THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE, by Philip K. Dick

1962. Rating: 8

We are all in the Moment, tied together so that all actions effect all others, and we are inextricably bound by that common causality of events and humanity.

Such is the ultimate conclusion made by the primary characters in Philip K. Dick's alternate history masterpiece The Man in the High Castle, which shows us a moment in time in a world where Franklin D. Roosevelt was assassinated during his first year in office, and Germany and Japan went on to conquer the world--including the United States. As the cover blurb points out, the Germans rule the East, slavery has been restored in the South, Japan rules the West Coast, and the few remaining in the middle have been left to fend for themselves and live along the side of history's road. It is a moment when all things come together in a great nexus, and one that will decide everything that comes afterwards

In this present age of epic alternate histories popularized and dominated by Harry Turtledove, where we follow these new ages and timelines from cradle to grave, The Man in the High Castle took some getting used to, set over the course of only a few weeks some fifteen years after the United States succumbed to the Axis powers at the end of the Second World War. But as most of the book's characters realize, the Moment they are living in is a defining one for the world and one that will set the course of all events to come. It is one where America is growing restless; where a single book--an alternate history showing how America could have won the war--sets off a firestorm (not to mention being widely read by Germans and Italians); and where shades of a possible darker future are revealed by the ancient Chinese oracle called the I Ching. Where Japanese are fanatic over American antiques, and the spacefaring Germans may be preparing to launch an all-out nuclear attack against the Japanese Home Islands. A world where humbled Americans have learned to see the world of the Moment, and where one can find the balance of the Tao by meditating upon a piece of homemade American jewelry.

Like much of the rest of Philip K. Dick's writing, this book is often esoteric, often as fluid as mercury, and always like staring at moonlight though stained glass. Where one can capture the world in a drop of rain or a grain of sand, Dick captured a world that almost became terribly real in our own reality, focusing it through the looking glass of a small book and the narrative course of a few weeks. And where everything, somehow and always subtly, is tied together whether one--be that one a character or the reader--realizes it at the time or not.

Some readers may find the ambigiuous ending frustrating, and my first thought was that it almost seemed as if the last few chapters had been accidentally left out of the book. But that was Dick's intention, no doubt. What came afterwards was almost irrelevant. He showed us the nexus, the Moment, the turning of the Wheel, and then let the light fade. Those were the only important moments for us to see in a world where we miss all too many important moments in our own lives and those of the world around us.

This page modified 27-Jul-2000 10:46:37.