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Books like Our Tragic Universe

Our Tragic Universe

2010Scarlett Thomas

4.2/5

In homage to Scarlett Thomas’ narrative experiment, I am sorely tempted to review the black paperback edges (gimmicky, annoying) rather than the story (gimmicky, annoying) on the principle that the review would be to the book as the plot is to the author – that is to say, only peripherally relevant, something that gets in the way of all the clever thoughts she’s had while writing. Loosely speaking, there’s a relationship plot that might have been a bit too chick-lit for my taste, anyway, what with the authoress – let’s not have any subtle meta-fiction, in case the readers miss it - heroine weighing her current, dead-end relationship against the prospect of beginning a love-triangle somewhere else. So maybe I’m the wrong audience for Our Tragic Universe, but everything else: science, pseudo-science, obscure theorising, magic, potentially interesting characters and a touchingly written dog/owner relationship should have charmed and even engulfed me, had the point of it all not been ‘hey, look what I’m doing, it’s clever, right?’.I was not charmed. I will allow that there are ideas aplenty; it’s brimful of storytelling and, presumably, storywriting convention (much of it couched in expository dialogue, unfortunately), and I kept reading because these were interesting, but the landslide of things about which I did not care outflanked them, and I finished the book with a disappointed sigh at the house-by-the-sea ending (I get it, I do, but still…), and a final trip to the bathroom to wash my hands free of black ink.

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