The Man in the High Castle

Philip K. Dick is a brilliant writer. But sometimes that isn't enough!

Three stars because of the accomplishment and for my enjoyment and respect for his work.

But only three stars because I didn't like it enough!

Many parts of this book were boring and almost nonsensical.

After 40% I questioned the lack of plot and at 80% questioned it more thoroughly.

You can compare the content to Kurt Vonnegut and his sprawling laid-out style as a fuzzy field trip into the mind of the author.

But so what if there's no plot and you need to study external websites to make any sense of it?

I accept that with Shakespeare because it's prose over everything else, but not here.

Maybe it's my fault for expecting a thriller?

It's a tough read because of this. If storyline and cohesiveness are less important to you, maybe this works at certain levels?

If you're prepared to study the nuances and details of this book and reread it multiple times it could be a classic.

Pick a Charles Dickens example at random! You want endless dialogue, check out the Pickwick Papers. You want a thriller, try Thomas Harris of Jeffrey Archer.

PKD now confuses me and I don't know how to categorize him?

Even if we had two parallel societies, one in which the Allied powers won WW2, and one in which the Axis powers did the same, and jumping between the two possibilities at random points it would be more accessible to read, but only alludes to that probability through connection with other planets in which a parallel society could exist on either side.

And I hate books that make me feel thick and uneducated because I didn't get the message!

By the end it conjured up similarities with James Joyce and his determination to confound you as much as possible. And that's the strange thing - there are some thrilling chapters on offer, especially latter events with Juliana Frink, until you're cast back to zero plot and navel gazing again.

Oh, Philip, I'm disappointed because I rate Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep so highly and I want to read more of your work. But where to we go from here?

This is my third foray into PKD territory after A Scanner Darkly and I'm now taking stock before getting into a serious relationship.

And isn't that the way with many authors? As you dabble and reflect and unearth how you really feel ?

I did understand one of the messages behind this book: It doesn't matter who rules or wins a war because we're all essentially the same once the bullets stop fizzing. In the long run, the entity in power is irrelevant - Germans, Japanese, Americans - as we're all battling towards the same goals and desires.