Our Tragic Universe - Scarlett Thomas

[goodreads]

Title: Our Tragic Universe
Author: Scarlett Thomas
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 3/5
# pages: Audiobook ~16hrs
Date read: June, 2011

Can a story save your life?

Meg Carpenter is broke. Her novel is years overdue. Her cell phone is out of minutes. And her moody boyfriend's only contribution to the household is his sour attitude. So she jumps at the chance to review a pseudoscientific book that promises life everlasting.

But who wants to live forever?

Consulting cosmology and physics, tarot cards, koans (and riddles and jokes), new-age theories of everything, narrative theory, Nietzsche, Baudrillard, and knitting patterns, Meg wends her way through Our Tragic Universe, asking this and many other questions. Does she believe in fairies? In magic? Is she a superbeing? Is she living a storyless story? And what's the connection between her off-hand suggestion to push a car into a river, a ship in a bottle, a mysterious beast loose on the moor, and the controversial author of The Science of Living Forever?

I hardly know what I think about this book. I liked it well enough, I'd be hard pressed to tell you what it was actually about. Perhaps it, in itself, is one of those storyless stories that Vi goes on about?

The End of Mr Y (also by Scarlett Thomas) is certainly better, but I'm not sure I'd call this bad - just... different. I became really fond of Meg, which was fortunate, as the book was more a simple account of her life over 4'ish months than an actual story with a plot.

I liked her job though :)