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

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 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.

20 editions

nerd teacher [books] reviewed The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

I'm Not Sure

3 stars

I didn't dislike it, but I also don't feel like I connected with it? I liked the initial structure of it feeling like multiple vignettes that had all connected somewhat to the same book. And while I understand what was happening, I felt like it wasn't quite hitting the right notes for certain characters or even the overall theme. In a lot of ways, it felt like it kept fumbling some of them. (Edit: Upon reflection, it isn't actually true that the stories were woven around the same book because three of the characters never actually engage with the book in any capacity and their stories don't even mention it from the background.)

It was fine. Not my favourite book, but it was okay.

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

An important book riddled with nuclear guilt

4 stars

It descends into psychosis, just as the other Philip K. Dick book I have read, which is alright, but not really my cup of tea.

The reason I give it four stars, not less, is that Westerners should really read it for a small glance of what it feels to live under occupation.

My biggest problem with the book is how glorified Japanese are in it. Of course, at no point we can see narrator's opinion on them, we only read the thoughts of people living under Japanese occupation, brainwashed and prone to rebellious outbursts, but I can't help but to observe the fact that the European holocaust is mentioned a lot, but the equivalent which has happened in Asia at the hands of Japanese is swept under the rug. It almost feels like the author doesn't want to touch this subject.

This quote about nazis, however, …

It descends into psychosis, just as the other Philip K. Dick book I have read, which is alright, but not really my cup of tea.

The reason I give it four stars, not less, is that Westerners should really read it for a small glance of what it feels to live under occupation.

This quote about nazis, however, saves the book:

They are overcome by some archetype; their egos have expanded psychotically so that they cannot tell where they begin and the godhead leaves off. 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.

And it is all so familiar as we see the events of the modern world unfold.

Max Pearl reviewed The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (A Berkley medallion book -- D3080.)

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

4 stars

I read this book because I'd seen a couple of episodes of the TV series. Honestly, as usual, the book is better. They took a lot of liberties with the series (only way to stretch a relatively short book that long,) and the characters are sometimes quite different.

This is classic Phillip K. Dick. Dystopian alternative future. It's very conceptual, rather than character-driven, although a couple of the characters are better developed than the rest. Worth a read, for sure.