This is not one of Philip K. Dick's typical novels. 
The
plot is linear and coherent, and at no point are any of the major
characters confronted with the awful possibility that the universe
as they experience it may be only apparently real. Unfortunately this
also means that as Dick novels go, this is not a particularly good
one.
Originally published as The Crack in Space in 1966, but written
a couple of years earlier during the author's most prolific period,
this book is essentially an unsuccessful attempt to grapple with the
issues of overpopulation and racism. The year is 2080. Jim Briskin,
the Liberal-Republican candidate for the presidency of the United
States, hopes to unseat the incumbent Bill Schwartz, of the States
Rights Conservative Democrats. Briskin is a former TV "newsclown"
(presumably at least in part a reference to comedy actor Ronald Reagan)
who hopes to become the first Negro (sic) president. It's a nice coincidence
that as I type, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who starred in the film version
of Dick's "We Can Remember It For You, Wholesale", is campaigning
to succeed Reagan as governor of California.
The overpopulation problem in Cantata 140 appears to
be something that affects the United States alone, perhaps due to
the development of anti-aging treatments that allow people to continue
working well past their hundredth birthday. The government's attempts
to deal with it by legalised prostitution, semi-compulsory abortion
and putting large numbers of the lower classes into suspended animation
seem about as realistic as Isaac Asimov's proposal, in one of his
non-fiction books, to stop the population explosion by encouraging
masturbation and homosexuality. (Not that there's anything wrong with
either masturbation or homosexuality, but please let's be realistic
about the benefits!)
The treatment of racism is muted. All non-white groups are generally
referred to as "Cols", presumably short for "coloureds",
and it's implied that the government has sinister plans to minimise
their numbers and influence, to the point of the Vice-President's
links with an extremist organisation that attempts to assassinate
Briskin (with a weapon whose nature is not satisfactorily explained).
But we learn nothing about Briskin's own social or family background,
and little about social conditions for the various ethnic groups.
The setting appears to be 1960's California with a few extra gadgets;
the world outside the USA is barely mentioned (not counting parallel
universes).
The gadgets are a nice touch. They include taxis that can take you
straight to orbit, and the "Jiffi-scuttler" which is an
instantaneous transport system whose details are not otherwise made
clear. The core of the plot concerns one such machine which develops
a leak to a parallel world which Briskin seizes on as his solution
to the overpopulation problem - wake up the sleepers in suspended
animation ("Wachet auf!" is Bach's Cantata 140, hence the
title) and let them go through the leak and colonise it! The consequent
political tussles are diverting but not convincing. In any case the
classic "my house has unexpectedly developed a doorway into another
dimension" story, pioneered by Lewis Carroll, was done much better
around this time by Clifford Simak in "The Big Front Yard"
and has not been equalled since (certainly not by Robert Sawyer's
dismal Hominids, which benefited from this year's Worldcon
location to win the Hugo).
A few standard Dick themes are present. The sinister government conspiracy
mentioned above is one; the idea of emigration from earth to a better
place is another. The parallel universe is a nod in the direction
of alternate perceptions of reality though a tame one by Dick's usual
standards. The character George Walt, conjoined twins with one head
but two brains and two bodies, is clearly an echo of Dick's obsession
with his own twin brother who died at birth. The plot gets a little
confused and frantic towards the end, but I felt more because of carelessness
than authorial grand design.
The presentation of the book is somewhat disappointing. The title
as originally published is nowhere mentioned, and there are some silly
misprints ("deeps-ace" for "deep-space", "prose"
for "pro's", "facet" for "fact") which
would surely have been caught by any proof-reader who was actually
awake. The attractive cover by Chris Moore has little obvious relationship
with the story. Unless you are a Dick completist, you can probably
give this one a miss.
Review by Nicholas Whyte.
Elsewhere in infinity plus:
