Set in an alternate universe where Japan and Germany were victorious in WW2, the United States has been divided between a Japanese West Coast, a Nazi East Coast, and a neutral zone in the rockies. We follow a few narratives in this setting, from a Jewish machinist hiding out in the Pacific, who attempts to start his own Jewelry business, to an antique salesman, to a Swedish businessman trying to deliver an important message to the Japanese, all while a banned book circulates, detailing an alternative world in which the US were victorious in the war instead.
The ideas of this book are very compelling. The setting is interesting, and subtle differences are portrayed by Dick throughout the novel. The novel takes place in the Pacific and the neutral zone, with Germany and the east coast only described in mention. We get a lot of detail about how San Francisco would be different under Japanese occupation, from a caste system with the colonial Japanese government at the top, to more widespread consumption of tea, and even down to a different way of speaking. There’s a kind of imitation version of Japanese being used, where English is used with an attempt to be similar to Japanese grammar, and word choice.
One odd element of the novel is the reliance on the I Ching. I’m not quite sure what the prevalence of the oracular book is or was in Japanese society, but it’s certainly everywhere in the book. Characters from all stripes of life rely on it heavily in their daily decision making. Many passages of the book consist of characters tossing coins and reading their fortunes in the book. This serves as a kind of narrative device to have characters reflect on the possible actions before them, and on what other possibilities there might be.
The writing is a bit stilted. Writing English in a cultural style is an interesting idea, but given this is an invented vernacular, I’m not sure this works well. This author is not renowned for his beautiful prose, but more so for his interesting ideas, and this novel fits the ticket there.