern portion of post-war America, dominated as it is by Nazi occupation forces. But in the Pacific States of America, which Japanese victors control and where the Oriental race is superior despite its puppet white government, where the I Ching—the ancient Chinese Book of Changes, which predicts the future and understands the present—has replaced the Bible, and a more permissive, humane philosophy dominates, the novel is tolerated by the authorities. And its incredible, fantastic image of a mythical post-war world is glimpsed against the real world of the present in The Man in the High Castle.

Against …

Against this background of a globe controlled by Germany and Japan, Philip K. Dick tells this bizarre, hilarious, terrifying, electrifying tale of a dealer in historic U.S. trivia who maintains an exclusive antique shop in San Francisco; of a Jewish artisan hiding from the Reich racial laws and his estranged wife languishing in the backwater country of the Rocky Mountain States; of a traveling "Swedish businessman" who is much more than he seems; of a Gestapo killer sent on the track of the man in the high castle.

Mr. Dick's vision of contemporary America is of a world that never was. But it might have been—and his brilliantly satiric image combines with the high suspense of his story to make The Man in the High Castle an uncommonly original entertainment.

56 editions

Rudi reviewed The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

Review of 'The man in the high castle' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

Jeg har ikke sett TV-serien (enda), og jeg visste ikke at den var basert på ei bok før jeg så den i en bruktbutikk. Boka forteller (den kontrafaktiske) historien om da Tyskland og Japan vant andre verdenskrig, og vi følger en gjeng ulike personligheter i USA - som nå er delt mellom Tyskland og Japan. Ett aspekt ved boka er skildringa av denne alternative virkeligheten, og det er unektelig spennende å få et innblikk i hva som kunne ha vært. Men boka bruker overraskende lite tid på dette, og fokuserer heller på dramatikken i livet til et knippe figurer som er mer indirekte knyttet til storpolitikken. Og det fungerer bra. Ellers: Jeg likte godt hvordan "boka-i-boka" blir utforska, men er ikke særlig imponert av orakel-opplegget.

Ashwin reviewed The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

Review of 'The Man in the High Castle' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

This review is cross-posted from my blog here: daariga.wordpress.com/2017/04/01/the-man-in-the-high-castle/

The Man in the High Castle turned out to be one of those highly acclaimed books that do not impress. I am familiar with Philip K Dick through the movie adaptations of his works like Blade Runner and A Scanner Darkly. Let me not kid, he lays out an appetizing premise in this book: the Axis powers Germany and Japan have won and divvied up the world between themselves. USA has been split into three: the East Coast controlled by Germany, the West (Pacific States of America) by Japan, leaving the middle (Rocky Mountain States) is free. Hitler’s rule is over, but his other Nazi lackeys are running an efficient, technologically advanced but totalitarian state. Jews are still being hounded, whites are second class citizens to the Japanese in USA and blacks and Chinese are slaves.

In this compelling alternative history, we meet a puzzling choice of story arcs and characters. The PSA arc is beautifully written and somewhat interesting: the interplay between Childan, a white guy who deals in American artifacts and Tagomi, a high ranking official who is one of his unhappy customers. We slowly discover there is a plan by the Germans to create a disturbance in PSA and use that to defeat Japan and takeover the entire world. In addition to this weak arc, there is a further more boring arc happening in RMS, where folks are ga-ga-ing over an alternate history book called The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, in which the Allied powers have won the war. The female protagonist here is out to meet and save that book’s author, this is the dude in the high castle, from assassination.

The world Dick creates is amazing and his writing skills are top notch. However, I found it very hard to like most of his characters or empathize with their stories. The characters of the book are all devout users of a Chinese divining tool called the I Ching and use it excessively to guide them through the day. Too many pages are used in characters discussing the Grasshopper book and describing the details of how Allied powers lost the war. It all feels a bit heavy handed and forced. I guess that fans of the book will claim that I cannot yet see the “alternate history within an alternate history” that Dick creates or his hints that this Nazi world is not the reality, but maybe the hallucination of one mind. All very handy and dandy, but sadly not convincing. While its compelling setting will no doubt lead to many TV and movie adaptations, as a book it is a bit underwhelming.