Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Mariner Books (2006), Edition: 1, Paperback, 416 pages
Description
A cursed book. A missing professor. Some nefarious men in gray suits. And a dreamworld called the Troposphere? Ariel Manto has a fascination with nineteenth-century scientists--especially Thomas Lumas and "The End of Mr. Y, "a book no one alive has read. When she mysteriously uncovers a copy at a used bookstore, Ariel is launched into an adventure of science and faith, consciousness and death, space and time, and everything in between. Seeking answers, Ariel follows in Mr. Y's footsteps: She swallows a tincture, stares into a black dot, and is transported into the Troposphere--a wonderland where she can travel through time and space using the thoughts of others. There she begins to understand all the mysteries surrounding the book, herself, and the universe. Or is it all just a hallucination?… (more)
Media reviews
Thomas writes with marvelous panache, although I wish she indulged less in her earnest calls for homeopathy and animal rights. Amid all the novel’s engaging questions about the nature of reality, it’s hard to get worked up about a subplot that has Ariel traveling through time to save laboratory
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mice. Still, she spins Derrida and subatomic theory into a wholly enchanting alternate universe that should appeal to a wide popular audience, and that’s something no deconstructionist or physicist has managed to do. Consider “The End of Mr. Y” an accomplished, impressive thought experiment for the 21st century. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member RoboSchro
"And then, in an instant that feels thinner and sharper than the edge of a razor, I'm falling. I'm falling into a black tunnel, the same black tunnel that Mr. Y described in the book."
"The End of Mr. Y" is a book within this book, a supposedly cursed novel by an obscure writer. Graduate student
Will Ariel find the hidden recipe? Will she try to replicate the experience for herself? Will it work? Will she then be exposed to further dangers? Does it all have anything to do with the strange death of "Mr. Y"'s author, and the disappearance of her faculty advisor? Well, of course.
So far, so predictable. An interesting enough adventure, with some pleasantly moody writing, fairly two-dimensional characters, and a smattering of student philosophising. That could have been that.
But Thomas' handling of the mental world that Ariel discovers the key to -- referred to as the "Troposphere" -- elevates this book above the ordinary. To convey what a mental landscape might be like, and show a character learning about it and journeying through it, without losing or confusing the reader, is some achievement. Plenty of authors fail at this, and plenty of strange worlds are left feeling somehow arbitrary. Not this one. It makes sense, and I'm impressed.
"The End of Mr. Y" is a book within this book, a supposedly cursed novel by an obscure writer. Graduate student
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Ariel Manto, whose thesis is about this writer, stumbles upon the lost work in a used book shop. Its titular character discovers how to enter a sort of mental universe, wherein he can experience the inner lives of others. This revelatory, dangerous journey is clearly described in the book, and the author spells out how the reader can do the same. Except that somebody has torn out the page with the instructions.Will Ariel find the hidden recipe? Will she try to replicate the experience for herself? Will it work? Will she then be exposed to further dangers? Does it all have anything to do with the strange death of "Mr. Y"'s author, and the disappearance of her faculty advisor? Well, of course.
So far, so predictable. An interesting enough adventure, with some pleasantly moody writing, fairly two-dimensional characters, and a smattering of student philosophising. That could have been that.
But Thomas' handling of the mental world that Ariel discovers the key to -- referred to as the "Troposphere" -- elevates this book above the ordinary. To convey what a mental landscape might be like, and show a character learning about it and journeying through it, without losing or confusing the reader, is some achievement. Plenty of authors fail at this, and plenty of strange worlds are left feeling somehow arbitrary. Not this one. It makes sense, and I'm impressed.
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LibraryThing member Eat_Read_Knit
PhD student Ariel Manto finds a copy of a supposedly cursed book by an eccentric Victorian scientist which leads her into an exploration of time travel and metaphysics.
This story veers between intriguing, bizarre and just plain dull. Some parts are very well written, and the whole thing is
There were a number of passages which struck me as crude for the sake of being crude, as though the author were trying to be shocking and edgy because that's how good literature is supposed to be. Well, it isn't. Good literature can be crude and shocking, but it doesn't have to be - and this isn't either truly shocking or good literature.
Some of the philosophical stuff is very interesting, and some of it is just plain dull - tacked on, because as well as being shocking good literature needs to have metaphysical discourse. The escaping-the-bad-guys subplot appears and disappears from the story; sometimes it's strong and interesting, sometimes it's repetitive, and ultimately it just peters out into nothing and you rather wonder what the point of it was.
All in all, a mixed bag of good and dull bits, and could probably have been improved by cutting out about a hundred pages.
This story veers between intriguing, bizarre and just plain dull. Some parts are very well written, and the whole thing is
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exceedingly clever. Ariel is a strong and well-constructed character, but she's also irritating and damaged. While I can see why the author chose first person present tense for the narrative, and I concur with that decision, Ariel's inner monologue doesn't always serve the story well.There were a number of passages which struck me as crude for the sake of being crude, as though the author were trying to be shocking and edgy because that's how good literature is supposed to be. Well, it isn't. Good literature can be crude and shocking, but it doesn't have to be - and this isn't either truly shocking or good literature.
Some of the philosophical stuff is very interesting, and some of it is just plain dull - tacked on, because as well as being shocking good literature needs to have metaphysical discourse. The escaping-the-bad-guys subplot appears and disappears from the story; sometimes it's strong and interesting, sometimes it's repetitive, and ultimately it just peters out into nothing and you rather wonder what the point of it was.
All in all, a mixed bag of good and dull bits, and could probably have been improved by cutting out about a hundred pages.
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LibraryThing member carolcarter
This book is so profound that as I read the last line I found myself laughing and crying. I don't know where that came from. Perhaps because Ms. Thomas addresses all the most profound issues of being human: where did we come from, where are we going, what is matter, what is thought, how did
As all really good fiction does for me, I now find myself wanting to read Heidegger, Derrida, Baudrillard, and Samuel Butler. Some of these I have on my shelves - some not. Amazon does a fine trade by me. Mr. Y also calls to mind Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide and The Brief History of the Dead.
If you have never tried to understand theoretical physics before you will have made a start after reading this book. If you have wrestled with the ideas I enumerated above, you will find yourself a little further on. This book is a truly amazing work and makes me wish I could sit down and have a long, long conversation with the author. It can also just be read as a good adventure. Either way you should read it.
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consciousness arise, what is god, etc. An excellent follow-up to The God Delusion, The End Of Mr. Y is fiction and yet it is not. It is also theoretical physics, metaphysics, linguistics, theology - it is literally everything. That she could accomplish such a feat with a work of demandingly readable fiction is truly stunning.As all really good fiction does for me, I now find myself wanting to read Heidegger, Derrida, Baudrillard, and Samuel Butler. Some of these I have on my shelves - some not. Amazon does a fine trade by me. Mr. Y also calls to mind Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide and The Brief History of the Dead.
If you have never tried to understand theoretical physics before you will have made a start after reading this book. If you have wrestled with the ideas I enumerated above, you will find yourself a little further on. This book is a truly amazing work and makes me wish I could sit down and have a long, long conversation with the author. It can also just be read as a good adventure. Either way you should read it.
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LibraryThing member smfmpls
Excellent, fascinating novel about a grad student who finds a copy of an infamous 19th c novel whose few readers, including the author, reportedly died as a result. Philosophical and compellingly realized. I loved it.
LibraryThing member MikeFarquhar
The End of Mr Y is Scarlett Thomas' newest book, which got a limited release last winter which I missed, and is now out in wider release (and a very handsome edition it is too). Thomas is an interesting writer, who often seems to be expressing her own thinking about various topics which interest
In simple terms though, the plot is apparently straightforward to begin with: Ariel is writing a PhD on the role of the thought experiment as both science and narrative fiction ... linking Henry James to Einstein thinking about relativity in terms of trains; or Schrodinger's Cat for example. Her thesis has been derailed slightly by first the unexpected disappearance of her mentor, and then by one of the university buildings collapsing into an old abandoned tunnel. That leads to Ariel discovering a vanishingly rare copy of a fabled Victorian book - by an author related to her thesis; a book that is said to be cursed such that anyone who reads it either dies or vanishes.
The book - the eponymous The End of Mr Y - leads Ariel into a conspiracy, hunted by rogue CIA agents, as she discovers a formula in the book that allows her to wander through the collective consciousness of humanity. To say more would run the risk of spoiling it a bit, but rest assured, it flows a lot better than I am perhaps doing justice to here. Ariel's quest into the mysteries of the book drew me in, and held me there.
The main flaw in the end is the epilogue which - as Thomas herself acknowledges in the afterword - perhaps takes the ending one step too far, spelling out something explicitly that would have perhaps been letter left unsaid. However the ride to get there is worth the read. There's a degree of similarity here with the Raw Shark Texts - both books play with ideas of language and reality, and characters who can ultimately rewrite parts of existence through manipulating their knowledge.
Thomas' achievement is to write what is essentially a novel of ideas in such a way that you are carried along with the thriller elements of the plot while happily absorbing the sidebars on deconstructionist philosophy without really noticing you're doing it. Fun, and stimulating.
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her through her fiction. She expresses that more explicitly here - the lead character, Ariel, is a sometime journalist, sometime PhD student, who writes an article for a magazine where she starts off talking about one thing, examines it in depth for a few articles, and then flows from there onto her next topic, examines that in depth and so on. Mr Y is hard to pin down, partly as a consequence of that - it's a mystery, a conspiracy thriller, it plays with ideas of quantum physics, Big Bang theory, language and reality, the nature of God, 19th century philosophy, a fantasy, and eventually its own take on mythology.In simple terms though, the plot is apparently straightforward to begin with: Ariel is writing a PhD on the role of the thought experiment as both science and narrative fiction ... linking Henry James to Einstein thinking about relativity in terms of trains; or Schrodinger's Cat for example. Her thesis has been derailed slightly by first the unexpected disappearance of her mentor, and then by one of the university buildings collapsing into an old abandoned tunnel. That leads to Ariel discovering a vanishingly rare copy of a fabled Victorian book - by an author related to her thesis; a book that is said to be cursed such that anyone who reads it either dies or vanishes.
The book - the eponymous The End of Mr Y - leads Ariel into a conspiracy, hunted by rogue CIA agents, as she discovers a formula in the book that allows her to wander through the collective consciousness of humanity. To say more would run the risk of spoiling it a bit, but rest assured, it flows a lot better than I am perhaps doing justice to here. Ariel's quest into the mysteries of the book drew me in, and held me there.
The main flaw in the end is the epilogue which - as Thomas herself acknowledges in the afterword - perhaps takes the ending one step too far, spelling out something explicitly that would have perhaps been letter left unsaid. However the ride to get there is worth the read. There's a degree of similarity here with the Raw Shark Texts - both books play with ideas of language and reality, and characters who can ultimately rewrite parts of existence through manipulating their knowledge.
Thomas' achievement is to write what is essentially a novel of ideas in such a way that you are carried along with the thriller elements of the plot while happily absorbing the sidebars on deconstructionist philosophy without really noticing you're doing it. Fun, and stimulating.
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LibraryThing member phoebesmum
This really should have been a good book. A young PhD student finds what may be the only copy in the world of a supposedly cursed book which holds the key to another dimension through which you can piggyback on the minds of others. How can you go wrong with a concept like that? Incredibly, by
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making it boring. The Troposphere is a world completely without magic, duller than a wet weekend in Bognor, while the characters are lifeless and, for the most part, unpleasant. A real disappointment. Show Less
LibraryThing member MuseofIre
A mind-blowing ride through cosmology, phenomenology, epistemology, theology, and no doubt many other -ologies I've missed. How can you not love a book that stars Apollo Smintheus, god of mice? It's amazing to me how a book like this can be embraced by the mainstream critics when it's so clearly
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science fiction, but more power to Thomas for pulling it off. Show Less
LibraryThing member devenish
This is a bit like the classic 'Punch' cartoon.,'The Curate's Egg' "BISHOP - I'm afraid you've got a bad egg,Mr Jones". CURATE - "Oh,no my lord,I assure you! Parts of it are excellent !"
It begins well,with the central character discovering in an obscure little bookshop,a rare,indeed almost unique
Now this is fine and I like the premise.It is worth 5 stars of anybody's money. However I must deduct marks as follows. A minus of one star for tacky sex scenes and a minus of one star for pages and pages (which I found myself skipping) of scientific explanations which were totally uninteresting. Could I am sure do much better than this.
So 'A Curates Egg' sort of book.
It begins well,with the central character discovering in an obscure little bookshop,a rare,indeed almost unique
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book - "The End of Mr.Y" in fact. This she buys for a very low price. The crux of the matter is that with the help of this book she is able to time and indeed mind travel through the Troposphere. She had some weird and wonderful adventures on the way,not least in meeting and being helped by Apollo Smintheus (a mouse-god) and taking a journey on a somewhat unusual train.Now this is fine and I like the premise.It is worth 5 stars of anybody's money. However I must deduct marks as follows. A minus of one star for tacky sex scenes and a minus of one star for pages and pages (which I found myself skipping) of scientific explanations which were totally uninteresting. Could I am sure do much better than this.
So 'A Curates Egg' sort of book.
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LibraryThing member JollyContrarian
Full marks for ambition: no doubt about it. Scarlett Thomas, whose name sounds like a pseudonym but apparently isn't, shows real imagination and no small portion of erudition in constructing the world of Ariel Manto (whose name really is a pseudonym, and an anagram at that) and the "Troposphere"
Yes, you read that right: Thomas combines a conventional "confront/defeat the monster" plot, which could almost earn a Hollywood treatment, with some thickly-laid on metaphysics which, even in the hands of the Wachowski brothers (to whose films this book bears only the flimsiest of similarities) decidedly would not especially as, ultimately, Hollywood-grade plotting loses out to post-structuralist posing some way before the end. Now you don't see *that* happen too often, so three cheers for that. And in parts it is a joyous, righteous, pseudo-intellectual romp.
But in others it's just pseudo-intellectual: the means by which Thomas seeks to bring about her epistemological triumph over the (disappointly thinly drawn) bad dudes displays nothing like the lightness of touch such a manoeuvre requires. For one thing, she doesn't pull her philosophical punches at the slightest hint of stage 1 brain in a vat metaphysics, as a less ambitious (but more successful) writer might. Instead, she indulges on long ruminations, delivered in improbably lengthy and articulate chunks, about more obscure and difficult thinkers like Derrida, Baudrilliard, Heidegger and Husserl, with whom she should not expect the greater part of her (or any) audience to be well acquainted. Obliged, therefore, to indulge in exposition she elects to explain the salient insights of these thinkers through implausible conversations between characters who, if attention were being paid to plot arc and character development, would have better things to be thinking and talking about. Alas when she does have her characters do something else, it invariably involves copulating, which, given the narrative constraints she has imposed, is about as unlikely as casual dialogue about literary theory and to my reading seemed quite unneccessarily grittily depicted. As a way to give this novel an edge the fornicatory aspect seemed forced, gratuitous and, frankly, dull - like the intracies of Heidegger's dasein, a personal obsession Scarlett Thomas might have been better advised to keep to herself.
For all that, when she does allow the plot to dictate the pace it picks up mightily and zips along. The characters face some neatly constructed conundrums, crises and paradoxes which flow from and support her epistemological point. The writing is playful and, at times, neatly constructed: there are in-jokes and word plays throughout, and I don't pretend to have got anything like all of them.
In the end - though it may pain Ms Thomas to hear it - the cod philosophy can be safely dispensed with and the slightly icky bonking glossed over, since the wonderful contrivance of Thomas Lumas (itself a self-referential play on words, I suppose) and his Troposphere with its console, its choices, the mouse god Apollo Smintheus and his misfiring scooter carry the day, no matter how incoherent the whole may ultimately be.
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she happens upon when researching a long dead and forgotten Victorian mystic called Thomas Lumas, in which much of the action - and philosophical musing - comprising The End of Mr. Y happens. Yes, you read that right: Thomas combines a conventional "confront/defeat the monster" plot, which could almost earn a Hollywood treatment, with some thickly-laid on metaphysics which, even in the hands of the Wachowski brothers (to whose films this book bears only the flimsiest of similarities) decidedly would not especially as, ultimately, Hollywood-grade plotting loses out to post-structuralist posing some way before the end. Now you don't see *that* happen too often, so three cheers for that. And in parts it is a joyous, righteous, pseudo-intellectual romp.
But in others it's just pseudo-intellectual: the means by which Thomas seeks to bring about her epistemological triumph over the (disappointly thinly drawn) bad dudes displays nothing like the lightness of touch such a manoeuvre requires. For one thing, she doesn't pull her philosophical punches at the slightest hint of stage 1 brain in a vat metaphysics, as a less ambitious (but more successful) writer might. Instead, she indulges on long ruminations, delivered in improbably lengthy and articulate chunks, about more obscure and difficult thinkers like Derrida, Baudrilliard, Heidegger and Husserl, with whom she should not expect the greater part of her (or any) audience to be well acquainted. Obliged, therefore, to indulge in exposition she elects to explain the salient insights of these thinkers through implausible conversations between characters who, if attention were being paid to plot arc and character development, would have better things to be thinking and talking about. Alas when she does have her characters do something else, it invariably involves copulating, which, given the narrative constraints she has imposed, is about as unlikely as casual dialogue about literary theory and to my reading seemed quite unneccessarily grittily depicted. As a way to give this novel an edge the fornicatory aspect seemed forced, gratuitous and, frankly, dull - like the intracies of Heidegger's dasein, a personal obsession Scarlett Thomas might have been better advised to keep to herself.
For all that, when she does allow the plot to dictate the pace it picks up mightily and zips along. The characters face some neatly constructed conundrums, crises and paradoxes which flow from and support her epistemological point. The writing is playful and, at times, neatly constructed: there are in-jokes and word plays throughout, and I don't pretend to have got anything like all of them.
In the end - though it may pain Ms Thomas to hear it - the cod philosophy can be safely dispensed with and the slightly icky bonking glossed over, since the wonderful contrivance of Thomas Lumas (itself a self-referential play on words, I suppose) and his Troposphere with its console, its choices, the mouse god Apollo Smintheus and his misfiring scooter carry the day, no matter how incoherent the whole may ultimately be.
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LibraryThing member soliloquies
This is my first Scarlett Thomas book and I found it to be engaging and well-written. The End of Mr Y is the story of Ariel Manto and her search for the cursed book of Thomas Lumas. There are a lot of big subjects to contend with – from philosophy and advanced science, but you don’t have to
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understand everything to move on with the narrative – certainly my knowledge of quantum physics is poor, but I was able to understand everything. I like the inclusion of Lumas’ “The End of Mr Y” within the story, as it helped to highlight how one man’s obsession can ruin lives. I struggled to empathise with Ariel, even though she’d obviously had a troubled up-bringing – her back story seemed clinical, but perhaps the author was attempting to show how Ariel had compartmentalised her life. I didn’t enjoy the ending – it didn’t seem to work. Overall, a great book to read and make you think. Show Less
LibraryThing member SkyRider
A definite "curate's egg" this - "The End of Mr Y" aims to combine a story with a commentary on science and metaphysics. The story works well - it's rather eclectic, but it starts off well told and fairly compulsive. You feel a bit let down at the end though when the implied climax fails to
At the same time the poor science, cod philosophy and such grated and detracted from what would otherwise be an extremely readable book. One gets the impression that Ms. Thomas did a great deal of research for this book, wants to make sure her readers know that she did but she fails to really understand the concepts that she's read up on. For me, this really jarred as what seemed to be an attempt to ground the story in some real science actually had the adverse effect of making things seem too unreal (which is something of an achievement for a book set in a 'dreamworld'!).
Friends who've read it seem polarised and either class this as a good read or a bad read. I'd have to conclude that it's somewhere in the middle; good storytelling flawed by poor execution.
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materialise.At the same time the poor science, cod philosophy and such grated and detracted from what would otherwise be an extremely readable book. One gets the impression that Ms. Thomas did a great deal of research for this book, wants to make sure her readers know that she did but she fails to really understand the concepts that she's read up on. For me, this really jarred as what seemed to be an attempt to ground the story in some real science actually had the adverse effect of making things seem too unreal (which is something of an achievement for a book set in a 'dreamworld'!).
Friends who've read it seem polarised and either class this as a good read or a bad read. I'd have to conclude that it's somewhere in the middle; good storytelling flawed by poor execution.
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LibraryThing member librarybrandy
Quantum physics, philosophy, and the nature of consciousness. And yet it's not dry or dull, and it all makes a weird sort of sense.
Because I'm a jerk, I'm deducting a star for the awful font they chose for the paperback edition. (Maybe it's the same as the hardback, I don't know.) I understand you
Because I'm a jerk, I'm deducting a star for the awful font they chose for the paperback edition. (Maybe it's the same as the hardback, I don't know.) I understand you
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want to use a different font for the offset text, the excepts from the mysterious cursed book, but maybe that's the part you should set in the borderline-frilly Sovereign Light--not the main 90% of the book. It's a good book but a little hard on the eyes. Show Less
LibraryThing member John5918
Surreal but fascinating. It´s fiction, not philosophy, but it manages to weave in philosophy, religion, quantum physics, relativity, thought experiments, literature, alternative universes, the big bang and much more. Mostly it´s quite fast-paced and engrossing.
The hints of dark sex in the story
I find the ending rather weak. This is perhaps partly inherent in the story itself - it´s quite difficult to imagine what the ending could have been without some sort of anticlimax. It´s also a problem with any story which is very effectively narrated in the first person but which reaches an ending which apparently precludes the narrator from ever getting the story to the reader. There is an epilogue, which is often used to do this, but in this case wasn´t.
But all in all, a very good read.
The hints of dark sex in the story
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are intriguing, giving insights into the main character and a touch of gritty reality without having to go into too much sordid detail.I find the ending rather weak. This is perhaps partly inherent in the story itself - it´s quite difficult to imagine what the ending could have been without some sort of anticlimax. It´s also a problem with any story which is very effectively narrated in the first person but which reaches an ending which apparently precludes the narrator from ever getting the story to the reader. There is an epilogue, which is often used to do this, but in this case wasn´t.
But all in all, a very good read.
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LibraryThing member pgimmo
Homeopathy, sex, mind - transference, time-travel - what's not to like!
LibraryThing member tsisler
This is not writing at it's finest, but for me it was a great thought experiment. If you're looking for a great work of literature-look elsewhere. If you enjoy thinking about thought, science, spirituality, and philosophy, and can overlook the sometimes muddled story-line, then this book can be a
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fun ride. Show Less
LibraryThing member Rynooo
A bit of a mixed bag, this one. In places, The End Of Mr Y is a fascinating exploration of philosophy and science. Thomas has done her homework and presents some genuinely intriguing food for thought. The concepts are brilliant and draw from a wide range of sources, and the author doesn't shy away
It is within the realms of the Troposphere, the mysterious extra dimensional world that glues the story together, that we find the most imaginative, colourful and interesting aspects of the book. Unfortunately it is also here that the author's creativity is concentrated. In the "real world" the characters are clichéd to say the least - a neurotic, self-deprecating but brilliant student who is unaware of her latent abilities; a charismatic, elusive professor; a mysterious alpha-male love interest; and the clincher: nefarious "men in suits". The incidental characters are much the same, and it feels like their thought processes (we are introduced to many directly though their internal dialogue) are utterly predictable.
The back-story suffers a similar fate, centring around a rare cursed book with which the protagonist has a passing interest. There are no prizes for guessing how the plot develops from there. In the end the story is left with far too many loose ends and the epilogue is cringe-worthy.
It is almost as if Thomas started out a set of brilliant concepts but had no idea how to work them into a novel. The story genuinely feels like an afterthought and the characters are treated as a vehicle to convey the ideas, lacking depth and authenticity.
Several times in the novel we are reminded that the central theme is a thought experiment and that, in a manner of speaking, a thought experiment is merely a story. However, the way it is phrased, this observation feels like a footnote by the author in which she reminds us that it is the concept itself and not the meat and bones of the novel that is important. While this may have been her intention, it might be misconstrued as an excuse for the weakness of the rest of the book.
Unlike the homoeopathic tincture consumed by the protagonist, repeated dilution has perhaps weakened the strength of the author's central theme. That said the ideas are interesting enough to carry the rest, and it makes for an enjoyable, if not enlightening read.
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from asking awkward questions and addressing logical paradoxes. It is within the realms of the Troposphere, the mysterious extra dimensional world that glues the story together, that we find the most imaginative, colourful and interesting aspects of the book. Unfortunately it is also here that the author's creativity is concentrated. In the "real world" the characters are clichéd to say the least - a neurotic, self-deprecating but brilliant student who is unaware of her latent abilities; a charismatic, elusive professor; a mysterious alpha-male love interest; and the clincher: nefarious "men in suits". The incidental characters are much the same, and it feels like their thought processes (we are introduced to many directly though their internal dialogue) are utterly predictable.
The back-story suffers a similar fate, centring around a rare cursed book with which the protagonist has a passing interest. There are no prizes for guessing how the plot develops from there. In the end the story is left with far too many loose ends and the epilogue is cringe-worthy.
It is almost as if Thomas started out a set of brilliant concepts but had no idea how to work them into a novel. The story genuinely feels like an afterthought and the characters are treated as a vehicle to convey the ideas, lacking depth and authenticity.
Several times in the novel we are reminded that the central theme is a thought experiment and that, in a manner of speaking, a thought experiment is merely a story. However, the way it is phrased, this observation feels like a footnote by the author in which she reminds us that it is the concept itself and not the meat and bones of the novel that is important. While this may have been her intention, it might be misconstrued as an excuse for the weakness of the rest of the book.
Unlike the homoeopathic tincture consumed by the protagonist, repeated dilution has perhaps weakened the strength of the author's central theme. That said the ideas are interesting enough to carry the rest, and it makes for an enjoyable, if not enlightening read.
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LibraryThing member amandrake
What would have been a thought-provoking and well-written novel with a mind-bending ending is derailed by an annoying tendency for logical fallacy and a failure to live up to the premise and early atmosphere. Look, "quantum" has an actual meaning; you can't just use it as a stand-in for "it doesn't
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make sense". Show Less
LibraryThing member irkthepurist
staggeringly good stuff. it works as a narrative, as a commentary, as a brief introduction to masses of philosophical and scientific ideas and as simply brilliant prose writing. some may find the leaps of genre and ideas a bit much, but i feel if you don't worry too much about the logistics of it
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all and just go with the barmy flow of ceasless invention then... you'll be fine. great stuff Show Less
LibraryThing member pollgibbard
Where science meets humanities and poses more questions than it offers answers. A frighteningly believable fantasy that just makes you wonder if you should try that potion. Ariel is the quintessential redhead that surpasses all redheads that have gone before her. A pioneering traveler who
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challenges the boundaries of the physical world and who takes the ultimate choice on the edge of life and death. Show Less
LibraryThing member deadmanjones
A potion described in a rare book allows Ariel Manto to travel between people's minds in a fast paced, thought provoking read that's peppered with poetic wit. Frequently though Ariel's tasks seem like lacklustre quests in the early chapters of a colourful RPG, and Scarlett is not quite as capable
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of blending narrative and speculative or scientific discourse as say Pynchon or Coupland. Show Less
LibraryThing member adastria
After getting this as a free copy from LibraryThing, I tried, really, I did. Ultimately, however, it just wasn't compelling enough for me to continue on. After reading approximately half of it, I just couldn't be bothered anymore - and that's a shame. Great idea, only okay execution.
Great book
Great book
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design, though. Show Less
LibraryThing member murraymint11
I found this an entertaining, inventive, but also somewhat confusing read; it certainly stretched my brain cells. I found it literally a 'mind-blowing' experience, sometimes to such an extent that I wasn't really following the explanations, and had to skip the philosophical paragraphs before
I enjoyed the fact that the story was set in places I am particularly familiar with (a British university campus, Hitchin, Torquay), and liked the contrast with these places and the Troposphere environment.
I think I understand the ending - am I right in thinking it is connected to Ariel's true name, beginning with E?
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getting back to the plot. Perhaps a bit too concept-driven for my liking.I enjoyed the fact that the story was set in places I am particularly familiar with (a British university campus, Hitchin, Torquay), and liked the contrast with these places and the Troposphere environment.
I think I understand the ending - am I right in thinking it is connected to Ariel's true name, beginning with E?
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LibraryThing member 30oddyearsofzan
I really, really enjoyed this - perhaps not as much as I would have done when I was 17, but I'll stick my neck out and say it'll definitely make my top 10 this year, and probably my top 5. The plot rattles along at breakneck pace; Ariel, while I occasionally wanted to slap her around the head in
The edition I read contains an Aknowledgements section in which Scarlett Thomas gives her opinion on what the end of the book means. I'm inclined to disagree with her on this - I think the key to it all is in fact the very first sentence...
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exasperation, is an engaging heroine; and the ideas it discusses make your brain hurt in the most satisfying way. I'm about to sit down and make a list of all the books mentioned in the text I now want to read: Derrida, Baudrillard, Zollner, Samuel Butler, quantum theory...The edition I read contains an Aknowledgements section in which Scarlett Thomas gives her opinion on what the end of the book means. I'm inclined to disagree with her on this - I think the key to it all is in fact the very first sentence...
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LibraryThing member wandering_star
It's difficult to say a lot about the story of The End Of Mr Y without giving away too much. But as it starts, a young woman, unexpectedly forced to take a new route home, passes a second hand bookshop that she's never seen before, and happens on a rare, and reputedly cursed, book that she's been
At this point I thought I knew what to expect - strange happenings, an inability to find the bookshop ever again - your classic fantasy beginning. But in fact, while the book borrows from fantasy, it ends up being something rather different.
In a way, The End Of Mr Y is another example of the (currently oddly popular) Postmodern Victoriana sub-genre - I'm thinking of books like Jonathan Strange or The Glass Books Of The Dream Eaters. But taking the postmodernity a step further, the book is actually about the nature of reality, language and thought, touching on post-structuralism and quantum theory among other things.
There are some great things about this book. When the 'thriller' part of the story gets going, it's pacey and gripping, and as I got into the book I liked the 'ideas' too: particularly the description of 'poststructuralist physics', a sadly imaginary academic discipline which manages to explain brilliantly how quantum physics (specifically the idea that electrons are not in any specific location until they are observed) can be true.
But unfortunately, both the pace and the interestingness of the ideas was very variable.
And the worst thing for me was how irritating the narrator (Ariel Manto) was. She just seemed like such a cliche - a self-styled bad girl/damaged person, who boasts about her addictive personality and manages to name drop several times that she went to university in Oxford.
Overall, then, an interesting read, but I couldn't help feeling that it could have been a lot better.
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seeking for some time. At this point I thought I knew what to expect - strange happenings, an inability to find the bookshop ever again - your classic fantasy beginning. But in fact, while the book borrows from fantasy, it ends up being something rather different.
In a way, The End Of Mr Y is another example of the (currently oddly popular) Postmodern Victoriana sub-genre - I'm thinking of books like Jonathan Strange or The Glass Books Of The Dream Eaters. But taking the postmodernity a step further, the book is actually about the nature of reality, language and thought, touching on post-structuralism and quantum theory among other things.
There are some great things about this book. When the 'thriller' part of the story gets going, it's pacey and gripping, and as I got into the book I liked the 'ideas' too: particularly the description of 'poststructuralist physics', a sadly imaginary academic discipline which manages to explain brilliantly how quantum physics (specifically the idea that electrons are not in any specific location until they are observed) can be true.
But unfortunately, both the pace and the interestingness of the ideas was very variable.
And the worst thing for me was how irritating the narrator (Ariel Manto) was. She just seemed like such a cliche - a self-styled bad girl/damaged person, who boasts about her addictive personality and manages to name drop several times that she went to university in Oxford.
Overall, then, an interesting read, but I couldn't help feeling that it could have been a lot better.
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LibraryThing member librarygrrrl
What a fantastic trip through quantum physics, philosophy, and mystery as Ariel Manto struggles to understand a supposedly 'cursed' book. One of my favorite books this year. I'll be re-reading it as soon as possible.
Awards
Women's Prize for Fiction (Longlist — 2008)
Original publication date
2006 (US)
2007 (UK)
Physical description
416 p.; 5.28 inches
ISBN
0156031612 / 9780156031615