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Q (2011)

by Evan Mandery(Favorite Author)

3.23 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0062015834 (ISBN13: 9780062015839)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

William Morrow Paperbacks

review 1: This is a very convonventional love story. I read it a while ago and was quite young, about 15, I believe to fully enjoy the book you'd have to be a little older with a working understanding of science. The story jumps around a lot and was confusing at times. The main character of the story, Q, speaks to himself from the future warning him of everything that will happen, meaning that he doesnt enjoy anything. It is quite dark, but the ending is worth the wait and is beautiful.
review 2: found this book via tumblr recommendation!that was a disappointing yet uplifting read. I know that sounds contradictory. but the overall, the ups and downs of the story either adds to the stars or knocks off stars for me. the premise was really good, but the execution, the writi... moreng and organization of the story does not do the premise its justice.here's what I mean.first, the goods. the story idea was captivating. the premise that you can go back in time and your life may not end up as good as you think when you come back is interesting. for example, if you tell yourself the lottery number for the next day in the past, you may not come back to riches. somewhere along the way, you can still end up the way you are now. secondly, the story also shows that you can never be satisfy with what you have. imo, furthermore despite multiple version of the narrators going back in time to change certain aspects of his own life, that future self has never experienced his suggestions. for example, if the future self has lived a whole life as a lawyer, when he finally realize he doesnt want to be one, he tells his younger self to be a doctor instead. it was interesting to question, what makes the future self more wise? simply because he was older? he does not know much beyond his years on earth ad being a lawyer, and the things he makes to his past self, he has not experience himself (ie: being a doctor). this occurs multiple times throughout the storyline. and the narrator and his future self seem more and more differentiated as the story progress. the story also makes me feel the frustration that the narrator feels as more and more of his future self visits himself in the past. the confusion, the rights and wrong of a decision, the past narrator(rather present) does not see the consequences of these decisions yet. however, the future narrator is brutally honest with him and it brings him down in ways he cannot imagine. this led to the dilemma that why didnt his future self tell him earlier to not do something if hes only gonna change his mind in a few month in present time. it was because the narrator changed his mind, and a different version of his future self comes to visit. and here comes the bads. first, the story started out saying Q was the narrators love of his life(its in the title!!) but throughout the entire story, she was only in the beginning and the very end. during Qs absence, the narrator does not spend a lot of time or energy "getting over her" for the lack of better term. instead, the narrator moves on quickly to other aspects of life. secondly, I think we are supposed to like Q the way the narrator see her. however, i did not have any attachment to Q or the narrator for that matter. the characters arent exactly likeable or easily accepting. secondly, whats with all the big words in this book? I am not saying you cannot use sophisticated vocabulary in a novel. but one that you need a dictionary by your side to read and almost in every single page is a little too excessive. these words also do not occurs in day to day conversation. which makes it all the more implausible for the narrative. it made it more formal, and thus less personal for a reader. also, the tangents! my god, I do not need to hear a history lessons about a building or a city or an object unless it pertains to the story. and those little tangents did nothing for the book! it was just page fillers. it felt nice at the beginning, something to distract from the main storyline. but the more as I progress, the less it becomes a small distraction and more like a big annoyance. third, why are we reading excerpts of the narrator's book in the book! its a book within a book! thats very hard to execute. the narrators future self even say so himself. the author wrote a book that has a style of a story within a story(in this case, story within story within a book for my perspective!!). it was hard to execute. he was no John Irving. sad to say that this particular author(who wrote Q) cannot execute it very well either. the irony of it makes me chuckle a little bit. the annoying little tinbits about Freud and his what ifs story did not add to the reading. in fact, I think I read one and skipped most of it. if that's the point the author is trying to make(that story within a story is hard to write), its not a very good one. forth, the ease at which the narrator accepted his future self's proposal was a bit off setting for me. sure, hes your future self and hes experienced the decisions you've made. but he asked you to leave the love of your life, and the narrator had very little internal debate whether thats a good decision. he was a pushover (by his future self no less). after some words about it, he is easily persuaded to change his course in his life. and that happens multiple time with his multiple version of future self. he was told to leave Q, he did. and then another version comes and tell him to ask this secretary out, at the point of almost getting marry, another version comes back and tell him NOT to. and then this pattern goes on, be a lawyer, dont be a lawyer. be active in the community, dont be active in the community. go running, go swimming. go see the world. dont go see the world. perhaps, this comes back to the original argument, that your future self has only experienced what you have made the decisions on that we've discussed in the goods section. so i wont hold this against the author. finally, the ending. it was just beyond what i can express in this review. and I think I've done quite okay writing it down in words so far. the ending had me flipping through the acknowledgement and the last page of the book, thinking there must be pages missing. the ending was unsatisfactory and support no lessons, no notions whatsoever. in some way, his future self was happy only because he was reunited with Q. before the future Q ran into him at the same place, he still wanted to change his life! he wanted it back to the way it was. to stop all his future self from ever visiting his present self. it wasnt until future Q that he thinks hes finally satisfy. that leaves a bad taste in my mouth, it was a hard pill to swallow for such ending. this is the first book that i actually have a clear rating in my head as I read along. and it fluctuate between good and bad. I appreciate the premise being set up that I can hold internal philosophical questions I have about decisions, life and time travel. because we dont realize time travel may not be a good thing. we all wish for that one chance to change something we did or didnt do in the past. to amend for our mistakes and regret. but the premise reminds us that even with such opportunity, the future is uncertain. the future changes, it is not static. it reminds us that despite the decisions and the mistakes we've made, we should move past it and make better decisions (albeit with limited time). overall, it is not a horrible read. the things that made it less enjoyable could be the authors writing style or simply ones i dont appreciate. hes not a terrific writer, but also not a bad one either. my 2.5/5 stars reflect my average of the entire book. because there are sections/parts of the book that merits 0 stars, and some a 3 or 4 stars. and the stars are solely for the philosophical questions that was raised for me while reading this from the premise that time travel may or may not be a good thing. less

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