Prepare Yourself for Edgy

By Charles Yu
Pantheon Books 24.95 222 pages

Sorry Please Thank You by Charles Yu is a short story collection that invites the reader into brief looks in worlds that take place on distant planets, into the life of a video game hero, a small zombie invasion, and various perspectives into loneliness and human thought.

This book is a work of art. Most of the stories behave as normal short stories that involve the narrator faced with conflict, but there are other stories that serve as experiments in form, serving as examinations of the author’s struggle with his role in life. There is a story that simply lists, in bullet points, proper ways to live life, another story where the narrator has a direct conversation with himself, and another story that explicitly features Charles Yu as a character. By the end of the third story, this reviewer was nearly brought to tears by the sheer beauty of the style and perspective that this book presents. The stories are introspective, unusual, and very bold. These stories are recommended for reading if only for the unique presentation, and they demand repeated readings.

Reviewed By  Gregory A. Young

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