This is not a review. This is a short account of my failure to review a book. Yes, I have been defeated. Mister Charles Yu, I take my hat off to you. I cannot present a review, because I have not finished this book.
In fact I do not intend to ever finish it. Not because it is a bad book. On the contrary, the concept behind it is fascinating. The author’s approach to time travel fiction seems initially reminiscent of a previous book I have reviewed by K.A. Bedford, but the contrast between them could not be greater.
Yu is not employing time travel as a storytelling device. Instead the book itself becomes a time machine and as the reader, you become a function of the book’s existence itself. The adventures of Yu’s protagonist, named Charles Yu, are all bound up with attempting to explain the logic of time travel, even a grammar of time travel, rather than introduce any plot as such.
Which is what defeated me. As a conceptual work this book is quite impressive, but I did not feel there was anything for me to hook on to.
So I gave up. Apologies all round.
I switched to a Jasper Fford novel for the plane home instead. Much less perplexing.
.... i can stay 
8 comments
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May 25, 2011 at 11:09 am
Stephannie
Jasper Fforde is awesome! I love the Thursday Next series.
May 27, 2011 at 10:52 am
Emmet
Hey boss! 🙂
May 25, 2011 at 11:34 am
Oric
Just wanted to say, I am enjoying your blog and congratulations on the grant of the visa. I discovered your blog via DC Women Kicking Ass linking your map of Flashpoint.
Like you I am an avid reader of Terry Pratchett and have ploughed through the first three (four?) Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde. I agree with you that the Thursday Next books are the closest to Pratchett that I have found. I haven’t tried the other Fforde books – Nursery Crime series or Shades of Grey yet.
Thanks for your time.
May 27, 2011 at 10:54 am
Emmet
Oric, thanks for stopping by. Always a pleasure to meet another Pratchett fan. Well of Lost Plots by Fforde will be my next review – quite enjoyable for the journey home.
Could you possibly send me on the mention from DC Women Kicking Ass?
Cheers.
August 2, 2011 at 11:24 am
Oric
Hi Emmet
Sorry for the late reply. I have been away and have been slack in checking my emails. I would be happy to “send” you on the mention, but could you please explain what I should do (I feel like I have already become technologically incompetent!).
Cheers
Oric
August 2, 2011 at 7:46 pm
Emmet
Hello again Oric. I’ve been lax in updating this blog lately, so I was pleasantly surprised to see your message this evening just as I logged in to finally post a new article.
Anyhoo…I meant for you to simply send me on the link to the article that mentioned my piece. Cheers.
May 25, 2011 at 7:27 pm
Colin Smith
Gosh. You can’t say more than “I couldn’t review this, it didn’t mean much to me, I read an unpretentiously enjoyable comedy instead”.
Of course, I’ll have to take a crack at Mr Yu’s book now I’ve read the above. If it defeated you, I won’t last a minute. It’ll be like a mental resilience course. And how sweet will the first page of whatever good old STORY I charge into afterwards be. I’ve been meaning to swallow my pride and get stuck into Game Of Thrones, so perhaps starting that with a dip into “How To Live Safely … ” will give me the impetus to just admit I was wrong about writer, genre, story and even TV series.
May 27, 2011 at 10:58 am
Emmet
Well that was why I decided to flag this book – I feel humiliated by my failure, but I was curious to see if anyone else had read it and enjoyed it (or perhaps will go one to read it now). Fascinating concept as I said, but the execution wore me out.
Were you avoiding old Georgie Porgie for years? How funny. A friend pitched me the books saying ‘Anyone can die!’ Looking forward to the new GRRM book next month, might do a special event for the blog to celebrate (also are you going to read the new Alan Moore bio from Gary Spencer Millidge?).