Capsule review of "How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe" from the Sunday Times

[ajr]

The fictional Charles Yu, the protagonist of the real Charles Yu's debut novel, is a time-machine repairman who gets into a paradoxical pickle when he meets his future self and shoots him in the stomach. Although the novel comes dressed as science fiction, brimming with alternate universes, futuristic landscapes and gleeful metaphysics, that is all sleight of hand, and much of this giddy tale is really about language, memory and the process of storytelling. Like some of its philosophical diversions, it can be flighty and hard to grasp, but Yu's spirit of invention is infectious, and there are moments of arresting emotion, particularly when he is drawn into the altogether more earthy trials of parent-child relationships.

Capsule review encapsulated: This is good, therefore it is not sf.