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A review by katykelly
All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai
5.0
Self-referential, smart, science-y... an eminently readable time travel comedy of errors and horrors
I'm at a bit of a loss to summarise this book any more succinctly than above. I thought it was a fairly sraightforward "alternative future utopia" tale, with a rather lacklustre failure of a man set to travel back in time. But almost immediately that is turned on its head.
He opens with a narration you know is a hooker:
"Maybe the first person is the wrong way to tell this story. Maybe if I take refuge in the third person I'll find some sort of distance or insight or at least peace of mind. It's worth a try."
So you are aware from the start of Tom Barren's awareness of us, his readers, and you know he's going to be telling us his own story: "but I'm not the microscope, I'm the thing on the slide."
Great start. And yes, I was definitely hooked. I love books that aim for something different, give their narrator a unique tag. This is Mastai's first book and I was already excited about his writing from the first chapter.
There follows a little world-building as Tom's apparent Utopic society ("imagine that the last five decades happened with no restrictions on energy") is described - a world of "universal plenty". Though of course, ads can now be marketed to your specific tastes and even your mood, hunger and time to spare. Food synthesizers, clothing recyclers - everybody's fantasy of a future paradise where want is unknown.
But of course, Tom has already prepared us for the worst... he's not exactly a success in life, even in this world of opportunity and pleasure. Some wrong choices, some chance encounters, some life events all combine to place him at the heart of the world's first time travel experiment... going back to the moment the world started to become the Utopia he knows. And yes - he manages to screw it up.
From this point onward, concentration is required, as it often is with time travel stories. The author even helps out a little, by inserting occasional summaries of previous chapters into the narrative (though I didn't quite see the need).
I LOVED what happened next, and not least because the story just wouldn't stay still. It jumped around like three time travel plots combined, though seamlessly meshed together. Mastai's plot is incredibly well constructed, and Tom himself is an impressive character who grows (I won't say how, as it isn't quite as you'd expect!) through the story.
Hugely entertaining, mind-bending stuff. Both inside the genre and outside at the same time, I've never read anything quite like it. Wonderful narration, eye-widening ideas (sorry, mustn't explain!), and very, very assured writing for a debut novelist.
Please say you've got more ideas for future books, Mr Mastai. I can't wait to read them.
And PLEASE someone, make this a mini-series. Too much material for a film, it would spoil it to cut it down. This needs to be on television.
Wonderful choice for a book group, and for anyone who likes time travel/dimension-swapping stories, or just likes to try out new writers - this is now my top read of the year so far.
With thanks to Netgalley for the advance reading copy.
I'm at a bit of a loss to summarise this book any more succinctly than above. I thought it was a fairly sraightforward "alternative future utopia" tale, with a rather lacklustre failure of a man set to travel back in time. But almost immediately that is turned on its head.
He opens with a narration you know is a hooker:
"Maybe the first person is the wrong way to tell this story. Maybe if I take refuge in the third person I'll find some sort of distance or insight or at least peace of mind. It's worth a try."
So you are aware from the start of Tom Barren's awareness of us, his readers, and you know he's going to be telling us his own story: "but I'm not the microscope, I'm the thing on the slide."
Great start. And yes, I was definitely hooked. I love books that aim for something different, give their narrator a unique tag. This is Mastai's first book and I was already excited about his writing from the first chapter.
There follows a little world-building as Tom's apparent Utopic society ("imagine that the last five decades happened with no restrictions on energy") is described - a world of "universal plenty". Though of course, ads can now be marketed to your specific tastes and even your mood, hunger and time to spare. Food synthesizers, clothing recyclers - everybody's fantasy of a future paradise where want is unknown.
But of course, Tom has already prepared us for the worst... he's not exactly a success in life, even in this world of opportunity and pleasure. Some wrong choices, some chance encounters, some life events all combine to place him at the heart of the world's first time travel experiment... going back to the moment the world started to become the Utopia he knows. And yes - he manages to screw it up.
From this point onward, concentration is required, as it often is with time travel stories. The author even helps out a little, by inserting occasional summaries of previous chapters into the narrative (though I didn't quite see the need).
I LOVED what happened next, and not least because the story just wouldn't stay still. It jumped around like three time travel plots combined, though seamlessly meshed together. Mastai's plot is incredibly well constructed, and Tom himself is an impressive character who grows (I won't say how, as it isn't quite as you'd expect!) through the story.
Hugely entertaining, mind-bending stuff. Both inside the genre and outside at the same time, I've never read anything quite like it. Wonderful narration, eye-widening ideas (sorry, mustn't explain!), and very, very assured writing for a debut novelist.
Please say you've got more ideas for future books, Mr Mastai. I can't wait to read them.
And PLEASE someone, make this a mini-series. Too much material for a film, it would spoil it to cut it down. This needs to be on television.
Wonderful choice for a book group, and for anyone who likes time travel/dimension-swapping stories, or just likes to try out new writers - this is now my top read of the year so far.
With thanks to Netgalley for the advance reading copy.