Book of the Week

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick
Recommended by Ollie Moore

The Man in the High Castle was written by Philip K. Dick. An American writer, Dick mainly published works in the science fiction genre, exploring philosophical, sociological and political themes in novels with plots involving authoritarian governments.

The book is set in roughly the 1962 period and depicts an alternative world where the Nazis and Imperial Japanese won World War II. There are three main plots in the book: the spy plot, the arts and crafts plot and the spy and art plot. These are told through seven different points-of-view, which all intertwine eventually. The I Ching, a series of ancient Chinese books, provides a link between the plots throughout the book as it is used by different characters to predict their future.

The spy plot features an undercover Nazi spy who is travelling as a businessman to pass information to a Japanese spy. The arts and crafts plot features a Jewish ex-factory worker who decides to make fake American antiques and sell them as real ones. Finally, the spy and art plot features the ex-wife of the Jewish man who meets a Nazi assassin disguised as an Italian truck driver. They then drive to the residence of the author of a book forbidden in Nazi-run regions, which is about a world where the Nazis and Imperial Japanese lost the war.

Dick excels in making a feasible alternative world with political intrigue. For example, there is a particularly tense storyline when a Nazi spy attempts to inform the Imperial Japanese of the Nazi’s plan to use nuclear weapons but is nearly killed by the German secret police. The reality of the world is further strengthened through the characters who are ordinary people, not heroes. This makes the world more realistic because the protagonists are normal people with faults, who don’t always succeed. For example, ‘Robert Childan’ is a working-class store manager and owner who is invited to dinner with a sophisticated Japanese couple. He then embarrasses himself because while he despises the Imperial Japanese superiors, at the same time he envies them and wants to be like them.

The book is crafted very well but can sometimes be confusing. The three plots come together towards the end of the book. The voice is always in the third person but the focus changes between the seven different characters. This can sometimes be distracting to the reader because there are too many things going on at once. That being said, if the book is read carefully, then it gives an exquisitely realistic world with layers upon layers of intricate detail.

In my opinion, The Man in the High Castle is a fantastic book, which brings a horrifying reality alive in our minds and makes us feel grateful and fortunate that the Nazis and Imperial Japanese lost World War II. Despite it being sometimes difficult to follow, Dick creates a startlingly believable scenario of what the future could have been like.