Philip K. Dick: The Man in the High Castle

Hi

I read the Science Fiction Classic; The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick. This won the Hugo Award in 1963.
It has 249 pages and I got it second-hand.

“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.”

The focus on these minor characters in a world where everything is so different from ours shows us the magnitude of this world. The Nazis terminated almost all life in Africa and this is just mentioned in passing by one of the characters. Oh my word. I gasped reading this. And it is mentioned so casually!
The final use of I-Ching in this novel will keep you wondering about what’s real and what’s not.
The writing isn’t beautiful or elegant. It’s short and to the point.
It’s bleak and gloomy but also full of suspense and intrigue, vivid and ultimately; chilling.

Happy reading!
Helena