Ubik by Philip K. Dick

     I recently read the book "Ubik" by Philip K. Dick, set in 1992 but written in 1969, a sci-fi story about a world where psychics, pre-cogs, and animators exist (basically magic people) and so do people who can nullify their powers. There are companies that make use of both kinds of people, and when Glen Runciter, the owner of a company for people who nullify powers, goes on a trip to Luna, where there is an explosion which causes Glen to die and put in cold-Pac (a freezer where people can talk to him using microphones) with his wife Ella, who died many years earlier. But in the "real world", Joe Chip, a tester for Runciter, and the crew who went with him to Luna are experiencing decay of objects to earlier forms and Glen Runciter's face on coins and bills.
     There is more than one protagonist in Ubik, but the one that is followed for the majority of the story is Joe Chip, the tester for Runciter's company. He is lazy, cynical, and can't even afford to open his own door (in this world, everything is coin-operated). In the middle of the story, he loses a loved one to decay. I can relate to him in that I have lost things that I love before. He lost a woman that he loved, while I have lost many pets to old age.
     There is one person who influences the protagonist throughout the story. It is Pat Conley, a woman who can change the past by thinking about minor details that she wants to change. She thinks that she is causing the decay using her ability, and pretends that she loses her ability so they don't suspect her of it. In one past that she creates, she is married to Joe Chip, and he vaguely remembers the feelings he had for her when she changes the past back. This is why she has such a big influence on him. She influences him to get away from the rest of the group so she can kill him, as she thought she had killed the others.