Hi,
Today’s review was pretty hard to write. It’s about Scarlett Thomas’ novel The End of Mr Y. I still don’t really know what to make of it. But see for yourself 🙂
Synopsis quoted from Canongate¹:
When Ariel Manto uncovers a copy of The End of Mr. Y in a second-hand bookshop, she can’t believe her eyes. She knows enough about its author, the outlandish Victorian scientist Thomas Lumas, to know that copies are exceedingly rare. And, some say, cursed.
With Mr. Y under her arm, Ariel finds herself thrust into a thrilling adventure of love, sex, death and time-travel.
My Thoughts:
The End of Mr Y starts out in present-day England and slowly leads you into a parallel world, called the Troposphere, which frequently changes its appearance. Traveling through this strange world, you can feel these changes just like the protagonist Ariel Manto does, so don’t worry if at some point you can’t see clearly and the world around you starts to blur.
Ariel Manto is a young scientist who is curious and very isolated. Her life is dull and in her self-destructive ways she doesn’t seem to want to change that. I wasn’t really able to connect with Ariel, but there is a character in this book who I like. He is a very powerful one who makes an appearance when he’s needed most. In a way he reminds me of a wise and loving grandfather. (I’m not talking about Professor Burlem here.)
The End of Mr Y is a very creative book with an exciting plot. Nevertheless, it has too much non-fiction content for my taste. I’m reading fiction to relax and I don’t want to be deluged with philosophical questions. At some point I just started to skip these passages. Fortunately, they aren’t really necessary to follow the story. Another letdown is the ending which just doesn’t fit the complexity of the book. So as you can see, The End of Mr Y is a book that philosophers will love and that you should read if you’d like to enter a very odd parallel world.
All That Magic 