The End of Mr. Y, by Scarlett Thomas

I was looking forward to reading this book; and, after absorbing it, I’m glad that I read it, but wasn’t as dazzled as I’d hoped.

In The End of Mr. Y (the end of mystery(?)), the protagonist, Ariel Manto (Ariel means ‘lion of God’ in Hebrew; also, Ariel Manto is an anagram of I am not real), guides us through an array of intellectual thoughts, with sprinklings of philosophy, physics, religion, homeopathy, deconstruction theory, et cetera. Unfortunately, it did not quite provide the depth that I had anticipated. And the wrap-up was a disappointing, science fiction cliché.

I appreciated the characterization of Ariel, but it felt affected at times.

This is the first novel I’ve read by Scarlett Thomas; I enjoyed it more than I’ve made it appear above and I’ll probably read more of her works.

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