Beyond Reality discussion

Here's a general topic for people who have finished reading
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu.

Warning: Spoilers likely!

I read this awhile back and was unfulfilled. It sounded so interesting, but I could not connect. I forced myself through that last half of the book. I will be interested to see how others felt about it once finished.

I have to say, I love this book. At the start I wasn't sure; I was thrown by the mixing of science and literary references - the talk about 'narrative' - but then it clicked for me during the first chapter. That the book isn't about time travel at all, except as an extended metaphor for the way that so many people are imprisoned in their own lives, unable to move forward by focusing on past events or unable to be more than supporting characters in their own story.

Occasionally I thought the metaphor was, well, not heavy-handed precisely but foregrounded a bit too much, although the writing good enough that it didn't become clumsy.

I'd class this as literary SF with the likes of Margaret Atwood - although while most SF with a point is about using the future or the technology as a lens to look at our society, HTLSIASFU is an entirely personal book, examining the psychology of loneliness and disappointment.

I did find it to be a profoundly melancholy novel throughout, which I can see not being to everyone's tastes. But I grew up reading British SF in the 70s and 80s so it's par for the course...

I found it fairly good but sad.

I read it last year, and agree that it is really not about time travel in the sci-fi sense. More about the human condition. Taken in that sense it was enjoyable.