1974 Science Fiction novel by
Philip K. Dick.
* * * * 1/2
Jason Taverner is
on top of the world: He is a famous singing star, he has his own weekly TV show viewed by over 30 million people, he is incredibly good-looking and has any woman he wants, and above all, he is a "six"
1
.
Then one day, Jason wakes up in a sleazy hotel room, and find
he doesn't exist anymore. His ID cards are gone; his birth certificate is missing from all the computers.
He learns very quickly
how the other half lives. In this future
2 America, not being able to produce your ID cards at a
random checkpoint means that you will be sent to a
forced labor camp, almost certain death.
Worst of all for any
celebrity, it suddenly appears that
no-one has ever heard of him!
This is one of Dick's earliest novels portraying the disturbing "
betrayal state"
3, not so much different from our own, shaped by the evil
Richard M. Nixon (or an
analogue). Dick could out-write nearly any author you care to name with one hand tied behind his back.
1I'm not going to explain what a "six" is to you; you'll have to
read the book.
2The "future" being defined as
1988.
3In fact, the term "betrayal state" appears to have been coined in this novel.