Phillip K Dick - The Man in the High Castle

 Possibly the granddaddy of alternative fiction.

In this novel, the Axis powers win World War II and divide the spoils.

Germany occupies the East Coast of the United States.

Japan, occupies California.....

 

 Or is this really what the book is about. ???

 

It's a strange book.

Really a novel about a forbidden fictional book. "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy"

by Hawthorne Abendsen where everything is reversed and the victors of WWII are the British and Americans.

 

Hawthorne Abendsen is "The Man in the High Castle". 

He lives in a world where the Nazis & the Japanese Imperial Army are the victors of WWII. 

They go about transforming & ruling the world in their image.

The Germans colonize Mars & Venus, purging the human race of all non Aryans.

The Japanese occupy the West Coast of the USA, and much of Asia, Australia, NZ, South America.

 

Of course, the Nazi's aren't going to be happy sharing the world with the Japanese.

A plot to attack the Japanese mainland with nuclear weapons is discovered and just when things seems to be coming to a head, there is a sudden conclusion.

 

Juliana meets the author of "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy" and asks him how he (or who) wrote the book.

I found his answer confusing at first ... 

 

BEWARE SPOILER ALERT !!!!!!!!!!

 

The book ends with Juliana discovering that The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, is real and that she & the characters in her life are living in a false reality.

 

At least this is what I gathered. 

The end is so sudden and unexpected. 

While reading the book I constantly asked myself the question "why is this classified as Sci - Fi" ?

There is very little reference to space, science, the future , but if I'm interpereting the conclusion correctly, Dick is implying either a false reality or parallel universes ... one where the NAZIs win WWII, and another where Britian & the allies are victorious.

This idea of the world as a false creation where some characters experience the truth, and break through the veil is a familiar idea today. Think movies such as "the Matrix". 

 

Maybe Dick is rather promoting the idea of a Parallel Universe. With the NAZI & British worlds both existing concurrently.