A fantastic dystopia that pierces to the core of some of the problems facing the modern world.
Tevis strikes a careful balance in this book; it could very easily have come across as "old man yelling at cloud", as in large part it is a critique of newly developing technologies and sociological trends. In my opinion however he manages this very well, making the issues universal and deeply human.

The book portrays a dying humanity- the population of the earth is dwindling and noone seems to care; mostly because they are hooked to their TVs and fed as many mind-altering drugs as they could possibly wish. But worse- they've forgotten how to read. The book follows one man as he re-learns this lost talent, and slowly rises above and away from the mire that humanity has been left in.
We also have the story of a depressed robot who can't die, some thoroughly misguided religious folks and a whole host of group suicides by immolation.
It's a great exploration of how any ideology can be twisted or taken to meaningless extremes; of how internal satisfaction can ultimately be to its own detriment; as well as the standard utopian/dystopian themse of survival, what that means and what we are willing to sacrifice for safety and happiness.
Very well written book, Tevis should definitely get far more acclaim than he currently seems to.