My Review

THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE, by PHILIP K. DICK., is an inverted timeline depicting an America ran by the Japanese and Germans, where the Axis powers won WWII and Nazism reigns worldwide. Dick leans heavily on the philosophical underpinnings of Japanese culture, exploring terms like "The Tao", "Wu", and the castings of the iChing. The whole book is written in pigeon-english, and more closely resembles a mosaic of words than prose. Dick wrote beautiful, simple, Hemingway-like prose in "Androids", and this is an evolved high-concept forward type of style. Once you're used to it it reads quite well.

Having seen the Amazon TV mini-series rather spoiled everything. The alt-timeline of our known "current reality" where America wins the war is shown extensively in that series but only thru quotes from pages of "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy" in this book, and only ephemerally in "reality" within one or two paragraphs where Tamaku bleeds back into the normal timeline via meditation.

High concept Dick. Clearly top shelf and a deep cut. Highly recommend.

Continue Reading

The Sleepwalkers by Arthur Koestler

A review of Arthur Koestler’s The Sleepwalkers: a history of man’s changing vision of the universe.

The Trial by Franz Kafka, Chapter 9: In the Cathedral

A 53-minute narration of Chapter 9 of Kafka’s The Trial (In the Cathedral), read by Joseph Voelbel,

39 Book Reviews

A shorthand reference to thirty-nine book reviews organized by subject covering money, consciousness