Forrest’s Reviews > Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said > Status Update

I've said, in another context, that Philip K. Dick wasn't an author, he was a mad prophet. The comment was made tongue-in-cheek, but I'm becoming more convinced that it isn't a joke, after all. At least it's not a very far-fetched idea.

Dick can plumb the depths of complexity in his characters; or, in this case, the complexity of sanity itself.

"Do you know what you are?" Kathy said. "You're a very good person. Do you understand that?"

He shrugged. Like most truths it was a matter of opinion. Perhaps he was. In this situation, anyhow. Not so in others. But Kathy didn't know about that.

One thing Dick excels at is putting his characters in deep trouble right away. In this case, Jason Taverner. A famous entertainer, has lost his identity while living in an autocratic police state where not having an identity is a crime punishable with hard time in a labor camp. Not a great place to be when you were on top of the world one day ago.

It's time I got some more Dick.