The real world is a bad place, with a police state functioning at maximum power. Indifferent to the hardship and oppression, Jason Taverner smiles and hosts his weekly TV show. But when his identity cards disppear, so does his fame, and all knowledge of him is eradicated.
Flow, My Tears, the Policeman Said. (GOLLANCZ S.F.)
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Philip K Dick notoriously charted SF's most dangerous, booby-trapped realities. Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said (1974) is a relatively straightforward tale of paranoid unease at finding the world isn't what it should be.
Jason Taverner is world-famous for his songs and regular TV show. "Thirty million people saw you zip up your fly tonight." "... It's my trademark." Although this future US is a grim police state with labour camps in Alaska and Canada, jetsetting Taverner enjoys being one of the winners.
Then he wakes up in a sleazy hotel room, still well-dressed and flush with money, but no longer the famous Jason Taverner. No ID--that's a forced-labour offence. His agent doesn't know him. Nor do his closest friends. He's even vanished from police databanks.
Forged documents are needed, hand-drawn by teenaged expert Kathy--one of Dick's most alarming women, a neurotic petty criminal who's also a police informer, who entraps and manipulates Taverner until he's terrified of her. He may deserve it: this self-obsessed megastar inflicts small, unthinking cruelties on virtually every woman he meets.
The title's policeman is another interesting character: Police General Felix Buckman, a mostly good man (and fan of Elizabethan songs: "Flow, my teares...") trapped in a horrible system. Is Taverner, the man with no past, a threat? Less so, maybe, than Buckman's amoral sister Alys, who takes special interest in Taverner and seems to have the world's only copies of his music albums...
Paranoid wrongness is expertly conveyed, and resolved with a typically offbeat SF notion. A sunny finale concludes one of Dick's most approachable novels.--David Langford --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Book Description
Published to celebrate the life and work of Philip K. Dick, the bestselling author of BLADE RUNNER and MINORITY REPORT on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"Flow my tears..." is a book that exhibits Dick's (heretofore PKD) usual thematic obsessions in an expert literary way, having been written during the last decade of his life, in between theological treatises and attempts to explain his personal epiphany. It actually reads like he is showing off that he can write good old SF to his publisher who's asked him to clean up his act before an audience that's not interested in religious revelations. The fourth part of the book, telling what happened to the heroes and institutions involved in the far future, is reminiscent of a B movie ending, and probably reflects the author's overindulgence in the commercial nature of this work.
The book is very reminiscent of Ubik, centered on a man's struggle to make sense of his reality that has suddenly changed (to a very unpleasant one), and it could have been written in one - extended - sitting, PKD driving his points home from page 1. It can certainly be read in one sitting, and its frantic pace will compel most people to do so.
As per usual, the environment only serves as a context for PKD to bring his social commentary home. This shouldn't detract, however, from the fact that the particular world, a heavily policed fascist state where universities and their students (presumably standing for free thought) are offenders by default, is one of his most successful predictions, as we can already see it happening. PKD seems to be aware of it as well, for he describes its functions and mechanisms in unusual detail.
That said, the novel is an exploration of human behaviours and emotions, how they interact and which bring which about.
... Read more ›3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Wouldn't it be amazing if the fate of Jason Taverner (the hero of Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said)befell someone like Johnathan Ross or Simon Cowell. That is one of them woke up in a seedy room, went out on the street and was unrecognised.
Their friends had no recollection of them, searching google did not reveal any references, in fact in the blink of an eye they had become a non-person.
This book is a page turner hooking the reader from the start but the ending is an anti-climax. Read it now...........
Their friends had no recollection of them, searching google did not reveal any references, in fact in the blink of an eye they had become a non-person.
This book is a page turner hooking the reader from the start but the ending is an anti-climax. Read it now...........
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I wouldn't recommend this as a starting point for anybody new to this writer's output, but for any fan of Dick's work who is not familiar with it, I'd advise them to check it out. An intriguing mix of paranoid nightmare and black, black comedy it explores what happens when a celebrity well established within his profession appears to lose his identity and his grip on reality. He becomes a fugitive, and the women he meets while on the run just seem to make his predicament even worse. When the police come for him they knock on the door of the woman sheltering him. "It's probably the man from upstairs," she says,
"He borrows things. Weird things. Like two-fifths of an onion." Unexpected comments like this make the book a joy to read, the constant surprises in the way that the characters respond to each other is refreshing. On the surface the story appears to be relentlessly grim, but in the fine details there is plenty to amuse, like the juke-box in the bar playing Louis Panda's 'The Memory of Your Nose'.
The epilogue doesn't really work for me but I suspect that it was put there as a joke. Overall well worthy of inclusion amongst Dick's best work.
"He borrows things. Weird things. Like two-fifths of an onion." Unexpected comments like this make the book a joy to read, the constant surprises in the way that the characters respond to each other is refreshing. On the surface the story appears to be relentlessly grim, but in the fine details there is plenty to amuse, like the juke-box in the bar playing Louis Panda's 'The Memory of Your Nose'.
The epilogue doesn't really work for me but I suspect that it was put there as a joke. Overall well worthy of inclusion amongst Dick's best work.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Dr. Bojan Tunguz
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
Phillip K. Dick is known for his idiosyncratic sci-fi novels and short stories, and "Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said" touches upon many of his recurring themes - artificially enhanced humans, the malleability of personal identity, the fluidity of reality, and the suppressive state control. The plot centers on Jason Taverner, a genetically modified celebrity pop singer. After being assaulted by his ex-lover by a parasitic lifeform he wakes up one morning only to discover that no one recognizes him and there is no record of him in any of the vast databases of the powerful police state that he lives in. He quickly learns how perilous life without being officially recognized can be in this dystopian future America that has gone through a second civil war. The National Guard ("nats") and the US police force ("pols") are practically at every corner of every major city and they strictly control movements of people and goods. The US is a dictatorship with a "Director" at the top, college students are forced into underground and had become a form of resistance to this oppressive regime. Taverner has been put into an uncomfortable position of having to find his way through this nightmarish maze, and for the first time in his life he realizes what life must be for the ordinary citizens. The story verges on political satire, but Dick takes the narrative very seriously, and if there has been any intention on his part of making this even mildly a humorous novel it has entirely been lost on me.
The title of this book is a reference to "Flow my tears," a piece by the 16th century composer John Dowland. However, it escapes me what this reference was meant to convey. Knowing the way that Philip K.... Read more ›
The title of this book is a reference to "Flow my tears," a piece by the 16th century composer John Dowland. However, it escapes me what this reference was meant to convey. Knowing the way that Philip K.... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
In the headlights of a stretch car You're a star
The genetically engineered superstar Jason Taverner awakens after an attempt on his life to discover he no longer exists, at least not legally, there is no record of him ever... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Oliveman
2.0 out of 5 stars
Flow Meh Tears
Dick's premise is, as usual, an excellent one. Unfortunately its one the novel fails spectacularly in the delivering. Read more
Published 4 months ago by 333R333
1.0 out of 5 stars
Awful....awful....awful....
I would estimate I've read approximately 75% of PKD's SF novels and Flow My Tears easily ranks as the worst of them. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Lixma
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Dark View of Life
The paranoid outlook that Philip Dick had about life makes reading this novel a depressing experience. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Eric Nicholson
4.0 out of 5 stars
Converted to Philip K. Dick
It's a terrible confession to make, but this is my first read of a Philip K. Dick novel. I don't really know why it's taken me so long to pick up one of his books, but it's... Read more
Published 9 months ago by F.R. Jameson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ahead of it's Time - As Always
I first read this book in the mid 70's so probably soon after it was published. My hardback is still on the shelf, proudly kept. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Nigel Alefounder
2.0 out of 5 stars
plain boring - but add one star for historical interest
Having watched Bladerunner and Minority Report, I felt throughout like I'd read this already - clearly Dick has certain themes he falls back on. Read more
Published 15 months ago by thegoodbook
2.0 out of 5 stars
A decent action story but goes nowhere.
Taverner is not supposed to be likeable, he is an arrogant man thrown from his usual reality into one where he is no longer important or privileged, but he carries the story very... Read more
Published 16 months ago by plot hound
4.0 out of 5 stars
John Dowland quotes in SciFi!
I do not know how I missed this the first time round, in the 60's I read loads of science fiction - Vonegut (yes I know he grumbled about being classified as Scifi), Asimov,... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Christopher Thorpe
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing
Great book. The Despair and Humor are fused and some of it is oh so hilarious. Like most Dick the characters are flawed but sympathetic.
Published 21 months ago by Mr. R. Stevens
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