We Can Remember it for You Wholesale by Philip K Dick

Source: Own Collection
Format: Softcover
Rating:  4 Stars
Reviewer: Laurel

I read this after watching Total Recall (2012). I now clearly need to watch the Arnold Schwarzenegger version.

This story is actually one of Dick’s funnier stories – although it has a sobering side too. But oh-so-frustrating for some of the characters. Of course, I’ll leave you to figure out why.

In this short story, Dick scratches at the itch people have to do something meaningful with their lives. Douglas Quail is an everyman, ordinary, lowly, with a humdrum life to suit. He lives on Earth, and works as a clerk. In the midst of his humdrum life, he has seen a business called Rekal – a place where one can obtain one’s wildest fantasies, not just as an observer, but experientially. And when we meet up with him at Rekal, he’s about to receive his fantasy – to be a secret agent working on Mars.

For all its brevity, this story is quite convoluted. And very well-written. Dick doesn’t add fluff or overmuch setting to his stories, and yet one gets a sense of the world around the characters through their eyes. And as I said up top, this is one of his more amusing ventures.