Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said follows Jason Taverner, a television celebrity as his reality is replaced by another one, one which sees him as a non-entity, or a no-one. He wakes up after a medical emergency in the same police state dystopia that he was in before, but now suddenly nobody knows who he is, and more importantly he has no associated official documentation, which are of the utmost importance in this world.

I am of two minds on this one. I really loved a lot about, first and foremost the overwhelming sense of anxiety and paranoia that drips from the pages. The reader, much like our lead protagonist, isn't sure who is lying, who to believe, if their concept of reality is correct. It left me trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together throughout the plot, only to have my conceptions broken at multiple turns. The plot itself is well paced, speeding a long and keeping the reader engaged with the lucid set of events. While the setting for the story is mostly cut and paste from a million other dystopias, the specific obsession with documentation in this felt fresh, and reminded me of the indie video game Papers, Please. There's some interesting discussion about the role that love and grief play in our lives, what value there is in both, and about how to have one you must have the other. Dick also plays with drug use and addiction in a way that I found sincere.

My disappointment largely lies in the ending of the novel, where most things are explained clearly in black and white. Personally I think the message and the tone of the book would've been better served with something more ambiguous, where the reader is left to think about what really did happen. As it is, the ending feels at odds with the read of the book. Also, there were a few through lines, specially relating to age of consent and incest that felt rushed or completely unnecessary considering where Dick seems to be focused. Why included such heavy topics if you aren't going to do more than simply mention them in passing? Kinda weird and off-putting.

I think I enjoyed this one less than Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, though they were both worth the read. This novel is defiantly more lucid and coherent throughout than Androids. I excited to get to some of his other works.