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How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe By Charles Yu (Corvus, an imprint of Atlantic Books Ltd, 2010, 239pp) Reviewed by Sue Thomason
In many ways, this is a very Buddhist book. It explores the non-reality of much of what we take to be real (including time, the self, experience, relationships, the environment, language, the book called How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe and the experience of writing or reading that book) and the reality of much of what we take to be unreal, it's a book about the all-pervasiveness and inevitability of suffering (and finally, about acceptance of suffering), and it's founded on the Buddhist twin pillars of wisdom and compassion. It's a kind, sharply perceptive, bittersweet and very, very funny look at the life of Charles Yu, a life-avoidant time machine repairman, loser, and nerd, who on an unnumbered page before the start of Chapter 1, unexpectedly meets a time-looped...