Martian Time-Slip

This is one of PKD's most coherent novels. Two characters vie for the role as main protagonist. There is Jack, an electrical repair man and there is Manfred, a boy locked up in an institution for being 'anomolous'. For that we can read non neurotypical. Dick refers to autism on some occasions but the boy is not seen as that by those around him. And for a book written in the early 60s we should not expect a modern understanding.

Jack is called to a repair and gets involved with a powerful local union boss, Arnie, who is impressed with his work. Running parallel is the discovery that Jack's neighbours have a son, the boy in the institution whose father has just died. Jack's family gets involved with Manfred and through that Arnie makes a claim on the boy as he believes people with such brain function can see the future. Arnie recruits Jack to build a facility/machine that will allow them to communicate with Manfred so Arnie can interrogate the future.

Through a web of family relationships and power games, Dick explores the themes of isolation, shared hardship, mental illness and psychosis, and the human need to have mastery over our environment and community.

As the story develops we find that Manfred can communicate almost telepathically with the indigenous martian people. In a last ditch attempt to gain control over a situation that has escaped him, Arnie and Manfred set off on a pilgrimage inspired by the indigenous culture. Once again, Arnie can't quite keep control of things as we approach the climax of the story.

And then at the closing pages PKD hits us with a brick between the eyes. "I bet you didn't see that coming," he says as the book come to a close.