A SCANNER DARKLY (1977) by Philip K. Dick
This novel comes with an author's afterword that makes a few things clear:
1) The characters and settings are based on Dick's own experience living in California during the hippie/counter-culture era;
2) He lost a lot of friends to drug abuse.
Thus,
A SCANNER DARKLY is more than a typical ("typical" meaning very weird)
Dick novel about shifting realities, paranoia and questions about human
identity.
It is also a fictionalized account about the dying
days of the drug-addled hippie era. Lives are wasted, minds
disintegrate, addiction destroys the bonds and community between humans.
It's a sad story, despite the dark humor and compassion.
Since
the story is so grounded in lived-in reality, the science fiction
elements feel almost unnecessary. No "sense of wonder," no moments of
"conceptual breakthrough" are available here - only the bleak insight
that drug addiction ruins everything.
Recommended, but kind of a bitter pill to swallow. (The movie version is very good.)
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