In a hilltop cabin, his "high castle," surrounded by barbed wire, a solitary writer conceives an imaginary account of history—in which FDR was not assassinated, in which Italy betrayed the Axis countries and the Allies won the World War II. His novel, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, is of course banned in the eastern portion of post-war America, dominated as it is by Nazi occupation forces. But in the Pacific States of America, which Japanese victors control and where the Oriental race is superior despite its puppet white government, where the I Ching—the ancient Chinese Book of Changes, which predicts the future and understands the present—has replaced the Bible, and a more permissive, humane philosophy dominates, the novel is tolerated by the authorities. And its incredible, fantastic image of a mythical post-war world is glimpsed against the real world of the present in The Man in the High Castle.
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In a hilltop cabin, his "high castle," surrounded by barbed wire, a solitary writer conceives an imaginary account of history—in which FDR was not assassinated, in which Italy betrayed the Axis countries and the Allies won the World War II. His novel, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, is of course banned in the eastern portion of post-war America, dominated as it is by Nazi occupation forces. But in the Pacific States of America, which Japanese victors control and where the Oriental race is superior despite its puppet white government, where the I Ching—the ancient Chinese Book of Changes, which predicts the future and understands the present—has replaced the Bible, and a more permissive, humane philosophy dominates, the novel is tolerated by the authorities. And its incredible, fantastic image of a mythical post-war world is glimpsed against the real world of the present in The Man in the High Castle.
Against this background of a globe controlled by Germany and Japan, Philip K. Dick tells this bizarre, hilarious, terrifying, electrifying tale of a dealer in historic U.S. trivia who maintains an exclusive antique shop in San Francisco; of a Jewish artisan hiding from the Reich racial laws and his estranged wife languishing in the backwater country of the Rocky Mountain States; of a traveling "Swedish businessman" who is much more than he seems; of a Gestapo killer sent on the track of the man in the high castle.
Mr. Dick's vision of contemporary America is of a world that never was. But it might have been—and his brilliantly satiric image combines with the high suspense of his story to make The Man in the High Castle an uncommonly original entertainment.
Leggere questo romanzo dopo aver visto la serie non è stata una grande giocata. Mentre il libro è molto sottile e approfondisce solo alcuni aspetti, la serie ha aggiunto tantissimi elementi in più, soprattutto nell'ambito dell'azione. Detto questo: consiglio tantissimo entrambe.
Leggere questo romanzo dopo aver visto la serie non è stata una grande giocata.
Mentre il libro è molto sottile e approfondisce solo alcuni aspetti, la serie ha aggiunto tantissimi elementi in più, soprattutto nell'ambito dell'azione.
Detto questo: consiglio tantissimo entrambe.
Review of 'The Man in the High Castle' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I read this book because I'd seen a couple of episodes of the TV series. Honestly, as usual, the book is better. They took a lot of liberties with the series (only way to stretch a relatively short book that long,) and the characters are sometimes quite different.
This is classic Phillip K. Dick. Dystopian alternative future. It's very conceptual, rather than character-driven, although a couple of the characters are better developed than the rest. Worth a read, for sure.
I read this book because I'd seen a couple of episodes of the TV series. Honestly, as usual, the book is better. They took a lot of liberties with the series (only way to stretch a relatively short book that long,) and the characters are sometimes quite different.
This is classic Phillip K. Dick. Dystopian alternative future. It's very conceptual, rather than character-driven, although a couple of the characters are better developed than the rest. Worth a read, for sure.
Lots of effort is made to set up a very believable world in which the Axis powers defeated the Allies and split America into three. We follow the main characters through events that lead them to various conclusions. As tension heightens the narrative centres on a book, a work of fiction in which the Axis powers were defeated by the Allies and Britain and America divide the world between them, and how difficult it would be to live in that world. There are various twists along the way as the story of each character reaches a conclusion. The final twist though is left until the last few pages, and then we are left hanging. No explanation of how it could be. Was it a figment of the characters imagination, a dream, or was it really true, and if so how could it be that the world was as the book …
Lots of effort is made to set up a very believable world in which the Axis powers defeated the Allies and split America into three. We follow the main characters through events that lead them to various conclusions. As tension heightens the narrative centres on a book, a work of fiction in which the Axis powers were defeated by the Allies and Britain and America divide the world between them, and how difficult it would be to live in that world. There are various twists along the way as the story of each character reaches a conclusion. The final twist though is left until the last few pages, and then we are left hanging. No explanation of how it could be. Was it a figment of the characters imagination, a dream, or was it really true, and if so how could it be that the world was as the book has described it.
A fascinating world becomes real in the reading, but the end lets it down
