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.

Review copy received with thanks from the publisher, Canongate Books.

A virtual rodeo bull of a story – mystery adventure, philosophical campus novel and bizarre scifi fantasy. Malcolm Bradbury meets Lewis Carroll, Tom Robbins, Enid Blyton and William Burroughs. Sort of.

The heroine, Ariel Manto (surely an anagram – linear atom?) is a Ph.D. student living on coffee, roll-up cigarettes and lentils. She is writing a thesis at an English university (thinly disguised as the University of Kent, where the author teaches English) on thought experiments.

The reader is quickly drawn into a romantic quest for a rare book by an obscure 19th Century author, Thomas Lumas. This book, The End of Mr Y, is said to be cursed, yet offers the lure of arcane secrets. I was immediately hooked, being a sucker for the rare book maguffin, a well-tested winning formula (most recently in The Shadow of the Wind and The Thirteenth Tale).

Manto finds the book and its Secret Formula. It quickly draws her, like Alice down the rabbit hole, into an often frightening fourth dimension as she travels in time and space by hitch-hiking in the consciousness of other people, not to mention mice! This dimension is the Trophosphere, or MindSpace, presented like a computer adventure game, with virtual console icons delivering programmed messages: “You have 2/3/no more choices”.

To her great credit, Scarlett Thomas avoids the self-indulgent arbitrariness of fantasies like Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. In such narratives where anything goes, the reader is soon bored as a mere passive observer of the author’s whimsy. Instead, Manto’s journey is one of scientific discovery; she constantly seeks to understand the nature of this fourth dimension. The reader’s mind is fully engaged in a philosophical discourse ranging from the wackier corners of parapsychology to Heidegger, quantum physics and the paradoxes of time travel.

There is humour and irony in the way Scarlett Thomas presents the skeptic case against New Age Woo, and yet uses a homeopathic pill as her Secret Formula! Perhaps she’s announcing a truce between reason and unreason; the speculative world of the fourth dimension is for everyone.

The Troposphere posits Universal Mind, that human thoughts are not separate but part of a single whole – Thought as a dimension in which all consciousness is united. It is certainly possible to feel powerful kinship with others in whom one recognizes one’s own thought patterns. Perhaps that is what we mean by love.

And indeed there is a love story in The End of Mr Y, bringing Ariel together with Adam, an ex-priest. But this relationship is incidental and sketchy, and the character of Adam rather wan - a pale male. There is traditional role reversal, with Ariel as the lady in shining armour. Her dogged stoicism and self-destructive urges, stemming from a dreary childhood, make her a complex and interesting character, if not a warm, loyal or sympathetic personality. This is as well, as Ariel is never far from centre stage.

The End of Mr Y is above all novel of ideas. I enjoyed it.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I'm mailing this to diamondlucy - enjoy!

What a surprise! Thanks a lot, Miketroll... I do have to say the book and the blurb look really promising, so making sure this is on top of my mount to be read :-)

How do I best describe the book?

For once it was one I couldn't put aside once started reading, it kept me going and wanting to learn more of the story, the idea of having a book about a book, that seems to be cursed, is very charming.
I love books, I love reading in books about other books, especially when done so well.

There is one thing that normally makes me very hesitant on whether I should continue or not... once it hit both science and religion I was tempted to put it aside. Normally I am easily bored with science and disgusted with religion, putting both topics together made me want to see how that could work without getting any major headaches, lol.

I think I already know several people here who will enjoy reading that book, it will be passed on at the next meetup :-)

I have spotted this at Diamondlucy's, and I must say it's simply one of the most visually striking, and, yes, even most beautiful, books I've seen in a while. Also, I have heard it wasn't the easiest read, but since there seem to be so many copies kicking around in my closest BC circles, I hope I don't have to hurry with this one...

Read for the ABC challenge.

Quite a spectacular read! It's been a while now since I finished (but am as always behind on journal entries), and I'm still not quite sure what to think of it all. Initially, I was completely enchanted: a penniless PhD student heroine is naturally something I find easy to love, and Thomas' prose is simply gorgeous, rich yet fluent and clear.
The plot I didn't find as hard to follow or confusing as I was somehow led to believe by other reviews; in fact, I didn't even find it overly scientific or techy. Instead, I thought the intellectual discovery felt rather realistic, and I positively loved the Victorian narrative subplot. Thus far, I'd have given 9 stars.
The thing that really bothers me is the ending, specifically the character of Adam and the role he plays. He seems like such a cop-out to me, a picture-perfect vehicle to achieve a means, i.e. driving the plot towards a satisfactory ending. Don't get me wrong -- it's not that I dislike the ending per se, it's just I'm not impressed with how we get there. Sigh. All in all, this book left me dissatisfied -- mostly because I found it so very promising early on.

I'm not sure what to do with this book. I'd much like to re-read it at a later point, I think, but am absolutely open to rings/lending.

Wishlist tag for lils74.

OMG, I'm so very sorry. This took entirely too long. I've included some little snacks for yourself and the kitties in a feeble attempt to make up for the long wait.

Thank you so much, this arrived safely today and really brightened my day; I've been curious about this book and actually I've already starting reading it this evening; I've just had to move and many of my books are still in boxes, so it's perfect to have it now. Please don't worry about any delay, I'm also behind on things I need to send to people because of the unexpected move and actually only got back on BC yesterday after a long silence, so this arriving today is a happy coincidence! Thanks for the chocolate, and especially the cat treats and collar!

This book had a fascinating premise… I loved the beginning and found it very readable. A little over half way through it became rather tough going for me; particularly the heavy duty science/physics/philosophy bits and huge explanations began to make it rather feel like I was reading a textbook. I loved the whole "cursed book" bit, though. After setting it aside for a bit I did finally finish it, because I wanted to know how it ended, but I didn't feel the drive of the story as I had at the beginning, and felt that the plot wavered a little there. Interesting, though, and I'm glad I read it. The bit about mice was sadder than I expected. I recently saw another book by this author in a used bookstore, I might pick it up at some point and give it a go.

Note: It was interesting to read everyone else's JEs after writing my own. I do love a well-travelled book. The possible anagram for Ariel Manto was an interesting one I hadn't though of; it was such an odd name I kept expecting it to be explained somehow, but as it never was, I liked the idea miketroll suggested. Thanks for sharing, everyone!

I left this book yesterday on the bookswop shelves at Hotel Nirvana Garden, a cozy place where it will be safe until it finds a new reader to travel with...