I thought this would be a dull read but was pleasantly surprised to find it anything but boring. The history spans a time of great changes in Iowa and the midwest and the newspaper industry. The exemplary index is a wonderful aid to this book.

Dr. Johnson has written a moving portrait of Tinker v. Des Moines, a major 1960s Supreme Court decision. The "Struggle" that he discusses deals with the right of non-violent expression while in the confines of a public school. The narrative is richly grounded in newspaper articles, interviews, and letters to and from the primary individuals. This makes the story extremely personal and enlightening. An in-depth look into the workings of the Supreme Court may be the book's most profound contribution. Taking a controversial stand in time of war is never easy. The Tinker case shows that the heart of our democracy rests with those who dare to point us in a different direction.

With UBIK, Dick wrote a book which is, in the same time, extremely pleasant to read and extremely confusing - quite a feat...

UBIK is a "best of" Dick's obsessions: it contains obvious reminiscences of The Eye in the Sky (the collective nightmare), The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (the greedy, almighty, elusive son of a b...), Counter-clock world (time running backwards), The World Jones Made (precognition), Time Out of Joint (the fake world), to name a few. In a way, it is also reminiscent of VALIS (the Godlike entity which communicates with the hero by mystical means), which was written 12 years after UBIK!

How could so many themes be exploited so intelligently in such a short novel? The answer is: thanks to Dick's straightforward style. In UBIK, every word counts. The hero, Joe Chip, races with Death: each passing minute lowers his chances to find a UBIK vaporizer and to save his skin. Through Dick's sparing use of words, the reader understands this message: if Joe Chip rests, he will die. Some of Dick's despisers criticize his so-called "hasty" style: can't they see that, thanks to this style, he could describe the undescribable? When you get rid of the superfluous, you get a chance to grab the true essence of horror. At least, that's what Dick thought; I personnally think he was right and that he should be remebered of today not only for his hallucinatory visions but also for his style.

The style allows Dick to exploit the above themes "intelligently", ie in depth and by intertwinig them. But it will probably not allow the reader to fully understand the book after the first reading, unless he's VERY familiar with Dick's tricks, mainly the different levels of reality. One of my friends, who is an experienced sci-fi reader (but not a Dick's reader), still can't understand the last few lines of UBIK, where Runciter finds a Joe Chip coin in his pocket. She asked me, and I said: "I think you should re-read the book entirely." I all the less recommend UBIK to people who don't usually read sci-fi: insofar as the style is pleasant, and the basic cat-and-mouse story catching, they may 1) have a superficial reading of it, ie think that it works only on one level (as an "adventure" novel, like, for instance, Solar Lottery); 2) thus, read 90 per cent of it and think they have understood it all; 3) be completely bewildered by the last 10 per cent and make the conclusion that all the book is a piece of nonsense.

At the end of his life, Dick said in an interview that he was not very satisfied with UBIK: he felt that with this novel, he started to repeat himself. That is absolutely true. There is nothing new in UBIK - Dick only picked up the best of his previous books, confronted for the first time his obsessions one with another, and tried to examine whether the whole could be superior to the sum of its parts. It was like playing poker, canasta, baccara and gin rummy with the same deck of cards. The result is convincing.

Although "Ubik" wasn't the first Philip K. Dick novel I read (having read just about all of them now, it's hard to remember which was first, but I think it was "Martian Time-Slip"), I would recommend it as the best starting point for someone trying to decide if PKD is your cup of tea. "Ubik" has all of the major elements of the typical PKD novel (to the extent there is any typicality): (1) questioning of the meaning of reality; (2) an almost pathetic sense of humor in the face of the unraveling of reality; (3) an everyman protagonist; and (4) extreme readability despite a somewhat pedestrian writing style.

The plot can be summed up like this: some humans have psychic powers, but rather than being seen as heroes (as is the case in most sci-fi), they're possible sources of invasions of your privacy. Never fear, however, because some humans have developed anti-psychic powers -- they block the powers of the others. A bunch of anti-psychics go on a mission, but something goes wrong and they barely get away with their lives. Almost immediately, they notice that something is not right. Phone directories are out of date, coffee is disgustingly stale, and so on. Time, it seems, is flowing backwards!

For readers who aren't aware, PKD was one of the most influential sci-fi writers, with his reality-warping stories. His interest in this topic can be traced, no doubt, to his youthful experimentation with narcotics -- an experience recounted largely in "A Scanner Darkly."

PKD was an incredibly prolific writer; he wrote something like 16 novels in a five year stretch in the late-1960s, including "Ubik." Many of his best novels were written during that stretch. If you like "Ubik," I would suggest in no particular order: "The Gameplayers of Titan," "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch," "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" (made into the movie "Bladerunner"), "Dr. Bloodmoney," and "The Man in the High Castle." By the 1970's, PKD stopped writing as many novels, and they became more thematically complex, with increasing emphasis on religious spirituality.

I finished reading Ubik and I couldn't even start any other books for a week because I had to sit and think about everything that had just happened. I've read several other books by Mr. Dick and, while they are all excellent, this is the best. So far. It has everything that I have come to expect from him. You never quite know where reality is. Then you figure it out only to find that you are wrong. Then another twist comes. It has excellent pacing, a good bit of humour, and - of course - loads of wild ideas about life, death, the future, consumerism, dreams, drugs, psychic abilities, and the human condition.

The first few pages set up the stage for the story in a way that an average author would have required 100 pages of descriptions and explanations. And it all made sense. This is a good book if you have never been introduced to PKD's work, since it is very accessible and well written. It is required reading for any PKD fans who have not yet gotten around to it.

Just remember- it is safe when taken as directed.