A review by rebeccazh
Adjustment Team by Philip K. Dick

I happened to be watching the film, The Adjustment Bureau, which prompted me to pick this short story up. And it's a chilling story -- there are times when I've wondered if chance events like spilling your coffee, or missing the bus, or finding 50 cents, are actually not chance encounters, but events that work together to create a ripple-effect to cause certain things to happen -- in other words, every event, from the smallest to the largest, happens according to some unseen plan/structure. A world of determinism where human free-will/autonomy is quite nonexistent, since even our impulses/thoughts/actions are predicted.

The creepiest part for me was that the Adjustment Team (the Clerks, the Summoners, the Old Man) are alluding to angels/God/Heaven. I was once religious, and the thought of a technocratic Heaven/God/angel is kind of chilling, since it seems to be the antithesis of peace/love/warmth, etc.

But anyway, this was such a fantastic read.