Scarlett Thomas
Penguin
Otago Daily Times, 2008
Like Jasper Fforde’s latest installment of the Thursday Next series (reviewed elsewhere), Scarlett Thomas’s madcap novel explores how the question of objective reality exists or is something created by the act of perception. But The End of Mr Y is as much about why we write as how our writing influences reality.
Ariel’s doctoral thesis is on experiments of the mind: the way scientists construct stories as a way of exploring and explaining their theories (Einstein always used trains to explain his thoughts on special relativity, while Schrodinger’s cat is how non-physicists understand quantum theory). The trouble is, her supervisor has mysteriously disappeared, and she is at a dead end. Then she stumbles across a crate of her supervisor’s old books, including a copy of a rare and obscure 19th-century novel called The End of Mr Y, in a second-hand shop.
Its author, Thomas E. Lumis, died the day after its publication, and the book is rumoured to be cursed. In the story, Mr Y discovers the recipe for a potion that allows him to travel into other people’s minds, finding the experience so compelling that he decides to stay in this alternative reality and lets his own body die. Unfortunately, the page containing the recipe itself is missing, but Ariel finds it hidden in her supervisor’s office and decides to try it herself. After a less-than-successful first attempt (she gets stuck in the mind of a mouse), she slowly learns to navigate through and influence human consciousness, a fascinating and addictive experience. She also finds herself pursued by two men who want the recipe themselves and will stop at nothing to get it.
Handled badly, the recursion of a book about thought experiment as thought-experiment itself could be cute at best, pure gimmick at worst. This, however, is neither. Thomas blends philosophy, physics and thriller into an intelligent, thought-provoking and compelling novel that reminds me very much of Haruki Murakami’s finest.
Leave a Reply