Our Tragic Universe

Critics

• Our Tragic Universe, By Scarlett Thomas

  Meg, a book reviewer and struggling novelist, is stuck on a story. She is also stuck on life: her boyfriend, Christopher, is self-centred and useless; she has the hots for the much older, more sympathetic but married Rowan, and her friends are involv ... (read full critics)

  independent published on Sun, 1 May 2011

• Our Tragic Universe

  ABSTRACT: Briefly Noted review of “Our Tragic Universe” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; $19.95), by Scarlett Thomas. ... (read full critics)

  newyorker published on Fri, 1 Oct 2010

4 Reviews

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  I cannot say this is a bad book - actually it's beautifully written - unfortunately I couldn't get over the fact that it is not another 'Mr Y'.
  Thomas certainly succeeds in telling us a 'storyless story', except the lack of story gets a bit boring after 200 pages or so. There is a feeling of barrel ... (continue)

  I cannot say this is a bad book - actually it's beautifully written - unfortunately I couldn't get over the fact that it is not another 'Mr Y'.
  Thomas certainly succeeds in telling us a 'storyless story', except the lack of story gets a bit boring after 200 pages or so. There is a feeling of barrel bottoms being scraped, with a bit of new age, a bit of physics, some creative writing class notes, fairy tales etc., but not much happening apart for some mild late-thirties angst. Still, I'll be buying her next book!

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  LFrig said on Jun 9, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  Quite baffling. While the whole "storyless story" point is interesting, after a couple hundred pages it looks like the book is just being dragged around. It gives more the sense of a "pointless", rather than "storyless", story, revolving around unexplainable coincidences and some lucky events. Thoma ... (continue)

  Quite baffling. While the whole "storyless story" point is interesting, after a couple hundred pages it looks like the book is just being dragged around. It gives more the sense of a "pointless", rather than "storyless", story, revolving around unexplainable coincidences and some lucky events. Thomas is still a terrific writer, though (she actually makes entire paraghraphs about knitting readable, enjoyable even). Still, not her best

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  Luca Traversa said on Aug 23, 2011 | Add your feedback

• 

  meta-meta-meta fictional.
  too many metas.

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  Angeligna said on Aug 17, 2011 | Add your feedback

• 

  The wind is not moving, the flag is not moving. Mind is moving.

  What really got me in this novel, more than the story, is its setting (Devon), its style and above all the links and doors that the book opens. Fantastic the quote that opens the book (by Baudrillard)!

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  Blowersdaughter said on Jun 11, 2010 | Add your feedback

Book Details

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• English Books
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• ISBN-10: 1847677622
• ISBN-13: 9781847677624
• Pub date: May 01, 2010
• Also available as: Hardcover and eBook

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