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October 12, 2005
Counter-Clock World
Counter-Clock World was the first of the three Philip K. Dick paperbacks I've read. What an ugly cover.
After 1986 the Hobart effect sets in on Earth. Time flows backwards compared to the way it flows today. The old-born awake from their graves and must be dug up. Sebastian Hermes does this for a living, bringing people back to life at his vitarium. When he discovers Anarch Peak, nearly messianic preacher, is about to be old born, Sebastian digs up the body, and the rough stuff starts. Lots of people don't want great figures to come back into the world of the living.
Counter-Clock World strikes me as classic PKD, when he was casting around for a novel on par with Ubik or Man in the High Castle, but hadn't yet reached the VALIS summit. His characters are so easy to believe, having all the foibles of real human beings. No heros, just real people stumbling through particularly difficult lives. The scatalogical ironies of time running backwards lighten up the story, which the despair might otherwise flatten. Not his best, but worth more than the 50 cents I paid.
Posted by Mark at October 12, 2005 08:59 PM
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