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Man in the High Castle (Vintage) [Paperback]

P. Dick (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (76 customer reviews)

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Book Description

Publication Date: 1 Dec 1992 | Series: Vintage
It's America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. the few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some 20 years earlier the United States lost a war--and is now occupied jointly by Nazi Germany and Japan.

This harrowing, Hugo Award-winning novel is the work that established Philip K. Dick as an innovator in science fiction while breaking the barrier between science fiction and the serious novel of ideas. In it Dick offers a haunting vision of history as a nightmare from which it may just be possible to awake.

Product details

  • Paperback: 259 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage Books; 1st Vintage Books Ed edition (1 Dec 1992)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0679740678
  • ISBN-13: 978-0679740674
  • Product Dimensions: 13.3 x 1.8 x 20.3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (76 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,547,343 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Book Description

'Dick's best work, and the most memorable alternative world tale...ever written' SCIENCE FICTION: THE 100 BEST NOVELS --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Philip K Dick was born in Chicago in 1928, but lived most of his life in California. He began reading science fiction when he was 12 and was never able to stop. Among the most prolific and eccentric of s-f writers, Dick's many novels and stories allbelend a sharp and quirky imagination with a strong sense of the surreal. The Man in the High Castle won the Hugo Award in 1963. Other novels include: The Penultimate Truth, Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and Time Out of Joint. He died in 1982. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Genius? 16 Mar 2008
By C. Hardy
Format:Paperback
I first read this in my teens, and I think that much of the subtlety passed me by. I have just aquired a new copy from Amazon,decorated with one of the most un-pc book sleeves you are likely to come across ( not a "tube-reader" folks)! I have just finished reading it, and well, this is clearly a work of genius. The book for anyone who hasn't yet read it, contrasts a novel, The Grasshopper Lies Down, about our post-1945 world; within a novel where the Axis powers won the Second World War. Japanese- controlled West Coast of USA is honourable,spiritual and superstitious, and speak in clipped English; whereas the Nazi-controlled Eastern seaboard is materialistic and technologically advanced. Africa has been obliterated as an extension of the Final Solution. Dick's book questions the exact nature of history and reality; that what is real is only relative to the individuals own experience.
I have to say that I didn't wholly understand the ending; if anyone can explain this I would be grateful! I have read lengthy reviews which suggest that the world in Abendson's book is in fact, the real history of the 20th century. But this doesn't work for me.
If you think the previous paragraph contradicts my praise for this book, you are missing the point. It is a process-based novel and the ending is largely irrelevant, in my opinion anyway.
Has this novel ever been made into a film?
If not, why?
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37 of 39 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars The original story of an alternative WWII 13 April 2004
By Giles Allison
Format:Paperback
This is the perfect book for those new to PKD's work or who have tried reading later, spaced-out novels such as "Valis" and given up. Counterfactual books, both fiction and non-fiction, are all the rage nowadays. So it is difficult when reading this book to remember that when it was published (in 1962, before the Vietnam War) the memories of World War II and the Korean War were still vivid. The premise is this: the Allies lost the war and the USA is split between the "Pacific States of America" in the West, run by the Japanese, and the East Coast, which is part of greater Germany (along with Europe and part of Asia). The background to how this came about is wonderfully teased out over the entire course of the book, and similarly the effects of Nazi rule over most of the globe are glimpsed in chilling off-hand remarks. PKD's world is well-thought out and comprehensive: while the "final solution" has been applied to the whole of Africa, Herbert von Karajan is resident as conductor-in-chief of the New York Philharmonic.

This is PKD's most mainstream, and in many ways his most approachable, published work. It is a wonderful analysis of how ordinary Americans might have behaved under totalitarian rule. There is a power vacuum created by the death of Martin Boorman, but the wider political picture remains a backdrop to the inter-connected stories of a selection of "average joes", all of whom are masterfully characterised. As a nod to the "science fiction" categorisation of the book, at the core of the tale is a bestselling, underground book written by a man who supposedly lives in a high castle in the Rockies, and which is a work of alternative history about how the Allies won the war - is it possible that reality could have been changed in some way? Intriguingly, even the alternative history presented in this book-within-a-book is substantially different to our own received history.

As ever with PKD, there are ambiguities everywhere and no definite resolution, not least to the identity of "the Man in the High Castle" and what his book represents. As previous reviewers have said, this novel examines ideas of oppression, colonialism, and the loss of cultural identity. It is a sometimes bleak work, but not without hope and some typical PKD black humour. This edition, with an insightful introduction, rightly presents the novel as a modern classic.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Fake to end all fakes? 11 Oct 2011
By Archy
Format:Paperback
I recall reading this as a teenager. I didn't really understand it then, and revisiting it more than thirty years later was an odd experience, as I expected to find a real classic I'd previously misunderstood. But I didn't. To start with, I'd forgotten how abrupt, terse, and awkward Dick's writing style was back in the early 60s. This is not an easy book to read, or fathom. I'd forgotten how the plot skitters about from one character to another (a strength, I know, for some readers) and how stereotyped some of them are (he even has a Japanese say "ah so"!) I'd forgotten the Nazi spy plot and how impenetrable it is, altogether.

Dick was always at his best when detailing the actions of the little man, in this case Frank Frink, who loses his job and begins his own jewellery business. He's good when detailing relationship breakdowns - the passages featuring Frank's ex-wife, Juliana, and her quest for the 'Man in the High Castle' were also fascinating. He's always interesting when indulging in religious speculation, here done via the I Ching. But once he strays into a kind of John le Carre spy world involving top ranking (though not historical) Nazis I think he loses his way. He certainly lost me.

Fakes abound in this book, from the fake guns - which can still kill - fake American artifacts, and fake people. No one is who they seem to be: one character is visited by a representative of a Japanese admiral, who isn't really a representative at all; he's Frank Frink. But Frink isn't really Frink, he's Fink, a Jew, and so in great danger from the authorities. And so on. Finally, there's the 'Man in the High Castle' himself, and his curious book, 'The Grasshopper lies heavy' - a title adapted from the Bible - wherein Germany and Japan actually lost the war. But even that book is a fake, in that it is not 'our' world. Maybe this novel too is a fake? Maybe reality itself cannot be trusted, and may be a fake - which was doubtless what Dick was getting at. I just wish he'd written these marvellous ideas down in a more readable way.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars a fantastic work by a genius......iyou can't say better than that
One of the greatest novels of twentieth century speculative and mainstream literature,his writings were concrete and believable,no matter how bizarre the subject matter. Read more
Published 12 days ago by Richard Fahey
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing
Amazing book, one of my favorites of all time. Such an unusual perspective and such delicious explorations of it. Highly recommended for any sci-fi junkie
Published 19 days ago by Slattery
5.0 out of 5 stars Really interesting book
I have been reading this book as part of a book group. It will be interesting to hear other members' views. Read more
Published 25 days ago by Bacchus
5.0 out of 5 stars A decent edition
The edition in question has in total 3 editing mistakes, but it is otherwise an excellent little edition. Read more
Published 27 days ago by Faiz Syed Hussain
1.0 out of 5 stars Can't believe the hype
This is the first time I've given up on a book since I was a teenager, the characters are dull and numerous, the plot skips around so much and grinds away at totally mundane side... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Andy
1.0 out of 5 stars Over rated
I read 182 out of 249 pages and gave up. Quite simply I didn't care what happened after that. I felt very little for the chracters. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. M. J. Underwood
4.0 out of 5 stars Really Good but very strange.
The story is very strange but that doesn't mean it's not good it's a really good read got through this book in 2 days could not put it down but it is not the actual plot that is... Read more
Published 2 months ago by M Trainor
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Excellent book which put another spin on an alternative world. It could have done with a little more action. Can't fault it though.
Published 3 months ago by Gobberz
5.0 out of 5 stars one to read again and again
i dont want to give away anything about the plot unlike several thoughtless reviewers.
i wish i could have read this when it was written as o doubt the proximity to the war... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Old Nick
5.0 out of 5 stars The Man in the High Castle
A superb and thought provoking book. Brilliant and subtle glimpses of another, realistic world in the future/or the present ?
Excellent
Published 5 months ago by Paul N. Mccadden
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