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A review by one_womanarmy
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Man in the High Castle showcases Dick's Russian-nesting-doll literary twists and leave-much-unanswered approach with keen political and cultural transformation. The macro changes to nations and culturesnreaukting in the Axis powers winning WWII are brought home through deeply unfamiliar patterns of behavior, politics, and familiar prepurposed tropes of racial and class prejudices across San Francisco, Colorado, and New York.
In the alternate timeline that serves as a spine, Franklin D. Roosevelt was assassinated in Miami in 1933 and the New Deal never got off the drawing board. After victory in Europe and the Pacific, Nazi Germany and Japan attacked the United States, ultimately dividing the U.S. in half, with the Rocky Mountains region a buffer zone between the superpowers. German technological superiority has drained the Mediterranean and converted it to farmland, while their moral depravity used atomic energy to unleash a holocaust on Africa. But reading this novel was like reading the dayplanner of a middle manager: thought provoking at times but terribly dull with little motivation or context for characters behind their immediate surroundings (and prejudices).
My rather middling rating reflects the fact that this is a slow and technical novel. It is not a particularly emotionally-engaging novel. Dick focuses on the politics and technicalities of the world, never developing much of a connection between the reader and any of the large cast of characters. My brain was impressed, and I'm glad I read it, but my heart wasn't really feeling it.
In the alternate timeline that serves as a spine, Franklin D. Roosevelt was assassinated in Miami in 1933 and the New Deal never got off the drawing board. After victory in Europe and the Pacific, Nazi Germany and Japan attacked the United States, ultimately dividing the U.S. in half, with the Rocky Mountains region a buffer zone between the superpowers. German technological superiority has drained the Mediterranean and converted it to farmland, while their moral depravity used atomic energy to unleash a holocaust on Africa. But reading this novel was like reading the dayplanner of a middle manager: thought provoking at times but terribly dull with little motivation or context for characters behind their immediate surroundings (and prejudices).
My rather middling rating reflects the fact that this is a slow and technical novel. It is not a particularly emotionally-engaging novel. Dick focuses on the politics and technicalities of the world, never developing much of a connection between the reader and any of the large cast of characters. My brain was impressed, and I'm glad I read it, but my heart wasn't really feeling it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, and War