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A review by dontpanic42
Sorry Please Thank You by Charles Yu
5.0
Delightful. In most of these stories, Yu takes different perspectives on the well known, with resulting stories that are engaging, thoughtful, often funny, and sometimes heartbreaking. Like any story collection, they're not all perfect, but I'm giving it five stars because of how consistently good they are, with some real gems in the mix.
"Standard Loneliness Package" - 5 stars. Starts the collection with a bang. What if we outsourced not just our call centers to India, but all of our negative emotions? This story takes the perspective of a man working at such a center in India. Clever and bittersweet.
"First Person Shooter" - 4.5 stars. Eek there's a zombie! Oh, wait, it's fine, it's just out shopping in the middle of the night.
"Troubleshooting" - 4 stars. A troubleshooting guide for a device that can give you anything you want, if you only knew what you wanted. An intriguing angle on exploring how what we think we want lines up with what we actually want.
"Hero Absorbs Major Damage" - 5 stars. Told from the perspective of the main hero in some sort of RPG/computer game, with dawning self-awareness and fun twists on game tropes.
"Human for Beginners" - 4 stars. A short, funny, and spot-on guide for non-humans about human extended families.
"Inventory" - 4 stars. What does the world look like to your dream self? The dream version of Charles Yu tells us this story, where every day begins anew and he tries to figure out who he is and how he relates to the world around him.
"Open" - 3 stars. Partners in a struggling relationship find a literal door to their better selves in their living room.
"Note to Self" - 3 stars. If we live in a multiverse with infinite versions of ourselves, why not write ourself letters? That correspondence becomes this story, which is interesting enough but doesn't quite go anywhere.
"Yeoman" - 5 stars. Reminiscent of John Scalzi's Redshirts in sending up tropes from Star Trek. Very funny.
"Designer Emotion 67" - 4 stars. The presentation by a Big Pharma CEO that is both a satire on our pharmaceutical industry and an all too real view of where it's headed.
"The Book of Categories" - 5 stars. Begins as a strange sort of index for a meta-catalog, a sort of book-ception. But somehow turns into a meditation on the loss of a young child. Heartbreaking.
"Adult Contemporary" - 3.5 stars. What initially comes across as a time-share deal is really selling someone a taste of a different kind of life. But maybe we're in a TV show? Has some interesting commentary on consumerism and how we envision and shape our lives, but didn't quite hit home for me.
"Sorry Please Thank You" - 4 stars. I just recently read J.D. Salinger's "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," which has some similar vibes. This three-page story really ends the collection on a gut punch.
"Standard Loneliness Package" - 5 stars. Starts the collection with a bang. What if we outsourced not just our call centers to India, but all of our negative emotions? This story takes the perspective of a man working at such a center in India. Clever and bittersweet.
"First Person Shooter" - 4.5 stars. Eek there's a zombie! Oh, wait, it's fine, it's just out shopping in the middle of the night.
"Troubleshooting" - 4 stars. A troubleshooting guide for a device that can give you anything you want, if you only knew what you wanted. An intriguing angle on exploring how what we think we want lines up with what we actually want.
"Hero Absorbs Major Damage" - 5 stars. Told from the perspective of the main hero in some sort of RPG/computer game, with dawning self-awareness and fun twists on game tropes.
"Human for Beginners" - 4 stars. A short, funny, and spot-on guide for non-humans about human extended families.
"Inventory" - 4 stars. What does the world look like to your dream self? The dream version of Charles Yu tells us this story, where every day begins anew and he tries to figure out who he is and how he relates to the world around him.
"Open" - 3 stars. Partners in a struggling relationship find a literal door to their better selves in their living room.
"Note to Self" - 3 stars. If we live in a multiverse with infinite versions of ourselves, why not write ourself letters? That correspondence becomes this story, which is interesting enough but doesn't quite go anywhere.
"Yeoman" - 5 stars. Reminiscent of John Scalzi's Redshirts in sending up tropes from Star Trek. Very funny.
"Designer Emotion 67" - 4 stars. The presentation by a Big Pharma CEO that is both a satire on our pharmaceutical industry and an all too real view of where it's headed.
"The Book of Categories" - 5 stars. Begins as a strange sort of index for a meta-catalog, a sort of book-ception. But somehow turns into a meditation on the loss of a young child. Heartbreaking.
"Adult Contemporary" - 3.5 stars. What initially comes across as a time-share deal is really selling someone a taste of a different kind of life. But maybe we're in a TV show? Has some interesting commentary on consumerism and how we envision and shape our lives, but didn't quite hit home for me.
"Sorry Please Thank You" - 4 stars. I just recently read J.D. Salinger's "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," which has some similar vibes. This three-page story really ends the collection on a gut punch.