Storyline: 2/5 
 Characters: 5/5 
 Writing Style: 4/5 
 World: 5/5 
 This was like watching a street show where a visiting foreigner kept ten plates simultaneously spinning on long poles when delivering a lesson on physics with perfect grammar in his second language while periodically interjecting self-deprecating ethnic jokes as he nodded and smiled, encouraging you to enjoy yourself. I was entertained, and then impressed, then educated, and subsequently humbled, humored, abashed that I was humored, and somehow still fully satisfied by the end. 
 This was one of those rare opportunities to hold something wondrous, a work of art from a genius. The work shifted from an entertaining novel with science fiction trappings to a serious discussion of how things could have been. It lectured while amusing. It deplored and mocked the evil of the enemy while reminding us that not every enemy was evil. The Man in the High Castle taunted Allies whose self-satisfaction and superiority depended upon the frail bases of destiny, divine plan, and history written by victors. It held nothing sacred, yet used the sacred to unfold the story. Philip K. Dick lowered himself - stepped down from the High Castle - so as to help guide the reader through the maze of concentric circles he had laboriously structured. He then taunted and teased readers for thinking they had understood the pattern and what it all meant. I read the last chapter, literally on the edge of my seat, waiting to be permitted in on the joke, the lesson, the secret handshake. I'm no Juliana. I'm not going to say I understood it all. It was enough for me to stand in the presence of greatness and view the masterpiece. 
 An aside: I wouldn't mind joining a book club and reading this again or perhaps taking a literature course that taught this book. It's not an easy read, and it is not an exciting read. If you read it, don't read it for the story - the plot isn't that interesting. And come to think of it, don't read it for the alternate history, not really. The book isn't there to shock you with how terrible things have been. If anything, the book is there to show us how normal this terrible future would have become. I read it as being about people, about we who inhabit this the-Allies-won-the-war reality. And I found that to be the gem in the story.