Publisher Gollancz : London, 2009
This atmospheric and thought provoking novel stems from Dick's period of fascination with World War Two and his obsession with the I-Ching, an ancient Chinese form of fortune-telling.
It is 1962, 15 years after the Axis powers have been victorious in World War Two. The only “hope” in this glum world is a novel, banned under the Reich but fashionably risqué elsewhere, called “The Grasshopper Lies Heavy”, a piece of fiction with the “absurd” idea of that the Axis Power could lose WWII.
Written from a variety of viewpoints, this psychological thriller deals with espionage, international relations, and a world held in tension between the relatively comfortable life of most of the characters (in the Japanese dominated pacific states) and the knowledge of the creeping horror that could engulf them, exemplified by the Nazis with their multiple genocides ( first European Jews, then American Jews and finally the complete extermination of Africa's native population which caused even the Nazi hierarchy to pause in the face of world-wide disgust).
This is a work steeped in concepts from Zen Buddhism and other eastern philosophies. The dialogue is often difficult to read - we are not sure if the characters are speaking Japanese literally translated for the reader; or English that has been radically changed by the absorption of Japanese linguistic and cultural concepts. The characters range from schizophrenic, to deeply philosophical, to self loathing. The tension between outside appearance and inner thought creates a world which is permanently askew and grasping for answers from the ancient oracle, the I-Ching.
The shock for American readers is how Japanese the Americans have become. Ironically at the same time, the Japanese yearn for American pre-war nostalgia in the form of novels, music, and antiques without really understanding them. To add even further ambiguity, the fictional novel which ties the plot together describes an Allied victory different from that in our own world, a more utopian and peaceful one.
Goodreads
New York Journal of Books
Meaning in The Man in the High Castle (spoilers)