Just another GR refugee. Other than that, I had a stroke in 2004, and read almost anything I can get my hands on, though I have a particular weakness for history, mystery, and historical fiction.
This 1962 novel is the work that made Philip K. Dick's reputation, and it is appropriately one weird novel, but one where the memory of the setting lingers after the book is read.
This novel is set in the year it was published - 1962 - but a very different 1962. The Axis powers, chiefly Germany and Japan, won the Second World War. Japan holds sway over the west coast of North America, while much of the rest of the continent is dominated by German puppet states. Slavery has been re-legalized, and Jews are scarce and what few are left live deep under cover. The I Ching is as popular as poker is in our universe.
The book has an exceptionally odd ending (it almost peters out more than anything else), which is what prevents me from giving it a higher rating, but the setting is a detailed nightmare, and lingers in the mind. I won't forget it anytime soon.