Customer Reviews

Gather Yourselves Together

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Written in the early 1950s, this novel takes place in 1949 in post-revolutionary China and concerns three Americans, two men and a woman, who have remained to hand over control of a factory to the new government. One of the men, Carl, a boyish innocent, falls in love with the woman, Barbara, who is cold and emotionally repressed, and happens to be the ex-lover of Vern, the other man. The working out of this triangular situation is told rather tediously, with many flashbacks to minor incidents. The subplot of the political takeover of the factory is not well integrated with the romantic theme. Despite the vividness of some scenes, there is a meandering slackness to this novel, undoubtedly the weakest of Dick's mainstream works.

A confession: When I got hold of a copy of this novel, I did not expect to like it. "Gather Yourselves Together" was either the first or the second full-length book that Philip K. Dick wrote, although it wasn't published until several decades later, and a lot of his early stuff was pretty weak. I assumed that this would be, too. And it's not exactly good, but it's more interesting than several of his later pieces.

To my surprise, it's not science fiction - PKD started his novel-writing career with a mainstream work. A mining company leaves three people behind at a large facility in China to wait for the new Communist government representatives to arrive and take ownership. As these employees explore the compound and try to keep themselves amused during the long, empty days, we learn that the woman and the older of the two men had a relationship some years previously, but now the woman is getting interested in the younger, more enthusiastic man. For an author whose classic work is full of hundreds of people, not to mention enormous aliens, androids and electric sheep, this is positively minimalist.

Maybe the most fascinating thing about "Gather Yourselves Together" is that you can practically see Philip K. Dick learning how to write long forms as the novel goes on. In the first few chapters, you get a whole lot of short, pretty simple declarative sentences, some with exclamation points - "If only she would go away!" and things like that. It only takes a few chapters for the narration to relax. Some of the descriptions on these later pages are enough make your mouth water (literally - one is of an enormous warehouse full of food). PKD never does quite shake off the purple prose and rhythmic repetition - that would take him another novel or two - but he was obviously going in the right direction.

A bigger problem lies with this story's structure. The plot as such takes place over a few days, and emotions run high, but not much really happens. You get most of your information in flashbacks, which tends to slow things down. Some great novels use this sort of multiple-flashback approach, but in the main story of those novels, something genuinely heavy hangs in the balance to keep you hooked during the backstories. Not so much here. The vast empty landscape can seem a little threatening at times, but mostly it's a vast opportunity for the three characters, and the only genuine threat is the approach of the Chinese to send them home.

Despite all of this, there's something attractive about this story. Barbara and Carl, the woman and the younger man, spend a good bit of their time trying to reach out to each other and they find it difficult - she's been hurt and he's one of those very young people with a theory about everything that they can't stop discussing. Verne, the older man, seems rather torn about whether he wants to help them or get in their way. The fact that the three of them are alone on acres of ground with all their needs met only increases the pressure. It's almost enough, by itself, to make the novel work.

Like a lot of modern novels in which nothing seems to happen, the simple events of this story seem to imply more than they deliver. When it comes to figuring out what's really going on here, the title phrase may be of some help. It comes from the prophetic book of Zephaniah, Chapter 2: "Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together, O undesirable nation, before the decree is issued, the day passes like chaff, before the Lord's fierce anger comes upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger comes upon you." Although PKD seldom chose his own titles, this one seems apt, since he studied religion in one form or another for most of his life. Maybe he ran across this passage somewhere and took up the idea of a group of people coming together to protect themselves from an oncoming disaster. Underlying Barbara and Carl and Verne's sense of freedom and possession of all they survey is the definite sense of approaching doom and the possibility that they might have more power in facing it together than they would alone. It's a dramatic notion, and definitely present in the novel. I just wish PKD had explored it more thoroughly, if he was going to explore it at all.

Then again, this is a story about three people exploring their surroundings in an environment of total freedom, but with their pasts hanging over them the whole time and interfering with their ability to enjoy it. Maybe that's what PKD himself was doing with this novel; if so, it's not too surprising that he tripped over his own feet. "Gather Yourselves Together" as an exploration of possibility doesn't quite come off, but the author was just getting started. He would do better within a very short space of time.

Benshlomo says, The longest journey begins with a single stumble.

Dick's non-sci-fi novels never get the credit they deserve, some people don't even realize there are such books. The one thing common across all of Dick's writing, is the deep and successful characters. Between a feeling of frustration, love, and hate...all this can be brought out by identifying with the characters.

The story takes place in China 1949, but much of the story is told through flashbacks, it is here where you learn how the three characters end up in China in the first place. The story parallels that of the Garden of Eden, where Carl is the innocent Adam/Eve character.

While it's not Dick's best work, it's certainly can be placed next to them.