The Man in the High Castle
By Philip K. Dick
The trouble with reading PKD is, I invariably am not sure what I am actually reading and this novel is no exception. While purporting to be a counter history novel that deals with the question of what the world would be like had the Nazis and Japanese won World War Two and occupied the majorityof the United States, as far as I can make out this is actually a book that deals with how individuals must relate to the reality that surrounds them, what ever that may be. There are a lot of references to a Chinese mystic work called the I Ching (with which I am unfamiliar) which plays a significant role in how several of the primary characters react and think about their situations during the course of the story, but I never really understood why people in an alternative 1950s America. Another important, but fictional book is consistently refered to in the story, but I shall refrain from describing it, so as to avoid spoilers.
This is an interesting book, and as I have seen it described as one of the best of the 'what if Hitler had won' novels I was eager to read it before I watched the new television adaptation. Having now read it, I think I can say that I agree, up to a certain point. Some of PKD's conclusions regarding the logical progression of nazi ideology seemed to me to be astute and accurate, but his ideas that the Nazis would have been on Mars before the 1960's, or that they would have 'drained the Mediterranean Sea' are beyond unbelievable and they didn't lend the story any credibility. That they would have exterminated the African population however, seems to me to be entirely believable.
On the whole, a good, thought provoking book and certainly worth the few hours it takes to read, though if you want to read a more 'entertaining' and less challenging story set in 'a world where Hitler won', try the excellent Fatherland by Robert Harris. 3/5
