Our Tragic Universe, Scarlett Thomas
Our Tragic Universe, Scarlett Thomas
1 Rating(s)
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Our Tragic Universe

Author: Scarlett Thomas

Narrator: Sarah Le Fevre

Unabridged: 13 hr 21 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/01/2010

Synopsis

Meg Carpenter is broke. Her novel is years overdue. Her cell phone is out of minutes. And her moody boyfriend's only contribution to the household is his sour attitude. So she jumps at the chance to review a pseudoscientific book that promises life everlasting. Consulting cosmology and physics, tarot cards, koans (and riddles and jokes), new age theories of everything, narrative theory, Nietzsche, Baudrillard, and knitting patterns, Meg wends her way through Our Tragic Universe, asking this and many other questions.

About Scarlett Thomas

Scarlett Thomas is the author of several books, including The End of Mr. Y and PopCo. She writes for the Independent on Sunday and other magazines and is a recipient of the Elle Style Award. She lives and teaches in Canterbury, England.

About Sarah Le Fevre

Sarah Le Fevre lives in London, where she trained at the Poor School and is a practicing barrister. She divides her working life between these professions, indulges her passions for the Arsenal football club and Bikram yoga, and occasionally escapes for clean air and green fields to the West Country.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Baba on June 06, 2022

Our tragic universe, I feel is literally a way of looking at the world through the eyes of humankind... insular, finite and forever trying to ascertain why we are here. Meg is the commercial genre writing author who narrates this almost metaphysical discussions within a (very) loose story framework......more

Goodreads review by Jill on November 27, 2021

2021 reread 9 years ago, I read this book voraciously. It was not perfect. But every November since, I have thought about it. Remembered the feeling of it, the English seaside damp and the firewarmed pubs and the intimate plotless conversations. Realized I've never wanted to live inside a book much m......more

Goodreads review by Blair on November 20, 2014

This is without a doubt one of the best books I've read all year, but it's quite a difficult one to review. It's hard to explain what the story is actually about; in many ways, it isn't really about anything, but without giving too much away, that's sort of the point. Scarlett Thomas's last novel, Th......more

Goodreads review by Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl on January 08, 2025

In a solitude of the sea Deep from human vanity And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she. - Thomas Hardy, The Convergence of the Twain: Lines on the Loss of the Titanic I love this book because it is everything I believe in :-) Literary Mythology, Alternate Reality, Faeries, The Fabric......more

Goodreads review by cycads and ferns on March 23, 2025

You've so far managed not much more than a few thin novels that preach neoliberal morality to unsuspecting teenagers. You tell them that the world is OK if you can find a way of owning it, and possessing it and making "your own" sense of it. You tell them, indirectly, that everything fits into some......more

Quotes

“A delight, not least for the quality of Scarlett Thomas’ writing, which is full of a very enjoyable life and energy.” Philip Pullman, New York Times bestselling author of the His Dark Materials trilogy

“Touching down on storytelling, magic, coincidence, love, and what it might be like to live forever…Meg’s searching soul is remarkably controlled, making her a protagonist you trust and want to follow.” Amazon.com, editorial review

“[A] delightfully whimsical novel…[Thomas] dexterously mixes the serious with the humorous and provides a cast of characters who come across as credible owing to their recognizable foibles and fallibility.” Publishers Weekly

“Few writers can mix science, philosophy, and humor as cleverly as Thomas.” Library Journal

“For readers who enjoy the ideological push and pull of philosophical fiction, Thomas is definitely worth reading.” Booklist

“[A] freewheeling intellectual journey with no destination…For the omnivorous reader who, like Meg, can’t get enough of the insights and passions and theories and inner lives of others, Thomas’s fifth novel should be an addictive delight.” Kirkus Reviews

“Thomas brilliantly reminds us that, despite popular representations, many women are actually staying up half the night talking ideas. One feels alone. And then one reads Our Tragic Universe.” Jincy Willett, author of Winner of the National Book Award

“Our Tragic Universe surprised me with where it goes, and in such a terrific way. Scarlett Thomas’s prose is so addictive you can’t help but fall deeper and deeper under her spell. How does she do it? She is a genius.” Douglas Coupland, author of Generation X

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