Review: We Can Build You

We Can Build You by Philip K. Dick
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

We Can Build You, by Philip K. Dick (who I usually love) has left me feeling betrayed. It's a sham; a bald-faced lie. The cover and descriptions whisper sweet tales of android presidents and moon settlements and questions about the nature of autonomy and humanity. If you build a perfect replica of a man, is it a man?

Sadly, we'll never know, because the vast majority of this book is really about an old man becoming obsessed with the 18-year-old daughter of his business partner. It's about him refusing to see the myriad reasons why a young mentally ill woman is not the appropriate object of affection for a man who is at least old enough to be her father.

The plot creeps along in fits and starts, and the most interesting aspects of the book--namely, the androids Lincoln and Stanton--repeatedly get sidelined by Dick's focus on mental illness and on Louis "falling in love" with Pris. The whole "romance" plot is particularly egregious given that there's literally nothing about her character or her interactions with Louis that would explain or justify the kind of interest he takes in her.

A confusing mess of a story that feels like it's trying too hard to make Big Social Commentary, but focuses on dull unlikable characters. A rare miss for PKD.

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