Scan barcode
A review by miabaim
Sorry Please Thank You by Charles Yu
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.75
This book would have been better if the author could have managed to just be serious in a story. This was most notable in The Book of Categories, which would have worked so much better without an unsure narrative voice. Human for Beginners would also have been better if it had never used the words “I guess.” And the dialogue in Yeoman was just elementary, the relationship between the main character and his wife not nearly fleshed out enough.
Some of these stories were interesting conceptually, but none felt like Yu had thought about them for as long as he could have and fully fleshed them out. I liked Troubleshooting, Open, and Sorry Please Thank You, and really none of the others.
I also felt that all of these stories were deeply written by a heterosexual man. I’ve read short story collections where facets of the author’s identity are clear in how they shape their main characters, and that’s fine, but unfortunately I’m just bored by reading about youngish middle aged straight men and their little sci fi worlds in which they wait for things to happen to them and have crushes on their girl coworkers. It’s boring.
Some of these stories were interesting conceptually, but none felt like Yu had thought about them for as long as he could have and fully fleshed them out. I liked Troubleshooting, Open, and Sorry Please Thank You, and really none of the others.
I also felt that all of these stories were deeply written by a heterosexual man. I’ve read short story collections where facets of the author’s identity are clear in how they shape their main characters, and that’s fine, but unfortunately I’m just bored by reading about youngish middle aged straight men and their little sci fi worlds in which they wait for things to happen to them and have crushes on their girl coworkers. It’s boring.