The Gist:
What would happen if the opposite side won? What if everyday life was entirely different to what we know today? That’s what The Man in the High Castle is all about!
Set in 1962, the novel follows the lives of various different characters. Each character lives within the United States of America; a country now under the rule of Germany and Japan following their loss in the Second World War.
As tensions begin to build between those in power, a book named The Grasshopper Lies Heavy finds its way into the public eye; a book that portrays a world where the Germans and Japanese lost the war, putting ideas into the minds of both the Americans and the Jews.
With interlinking characters and individual storylines, this web of characters must deal with the disputes and socio-political issues of their cultures.
The Review:
Now, I like to consider myself quite understanding when it comes to mind-boggling novels but Philip K. Dick has truly boggled me. Well, he did for the first 150 pages or so of this novel.
For those with prior knowledge to the customs of the Japanese culture and those with some understanding of both the German and Japanese language, then you will probably have an easier time getting into this book than I did. Unfortunately, it took a large amount of Googling before I understood the traditional Japanese way of life and the political jargon of the Germans. Even then I was still a little dumfounded by the language referenced throughout.
Although my online searches made some aspects of the novel easier to understand, I just couldn’t lose myself in this alternate universe as much as I would have hoped. The lives of the Frinks and Robert Childan were the only ones that had me hooked. This could be because of our cultural similarities but I just couldn’t lose myself in the rest of the plot. One moment I was dropped into a store full of American ‘knick-knacks’ and the next I was following a business trip in a rocket ship. Yeah. Alternative.
But I do have to give high praise to this author for the numerous ‘Easter eggs’ he dropped throughout the story. Whilst the novel draws the picture of a world where the opposite side won World War II, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy imagines a world entirely opposite. So whilst we’re reading about the victory of the Germans and Japanese, the characters are reading about the victory of the rest of the world whilst in a world where the prior idea actually happened… yeah, I confused myself slightly but you can’t make these things up. Philip K. Dick constantly makes little comments throughout concerning alternative universes whilst all the while writing his own alternative universe.
The Verdict:
As much as I wish I could have loved this book after hearing the positive reviews of its adaptation that just wasn’t the case. If I wasn’t stuck trying to understand the belief systems of the Japanese community, I was trying to ignore the choppy grammar used throughout. Although it may have been an intellectual decision on the author’s part, his ‘Japanization’ of the text simply came across misused and unnecessary – particularly in the cases of the American born characters.
Not only was the structure of the novel’s language difficult to ignore and breeze through, the switching between conscious and subconscious thoughts was just as difficult to keep up with. Was that guy speaking out loud? Was he chatting to himself? I DON’T KNOW!
Unfortunately, I didn’t really get into the novel until the last 50 pages or so. It was then that the action picked up and the end-game of the plot and characters finally made sense. Other than that, the rest of the novel just seemed to be leading up to an ending that could have been explored further.
I appreciate the genius of the author with this particular novel, but for this reviewer it just didn’t meet my expectations.
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