Gather Yourselves Together

In 1952, a young Philip K. Dick wrote one of his first novels: Gather Yourselves Together. He'd already had success selling numerous SF short stories, but this was a serious, mainstream novela steamy, claustrophobic tale of two men and a woman isolated by circumstance, and alienated from each other by their pasts. Set in 1949 amongst the evacuation of American businesses from mainland China, middle-aged Verne Tildon and half-his-age Barbara Mahler are forced to put aside the lingering resentments and frustrations of a previous, stateside love affair in order to do the job they've been assigned, preparing a factory compound for transfer to the approaching Communists. Carl Fitter is the unsuspecting young man who finds himself unknowingly embroiled in their tensions, and around whose sexual awakening with Barbara the novel is structured. This early mainstream novel shows Dick's skill and talent in an entirely different manner than his SF works.