By Philip
K. Dick
The Simulacra didn’t make a lot of sense, nor
were the characters enjoyable. I’ve really enjoyed several of Dick’s
short stories, so this novel was very disappointing. Some of Dick’s
ideas are great, such as pharmaceutical companies gaining so much political
power that they outlaw psychiatry in order to sell more drugs – a
stretch in 1964, when this was written. But rather than build on this
idea, or the main concept of a robotic U.S. president controlled by a
shadowy secret government, Dick throws in dozens more, such as telekinetic
singing. The book reads like a list of stream-of-consciousness ideas
that Dick was forced to stick together in a plot. There are too many
vague and useless characters, from professional jug-band members and
used car salesmen to the immortal wife of the “president.” The
book was short but difficult to get through. Many subplots were unresolved
and the book ended too abruptly. Stick to “Minority Report” or
some of his dozens of short stories if you want to try some of Dick’s
more cohesive, intelligent work.
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