What do you think?
Rate this book
Sorry Please Thank You
The author of the widely praised debut novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe returns with a hilarious, heartbreaking, and utterly original collection of short stories.
A big-box store employee is confronted by a zombie during the graveyard shift, a problem that pales in comparison to his inability to ask a coworker out on a date . . . A fighter leads his band of virtual warriors, thieves, and wizards across a deadly computer-generated landscape . . . A company outsources grief for profit, their tagline: "Don't feel like having a bad day? Let someone else have it for you."
A big-box store employee is confronted by a zombie during the graveyard shift, a problem that pales in comparison to his inability to ask a coworker out on a date . . . A fighter leads his band of virtual warriors, thieves, and wizards across a deadly computer-generated landscape . . . A company outsources grief for profit, their tagline: "Don't feel like having a bad day? Let someone else have it for you."
222 pages, Hardcover
First published July 24, 2012
About the author
Charles Yu
57 books1,658 followersCHARLES YU is the author of four books, including his latest, Interior Chinatown, which won the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction, and was shortlisted for Le Prix Médicis étranger. He has received the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Award, been nominated for two Writers Guild of America awards for his work on the HBO series Westworld, and has also written for shows on FX, AMC, Facebook Watch, and Adult Swim. His fiction and non-fiction have appeared in a number of publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Wired, Time and Ploughshares. You can find him on Twitter @charles_yu.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 477 reviews
September 7, 2021
3.5 thought provoking but written for men by a man fr
November 5, 2014
This collection was so good I read the first 100 pages in one sitting. It's mostly made up of two types of stories: more narrative, character oriented pieces, that play with genre in the way Yu is really known for. For a lot of people these are probably the highlight of the collection, but I enjoyed the rest of them as well. They're more disassociated, and read like meditations on the poetry of loneliness, subjectivity, meta-textuality, etc--the same themes as the rest of the collection, but more in-depth. The thing all stories have in common is great technique and unique narrative invention, not just from story to story but page to page, sentence to sentence.
I would have preferred Yu to write another novel, but (even considering that I usually have a strong dislike for short fiction) this collection was really great anyway. It's also, notably, a huge improvement over his first collection.
I would have preferred Yu to write another novel, but (even considering that I usually have a strong dislike for short fiction) this collection was really great anyway. It's also, notably, a huge improvement over his first collection.
October 30, 2016
Great - in small doses. I read this whole collection in one go, and by the end the dialogue grated. The ideas were cute, the execution sometimes fell short.
November 15, 2015
I bought this book first, but the very first Charles Yu work I've read was my next purchase which was How to Live in a Science Fictional Universe. I could never begin to tell you just how madly in love I was with it from start to finish.
You can read my review about it in case you're curious.
Now, if I sit still for a moment and think about it again for a whole minute, I might get lost inside my own head and never recover. The only reason I bought this other book was because of one of the quoted reviews in the back page cited that if I'm a fan of the cult NBC show Community, then this one is definitely my cup of tea. And I can agree with that person...to some extent. The truth is, if it wasn't for that reference to my all-time favorite sitcom, I never would have even bothered looking for Yu's novel in the first place. Also, if I happened to read this first before How To Live, I'm afraid I might just put this author aside which would be a damn shame because How To Live was one of the most amazing literary experiences I have ever had which touched the geekiest parts of my soul.
That being said, this collection entitled Sorry Please and Thank You wasn't like How To Live in a Science Fictional Universe. For one thing, it's an anthology of twelve stories, and a few of them are so convoluted and ridiculous but they still manage to be delightfully imaginative. His conceptual work of the plots (or a lack of any plot at all) can be gratingly incomprehensible one moment, and terribly poignant and heartbreaking the next. What was common between the two books had to be the overall style and delivery. There is no doubt that they are definitely penned by the same writer whose sense of humor and wit are mystifyingly outstanding and unique. At their best, these same qualities could make up for the flaws in his storytelling for some of the pieces.
Writing-wise, Charles Yu has the kind of voice that speaks a language you and I may not understand at first until we listen to it without distractions as we try to analyze how he communicates or attempts it with us--and why sometimes he often fails. Only then can readers unravel the secret pain and wish fulfillment in his written words that are so wrapped up in his ramblings about how a few people in this world ever really learned to talk and respond to him in the same manner. But those that do speak his language and are willing to form a dialogue with him will find a ready friend and confidant in Yu's comfortable and unassuming lead characters. They are often just him role-playing through a piece, much like a lonely child creates magic and mystery as he plays by himself while adults look on, both amused and worried of the stories he comes up with.
Only three stories truly stood out for me as magnificent pieces in this collection; the rest are products of the deranged, quirky and absurd writings of a most puzzling man who indulges in his whimsical passages with disregard for harmony and structure. Yu is far too fanciful with the other stories that it's hard for me to take them seriously, let alone have some sustained interest in them. However, as critical as I am about his overall lack of literary restraint, and slightly appalled by his chaotic compositions for Sorry Please and Thank You, I will attest that he has quite the huge talent and potential to become, well, even crazier and uninhibited in his storytelling. His prose is never stilted, never dishonest or bland.
Charles Yu will tell you a story and you will hate him for how he tells it but he will make you feel something as if you have never lived until you heard/read what he has to say. And so, ultimately, what he offers in this anthology may be so disparaging and irregular, so imperfect and so laughably disturbing and fucking preposterous but you are guaranteed to become a duly impressed, captivated audience. I have never read a writer who had laid bare his soul and all its contents--the broken trinkets and the precious suffering--and still remain so genuinely innocent and clueless about the darkness and void he had treaded without heed or caution; and all because his imagination has no strings or a cage big enough to enclose it.
This may not have the powerful resonance of How To Live in a Science Fictional Universe but Sorry Please Thank You is just as exceptional; it has never been tedious or dull and there are interesting details to each story that can be quite enjoyable to re-read again. As for the three stories I truly loved in this anthology, they are Standard Loneliness Package, Hero Receives Major Damage and Open . These stories were deconstructions about humanity's awkward relationship with death, destiny and identity respectively, and Yu did not hesitate to tug that seam repeatedly to show us what could be lurking underneath our insecurities about them until the entire thing frayed. I also liked Inventory, Note to Self and Designer Emotion because the style and approach to said pieces managed to be inventive and hilarious all at once.
Others like Troubleshooting and The Book of Categories are laborious to write since they parody the content of technical manuals with a humorous twist, and no other writer but Charles Yu could pull it off. I simply believe the man is absolutely bat-shit insane and I think that's why I enjoy reading his stories so much even when they confound me to no end!
RECOMMENDED: 8/10
DO READ MY REVIEWS AT
You can read my review about it in case you're curious.
Now, if I sit still for a moment and think about it again for a whole minute, I might get lost inside my own head and never recover. The only reason I bought this other book was because of one of the quoted reviews in the back page cited that if I'm a fan of the cult NBC show Community, then this one is definitely my cup of tea. And I can agree with that person...to some extent. The truth is, if it wasn't for that reference to my all-time favorite sitcom, I never would have even bothered looking for Yu's novel in the first place. Also, if I happened to read this first before How To Live, I'm afraid I might just put this author aside which would be a damn shame because How To Live was one of the most amazing literary experiences I have ever had which touched the geekiest parts of my soul.
That being said, this collection entitled Sorry Please and Thank You wasn't like How To Live in a Science Fictional Universe. For one thing, it's an anthology of twelve stories, and a few of them are so convoluted and ridiculous but they still manage to be delightfully imaginative. His conceptual work of the plots (or a lack of any plot at all) can be gratingly incomprehensible one moment, and terribly poignant and heartbreaking the next. What was common between the two books had to be the overall style and delivery. There is no doubt that they are definitely penned by the same writer whose sense of humor and wit are mystifyingly outstanding and unique. At their best, these same qualities could make up for the flaws in his storytelling for some of the pieces.
Writing-wise, Charles Yu has the kind of voice that speaks a language you and I may not understand at first until we listen to it without distractions as we try to analyze how he communicates or attempts it with us--and why sometimes he often fails. Only then can readers unravel the secret pain and wish fulfillment in his written words that are so wrapped up in his ramblings about how a few people in this world ever really learned to talk and respond to him in the same manner. But those that do speak his language and are willing to form a dialogue with him will find a ready friend and confidant in Yu's comfortable and unassuming lead characters. They are often just him role-playing through a piece, much like a lonely child creates magic and mystery as he plays by himself while adults look on, both amused and worried of the stories he comes up with.
Only three stories truly stood out for me as magnificent pieces in this collection; the rest are products of the deranged, quirky and absurd writings of a most puzzling man who indulges in his whimsical passages with disregard for harmony and structure. Yu is far too fanciful with the other stories that it's hard for me to take them seriously, let alone have some sustained interest in them. However, as critical as I am about his overall lack of literary restraint, and slightly appalled by his chaotic compositions for Sorry Please and Thank You, I will attest that he has quite the huge talent and potential to become, well, even crazier and uninhibited in his storytelling. His prose is never stilted, never dishonest or bland.
Charles Yu will tell you a story and you will hate him for how he tells it but he will make you feel something as if you have never lived until you heard/read what he has to say. And so, ultimately, what he offers in this anthology may be so disparaging and irregular, so imperfect and so laughably disturbing and fucking preposterous but you are guaranteed to become a duly impressed, captivated audience. I have never read a writer who had laid bare his soul and all its contents--the broken trinkets and the precious suffering--and still remain so genuinely innocent and clueless about the darkness and void he had treaded without heed or caution; and all because his imagination has no strings or a cage big enough to enclose it.
This may not have the powerful resonance of How To Live in a Science Fictional Universe but Sorry Please Thank You is just as exceptional; it has never been tedious or dull and there are interesting details to each story that can be quite enjoyable to re-read again. As for the three stories I truly loved in this anthology, they are Standard Loneliness Package, Hero Receives Major Damage and Open . These stories were deconstructions about humanity's awkward relationship with death, destiny and identity respectively, and Yu did not hesitate to tug that seam repeatedly to show us what could be lurking underneath our insecurities about them until the entire thing frayed. I also liked Inventory, Note to Self and Designer Emotion because the style and approach to said pieces managed to be inventive and hilarious all at once.
Others like Troubleshooting and The Book of Categories are laborious to write since they parody the content of technical manuals with a humorous twist, and no other writer but Charles Yu could pull it off. I simply believe the man is absolutely bat-shit insane and I think that's why I enjoy reading his stories so much even when they confound me to no end!
RECOMMENDED: 8/10
DO READ MY REVIEWS AT
August 30, 2020
way too caught up in its own (supposed) cleverness and metafictionality to actually deliver good short stories
June 28, 2012
Sorry. Please. Thank you. They say that if you knew the words of these three phrases in any language, you can probably get by pretty well. Maybe if you can understand all the stories in here, you'll be able to get by in life? Overall, I found it to be like a less-successful Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang (which you should read if you haven't already). Each of the stories in here is a little bizarre in the way Twilight Zone episodes are bizarre.
Unfortunately, the stories were hit or miss.
The ones I liked:
- Standard Loneliness Package: as a programmer, I can relate to someone who "rents out their mind" for work. While programmers rent out their thinking brain space, the people in this story rent out their feeling brain space. The ending was touching.
- Open: surreal and metaphorical, but I liked it. It was sad, but hopeful.
- Yeoman: you know that minor character in episodes of Star Trek that always ends up dying some ridiculous death? This is the story about him.
I didn't like the other stories as much because they seemed trite or trying too hard. Designer Emotion was heavy handed and didn't really need to be written. Inventory was one I "didn't get." First Person Shooter was silly but not in a good way. Troubleshooting was only okay.
Unfortunately, the stories were hit or miss.
The ones I liked:
- Standard Loneliness Package: as a programmer, I can relate to someone who "rents out their mind" for work. While programmers rent out their thinking brain space, the people in this story rent out their feeling brain space. The ending was touching.
- Open: surreal and metaphorical, but I liked it. It was sad, but hopeful.
- Yeoman: you know that minor character in episodes of Star Trek that always ends up dying some ridiculous death? This is the story about him.
I didn't like the other stories as much because they seemed trite or trying too hard. Designer Emotion was heavy handed and didn't really need to be written. Inventory was one I "didn't get." First Person Shooter was silly but not in a good way. Troubleshooting was only okay.
November 5, 2020
Re-reading six years later, and my star rating remains a 5. I may like the last two stories less this time around, although that could be because I read them late on the historically awful night of Nov 3, 2020, when my mind was melting.
----------------------------------------
I've finally come to like short stories and this book has one of my all time favorites, "Hero Absorbs Major Damage", a first person narrative about an action hero in a video game. (He's more sensitive than he looks and is struggling with some existential issues.) Also loved "Designer Emotion 47" a snarky/hilarious shareholder's report given by a CEO who'd fit in with the 'Wolf of Wall Street' gang. Most of the other stories are gems too, just not quite the diamonds these are.
----------------------------------------
I've finally come to like short stories and this book has one of my all time favorites, "Hero Absorbs Major Damage", a first person narrative about an action hero in a video game. (He's more sensitive than he looks and is struggling with some existential issues.) Also loved "Designer Emotion 47" a snarky/hilarious shareholder's report given by a CEO who'd fit in with the 'Wolf of Wall Street' gang. Most of the other stories are gems too, just not quite the diamonds these are.
September 18, 2012
I am in a hospice.
I have been here before. A regular client.
I am holding a pen.
I have just written something on a notepad in front of me.
My husband is gone.
He died years ago.
Today is the tenth anniversary of his death.
I have Alzheimer’s, I think.
A memory of my husband surfaces, like a white-hot August afternoon, resurfacing in the cool water of November.
I tear off the sheet of paper.
I read it to myself.
It is a suicide note.
I raise a glass to my mouth, swallow a pill. Catch a glance of my note to the world.
The fail-safe kicks on, the system overrides. I close the ticket. I’m out just in time, but as I leave this dying mind, I feel the consciousness losing its structure. Not closing down. Opening. As it dies, I feel it opening up, like a box whose walls fall away, or a maybe a flowering plant, turning towards the sun.
***
Charles Yu’s debut novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe was one of my top five books for 2010. A meta-science fiction narrative that wilfully, gleefully wrapped itself up in all manner of time travel paradoxes, it was at once brilliantly conceived, laugh-out-loud funny, and vicious in its density of ideas. Sorry Please Thank You, his second collection of short stories and his first book since How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, is a welcome, light-hearted follow-up that continues to showcase Yu’s caustic wit and intellect in new and interesting ways.
Sorry Please Thank You is a collection of thirteen stories split into four smaller subsections: Sorry, Please, Thank You, and All of the Above. Sorry, the first section, is about individuals seeking to shirk their feelings and responsibilities—deliberately working to, and in some cases paying great sums of money to void their emotions and sidestep failure. In the collection’s first story, “Standard Loneliness Package,” an awkward call centre worker stationed in Bangalore absorbs the feelings of others—taking on an individual’s fear as they confront their boss, or their grief at the funeral of a loved one. Naturally, depression, anxiety, and all manner of mental and psychological issues ripple through a workplace of insular avatars all designed to take an emotional beating every minute of their lives. “First Person Shooter” is a loose Walmart shopper-parody, as two customer service reps reflect on their own stagnation while watching as a self-aware zombie shuffles through the store. “Troubleshooting” is a smattering of Dr. Phil-style romantic advice for the IT crowd, expounding on the dangers of living through technology���more than that, expecting technology to do your living for you.
The second section in the collection, Please, is more personal than the first. “Hero Absorbs Major Damage” is a contemporary, Diablo-esque spin on the old ’90s cartoon Reboot, using RPG stats and tracking to highlight the successes and failures of a fractured in-game family, and in the end, both confronting and removing “God”—the player—from the equation, embracing one’s choices as their own. “Human for Beginners” offers a segment of an alien species handbook—a guide for understanding the strangeness of extended family connections (and as someone whose extended family is very alien and unknown to him, this entry was particularly insightful). “Inventory” is broken paragraph story starring the author, describing what makes a man into a man—or more appropriately, the man he thinks he should be. This story is very much what its title implies: an inventory, of accountability, of blame, and of reason—reasons why the unnamed “she” of the story has at one point abandoned the author, or why he abandoned her. “Open” is one of the more on-the-nose stories in the collection, using the concept of an apartment and the lives inside as a diorama, with realities flipped; the couple, broken and spiteful towards one another within the diorama apartment, live their exterior lives “in reality” as performance artists playing to a crowd of their best friends who want only the best for them and do not see the loss of love that exists right in front of them. The final story of the Please section, “Note to Self,” is about as meta an exercise as anything from How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. It presents—and answers—the age-old question of what one might say to oneself if presented with your double, or in this case, doubles spread across any number of universes. As it turns out, not a whole hell of a lot beyond basic mind games.
Thank You is a more emotionally removed set of stories focussed on adding filters over life, to lessen the impact of some of its more challenging and horrific aspects, and to continue to exist in safe, albeit muted, ways. It is the weakest section of this book, as it repeats, in less interesting ways, some of the themes presented in the first two segments. “Yeoman” is a classic behind-the-camera take on the self-aware Starfleet “redshirt”—the crewman who will, undoubtedly, die on some eventual away mission, so that the more important members of the ships crew will survive another week of potboiler narratives. Though the message of valuing life for the sake of one’s family if not one’s own existence is strong, it is one of the more obviously plotted tales in the collection, in the end offering more surface texture than anything particularly deep or introspective. “Designer Emotion 67” presents an unintelligent CEO of a pharmaceutical company addressing a future of emotional band-aids designed to eliminate dread. This story works as an amusing companion piece to the first story in the collection, but treads too much of the same water to be effective on its own, feeling more like a straight-up comedy piece than any other story in the book. “The Book of Categories” plays with an interesting concept that I would love to see developed into something larger: an open-sourced bible of sorts—a symbolic wiki defining our world, or possibly an individual’s world, its pages and meanings forever in a state of flux as experiences change the course of lives in large and small ways. “Adult Contemporary” is the closest approximation to a literary The Truman Show I’ve come across. Again, it feels as if this story borrows and expands upon ideas presented in the collection’s first story, “Standard Loneliness Package,” through the purchasing of a life manufactured for pleasure, to remove oneself from their own less-than-ideal existence; however, “Adult Contemporary” is a bit more grounded in the here and now, using television and people’s willingness to live vicariously through the lives of their heroes and celebrities to indict those who seek escapism to the detriment of their own lives and the lives of those near and dear to them.
The final segment, All of the Above, consists only of the title story, “Sorry Please Thank You,” and is less a wholly realized tale in and of itself and more a final nail in the coffin of personality flaws spread bare by the previous twelve stories. It feels almost like an umbrella piece under which to collect all others. Interesting, but certainly the weakest link in an otherwise engaging collection.
Even in the collection’s “lesser” entries, Yu’s writing is always sharp, and very carefully crafted. He frequently employs literary paradoxes, playing words and meanings off one another in rhythmic ways that, more often than not, add a great deal of comedy to even the more emotionally dour stories. The second segment, Please is the strongest collection of stories, though if I had to point to one to read above all others it would likely be the very first story, “Standard Loneliness Package.” It is by far the most developed, both creatively and in terms of its characters.
That is, perhaps, my only true complaint with the collection—that some of the stories feel less developed than others, which is more apparent when placed one after the other, when their sometimes obvious similarities are made visible. Read separately, I think certain entries like “Yeoman,” “Designer Emotion 67,” and “Note to Self” would stand stronger, but when placed within the collection their highlights are dampened by the stories surrounding them.
Charles Yu is a little bit Philip K. Dick crossed with Joseph Heller or Kurt Vonnegut. Not a terribly original set of comparisons, I’m sorry to say, but it rings true nonetheless. Though Sorry Please Thank You doesn’t reach the same giddy heights as How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, it is in itself a bright, highly amusing collection, and another notch in the belt of an original, accomplished creative voice.
I have been here before. A regular client.
I am holding a pen.
I have just written something on a notepad in front of me.
My husband is gone.
He died years ago.
Today is the tenth anniversary of his death.
I have Alzheimer’s, I think.
A memory of my husband surfaces, like a white-hot August afternoon, resurfacing in the cool water of November.
I tear off the sheet of paper.
I read it to myself.
It is a suicide note.
I raise a glass to my mouth, swallow a pill. Catch a glance of my note to the world.
The fail-safe kicks on, the system overrides. I close the ticket. I’m out just in time, but as I leave this dying mind, I feel the consciousness losing its structure. Not closing down. Opening. As it dies, I feel it opening up, like a box whose walls fall away, or a maybe a flowering plant, turning towards the sun.
***
Charles Yu’s debut novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe was one of my top five books for 2010. A meta-science fiction narrative that wilfully, gleefully wrapped itself up in all manner of time travel paradoxes, it was at once brilliantly conceived, laugh-out-loud funny, and vicious in its density of ideas. Sorry Please Thank You, his second collection of short stories and his first book since How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, is a welcome, light-hearted follow-up that continues to showcase Yu’s caustic wit and intellect in new and interesting ways.
Sorry Please Thank You is a collection of thirteen stories split into four smaller subsections: Sorry, Please, Thank You, and All of the Above. Sorry, the first section, is about individuals seeking to shirk their feelings and responsibilities—deliberately working to, and in some cases paying great sums of money to void their emotions and sidestep failure. In the collection’s first story, “Standard Loneliness Package,” an awkward call centre worker stationed in Bangalore absorbs the feelings of others—taking on an individual’s fear as they confront their boss, or their grief at the funeral of a loved one. Naturally, depression, anxiety, and all manner of mental and psychological issues ripple through a workplace of insular avatars all designed to take an emotional beating every minute of their lives. “First Person Shooter” is a loose Walmart shopper-parody, as two customer service reps reflect on their own stagnation while watching as a self-aware zombie shuffles through the store. “Troubleshooting” is a smattering of Dr. Phil-style romantic advice for the IT crowd, expounding on the dangers of living through technology���more than that, expecting technology to do your living for you.
The second section in the collection, Please, is more personal than the first. “Hero Absorbs Major Damage” is a contemporary, Diablo-esque spin on the old ’90s cartoon Reboot, using RPG stats and tracking to highlight the successes and failures of a fractured in-game family, and in the end, both confronting and removing “God”—the player—from the equation, embracing one’s choices as their own. “Human for Beginners” offers a segment of an alien species handbook—a guide for understanding the strangeness of extended family connections (and as someone whose extended family is very alien and unknown to him, this entry was particularly insightful). “Inventory” is broken paragraph story starring the author, describing what makes a man into a man—or more appropriately, the man he thinks he should be. This story is very much what its title implies: an inventory, of accountability, of blame, and of reason—reasons why the unnamed “she” of the story has at one point abandoned the author, or why he abandoned her. “Open” is one of the more on-the-nose stories in the collection, using the concept of an apartment and the lives inside as a diorama, with realities flipped; the couple, broken and spiteful towards one another within the diorama apartment, live their exterior lives “in reality” as performance artists playing to a crowd of their best friends who want only the best for them and do not see the loss of love that exists right in front of them. The final story of the Please section, “Note to Self,” is about as meta an exercise as anything from How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. It presents—and answers—the age-old question of what one might say to oneself if presented with your double, or in this case, doubles spread across any number of universes. As it turns out, not a whole hell of a lot beyond basic mind games.
Thank You is a more emotionally removed set of stories focussed on adding filters over life, to lessen the impact of some of its more challenging and horrific aspects, and to continue to exist in safe, albeit muted, ways. It is the weakest section of this book, as it repeats, in less interesting ways, some of the themes presented in the first two segments. “Yeoman” is a classic behind-the-camera take on the self-aware Starfleet “redshirt”—the crewman who will, undoubtedly, die on some eventual away mission, so that the more important members of the ships crew will survive another week of potboiler narratives. Though the message of valuing life for the sake of one’s family if not one’s own existence is strong, it is one of the more obviously plotted tales in the collection, in the end offering more surface texture than anything particularly deep or introspective. “Designer Emotion 67” presents an unintelligent CEO of a pharmaceutical company addressing a future of emotional band-aids designed to eliminate dread. This story works as an amusing companion piece to the first story in the collection, but treads too much of the same water to be effective on its own, feeling more like a straight-up comedy piece than any other story in the book. “The Book of Categories” plays with an interesting concept that I would love to see developed into something larger: an open-sourced bible of sorts—a symbolic wiki defining our world, or possibly an individual’s world, its pages and meanings forever in a state of flux as experiences change the course of lives in large and small ways. “Adult Contemporary” is the closest approximation to a literary The Truman Show I’ve come across. Again, it feels as if this story borrows and expands upon ideas presented in the collection’s first story, “Standard Loneliness Package,” through the purchasing of a life manufactured for pleasure, to remove oneself from their own less-than-ideal existence; however, “Adult Contemporary” is a bit more grounded in the here and now, using television and people’s willingness to live vicariously through the lives of their heroes and celebrities to indict those who seek escapism to the detriment of their own lives and the lives of those near and dear to them.
The final segment, All of the Above, consists only of the title story, “Sorry Please Thank You,” and is less a wholly realized tale in and of itself and more a final nail in the coffin of personality flaws spread bare by the previous twelve stories. It feels almost like an umbrella piece under which to collect all others. Interesting, but certainly the weakest link in an otherwise engaging collection.
Even in the collection’s “lesser” entries, Yu’s writing is always sharp, and very carefully crafted. He frequently employs literary paradoxes, playing words and meanings off one another in rhythmic ways that, more often than not, add a great deal of comedy to even the more emotionally dour stories. The second segment, Please is the strongest collection of stories, though if I had to point to one to read above all others it would likely be the very first story, “Standard Loneliness Package.” It is by far the most developed, both creatively and in terms of its characters.
That is, perhaps, my only true complaint with the collection—that some of the stories feel less developed than others, which is more apparent when placed one after the other, when their sometimes obvious similarities are made visible. Read separately, I think certain entries like “Yeoman,” “Designer Emotion 67,” and “Note to Self” would stand stronger, but when placed within the collection their highlights are dampened by the stories surrounding them.
Charles Yu is a little bit Philip K. Dick crossed with Joseph Heller or Kurt Vonnegut. Not a terribly original set of comparisons, I’m sorry to say, but it rings true nonetheless. Though Sorry Please Thank You doesn’t reach the same giddy heights as How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, it is in itself a bright, highly amusing collection, and another notch in the belt of an original, accomplished creative voice.
Read
July 15, 2019One of the most promoted SFF short story collections by a minority author I have ever seen in English-language publishing. I bought it several years ago, but then I was constantly moving for a long time, and I just found it in a box. (If you're wondering why I haven't read X, Y, Z big title, this is why. I probably got them while trying to stay alive and moving from one rental to another. Sigh)
I am sad to say this one did not age well. I feel it was published just as short-form SFF was starting to go through a massive revival, and now there are so many stories to read that do similar experimentation with form, with the nature of reality, etc. and do it much better. There's only so many stories I can read about a thirtysomething geek dude with weird misogynist overtones. The originals were especially frustrating and read rather unedited. I could also have done without the scene where gayness in a fantasy video game setting was played for laughs. (I was wondering if this was a dig at Dragon Age: Origins, specifically.) It's a short book, I read it in one sitting, but I sadly won't be keeping it.
______
Source of the book: Bought with my own money (in a used book store)
I am sad to say this one did not age well. I feel it was published just as short-form SFF was starting to go through a massive revival, and now there are so many stories to read that do similar experimentation with form, with the nature of reality, etc. and do it much better. There's only so many stories I can read about a thirtysomething geek dude with weird misogynist overtones. The originals were especially frustrating and read rather unedited. I could also have done without the scene where gayness in a fantasy video game setting was played for laughs. (I was wondering if this was a dig at Dragon Age: Origins, specifically.) It's a short book, I read it in one sitting, but I sadly won't be keeping it.
______
Source of the book: Bought with my own money (in a used book store)
March 25, 2013
I'm still not sure how I feel about this collection, as a whole. If you've read Yu's novel, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, what he serves up here won't surprise: surreal, experimental, with pop-culture and scifi influences. And yet.
Most of these stories seem to be riffing off the same chords: living in reality, mediated and/or sanitized experiences. I feel like, in writing the first story "Standard Loneliness Package," Yu has said pretty much everything, and the rest of the book just puts it a different way. I might also be a little jaded because one of the stories has been done more effectively by John Scalzi in Redshirts: "Yeoman."
This was a fun anthology, but it just isn't sticking to me.
Most of these stories seem to be riffing off the same chords: living in reality, mediated and/or sanitized experiences. I feel like, in writing the first story "Standard Loneliness Package," Yu has said pretty much everything, and the rest of the book just puts it a different way. I might also be a little jaded because one of the stories has been done more effectively by John Scalzi in Redshirts: "Yeoman."
This was a fun anthology, but it just isn't sticking to me.
June 3, 2018
In some ways this reminds me of The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, in that there are SO MANY things I love about it, but Yu cannot let you forget, even for a second, exactly what he thinks women are for. The last story was so explicit about it, it left me so upset.
I liked the first story a lot, Standard Loneliness Package, which had a really interesting premise, and a pretty good execution except for, you guessed it, there is only one woman, and she is defined 85% by her relationship with the protagonist and 15% by her relationship with her father. Hero Absorbs Major Damage was similar - very cool premise, lots of humor, but there's only two women and one of them is the love interest, and the other is
Troubleshooting, Inventory, and The Book of Categories were all interesting in the vein of Invisible Cities or Einstein's Dreams in that they seemed to be mostly focused on the thought experiment, and less so on developing characters (or at least, more than one every-man character), and that may be why they were among the better stories.
Overall, though, this book reminded me of that quote from The Social Network (which I have never seen, but has brought about one of my favorite quotes of all time): You're going to go through life thinking that girls don't like you because you're a nerd. And I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that that won't be true. It'll be because you're an asshole.
I liked the first story a lot, Standard Loneliness Package, which had a really interesting premise, and a pretty good execution except for, you guessed it, there is only one woman, and she is defined 85% by her relationship with the protagonist and 15% by her relationship with her father. Hero Absorbs Major Damage was similar - very cool premise, lots of humor, but there's only two women and one of them is the love interest, and the other is
Troubleshooting, Inventory, and The Book of Categories were all interesting in the vein of Invisible Cities or Einstein's Dreams in that they seemed to be mostly focused on the thought experiment, and less so on developing characters (or at least, more than one every-man character), and that may be why they were among the better stories.
Overall, though, this book reminded me of that quote from The Social Network (which I have never seen, but has brought about one of my favorite quotes of all time): You're going to go through life thinking that girls don't like you because you're a nerd. And I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that that won't be true. It'll be because you're an asshole.
July 13, 2018
Charles Yu’s characters are not very happy.
I wasn’t enthusiastic reading Sorry Please Thank You: Stories, for I wasn’t much of a fan of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. Nevertheless, I’d acquired this collection prior to reading that novel, from a library sale, so I wanted to give Yu a second chance. I don’t think there will be a third.
The stories in here aren’t particularly bad. They just don’t appeal to me. For one thing, as I mention at the top of this review, his characters are often these sad-sack men who are stuck in dead-end jobs (or lives) and chasing some kind of love interest. It’s … emotionally flaccid. Moreover, as much as I like meta-fiction and self-insert stuff, it shows up again and again here, and I’m just kind of over it now. Sure, some of the stories and narrative devices here are fun and fresh the way Yu uses them … but there is not a single story in this collection that made me go, “Whoa.”
Probably the only story that comes close is “Hero Absorbs Major Damage”. I like the conceits there, the way Yu uses the trope of self-aware game characters. It’s pretty fun (though it still hews too closely to some of the issues I identified above). Even that story, though, didn’t make me go “whoa”.
So overall … disappointed, for suresies. This is not a book I can recommend. It’s not something I’m telling you to avoid either, of course. But there’s just better ways for me to spend my afternoon than reading short story collections that don’t speak to me.
I wasn’t enthusiastic reading Sorry Please Thank You: Stories, for I wasn’t much of a fan of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. Nevertheless, I’d acquired this collection prior to reading that novel, from a library sale, so I wanted to give Yu a second chance. I don’t think there will be a third.
The stories in here aren’t particularly bad. They just don’t appeal to me. For one thing, as I mention at the top of this review, his characters are often these sad-sack men who are stuck in dead-end jobs (or lives) and chasing some kind of love interest. It’s … emotionally flaccid. Moreover, as much as I like meta-fiction and self-insert stuff, it shows up again and again here, and I’m just kind of over it now. Sure, some of the stories and narrative devices here are fun and fresh the way Yu uses them … but there is not a single story in this collection that made me go, “Whoa.”
Probably the only story that comes close is “Hero Absorbs Major Damage”. I like the conceits there, the way Yu uses the trope of self-aware game characters. It’s pretty fun (though it still hews too closely to some of the issues I identified above). Even that story, though, didn’t make me go “whoa”.
So overall … disappointed, for suresies. This is not a book I can recommend. It’s not something I’m telling you to avoid either, of course. But there’s just better ways for me to spend my afternoon than reading short story collections that don’t speak to me.
December 17, 2019
3.4 ⭐ Rounded down.
A baker's dozen 'high concept' stories. They are, for want of a better term: speculative fiction; sci-fi; space fish ( I forget who coined that term but it's apt, here).
About half of them are what you would call conventional stories with a plot, characters and a more or less conclusion. The others are creative writing projects, with varying degrees of success. Mostly they're all forgettable.
That's not to say I didn't laugh a few times.
My main objection is the stories are too damn cute and too damn trite. I didn't mind 'Standard Lonliness Package' (outsource your grief and unhappiness) and 'Yeoman' was funny (about the redshirt who refused to die.)
Truth is I'm too old and knocked around to be much impressed by what a 30 something, trendy, Californian thinks about life, or anything, really. Maybe that's my loss. But I doubt it.
Perhaps, as others have suggested, this is not Yu's best work. I should try the novel "How to Live Safely in a Science-Fictional Universe," as Yu's not without creativity and humour. Bottom line is I've never been much of a 'high concept' guy to start with.
A baker's dozen 'high concept' stories. They are, for want of a better term: speculative fiction; sci-fi; space fish ( I forget who coined that term but it's apt, here).
About half of them are what you would call conventional stories with a plot, characters and a more or less conclusion. The others are creative writing projects, with varying degrees of success. Mostly they're all forgettable.
That's not to say I didn't laugh a few times.
My main objection is the stories are too damn cute and too damn trite. I didn't mind 'Standard Lonliness Package' (outsource your grief and unhappiness) and 'Yeoman' was funny (about the redshirt who refused to die.)
Truth is I'm too old and knocked around to be much impressed by what a 30 something, trendy, Californian thinks about life, or anything, really. Maybe that's my loss. But I doubt it.
Perhaps, as others have suggested, this is not Yu's best work. I should try the novel "How to Live Safely in a Science-Fictional Universe," as Yu's not without creativity and humour. Bottom line is I've never been much of a 'high concept' guy to start with.
July 8, 2019
I have always felt that the short story is the perfect literary form and that a good short story can be as poignant as a novel, lyrical as a poem, and as dramatic as a play. A good science fiction short story can be ground-breaking.
Charles Yu has already made a name for himself in the science fiction community based on his debut novel, “How To Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe”, and two short story collections. I have not read his novel or his first short story collection, “Third Class Superhero”, but his most recent collection, “Sorry Please Thank You: Stories”, is a brilliant, funny, intelligent, profound, and exciting glimpse at what the short story as a literary form can do.
Born in 1976, Yu is right on the edge of that millenial age, close enough to be considered one, even if he technically falls into the Generation X category.
Like many Gen-Xers and millenials, Yu apparently grew up on a steady diet of video games, sci-fi TV shows, and golden age sci-fi paperbacks. Harlan Ellison, Philip K. Dick, John W. Campbell, Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut: it wouldn’t surprise me if dog-eared copies of books by these authors still have a special place on his bookshelves at home. His love and respect for the genre shines in every story of “Sorry Please Thank You”.
There is, however, much more to the collection than a knowledge of the genre. Yu is, first and foremost, writing very human stories in the dialect of millenial sci-fi nerd, which is perhaps not as small a demographic or niche audience as one might expect.
Yu writes so beautifully about common millenial themes---loneliness in the Internet age, disconnectedness, hopelessness, powerlessness, disenfranchisement, apathy, feeling expendable in a throw-away culture, fatalism, selflessness (as in, feeling that one lacks a “self”)---that they end up simply being common human themes, regardless of one’s generation.
Yu’s writing resides somewhere between the dry humor of Kurt Vonnegut’s short fiction and Ben Marcus’s experimental short fiction: accessible enough to be entertaining but weird enough to be challenging, in a good way. Reading Yu, I was reminded of some of the best short stories I have ever read, many of which happen to be science fiction stories: John W. Campbell’s “Who Goes There?”, Harlan Ellison’s “”Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman”, Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder”; stories that cleverly introduce readers to concepts in the form of symbolism and metaphor, surrealist imagery of a world not our own but that bears an eerie resemblance to our own. Reading Yu, I am reminded of what the best of science fiction succeeds in doing: namely, putting a funhouse mirror up to ourselves and reminding us how utterly ridiculous, horrifying, and pathetic we are.
Charles Yu has already made a name for himself in the science fiction community based on his debut novel, “How To Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe”, and two short story collections. I have not read his novel or his first short story collection, “Third Class Superhero”, but his most recent collection, “Sorry Please Thank You: Stories”, is a brilliant, funny, intelligent, profound, and exciting glimpse at what the short story as a literary form can do.
Born in 1976, Yu is right on the edge of that millenial age, close enough to be considered one, even if he technically falls into the Generation X category.
Like many Gen-Xers and millenials, Yu apparently grew up on a steady diet of video games, sci-fi TV shows, and golden age sci-fi paperbacks. Harlan Ellison, Philip K. Dick, John W. Campbell, Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut: it wouldn’t surprise me if dog-eared copies of books by these authors still have a special place on his bookshelves at home. His love and respect for the genre shines in every story of “Sorry Please Thank You”.
There is, however, much more to the collection than a knowledge of the genre. Yu is, first and foremost, writing very human stories in the dialect of millenial sci-fi nerd, which is perhaps not as small a demographic or niche audience as one might expect.
Yu writes so beautifully about common millenial themes---loneliness in the Internet age, disconnectedness, hopelessness, powerlessness, disenfranchisement, apathy, feeling expendable in a throw-away culture, fatalism, selflessness (as in, feeling that one lacks a “self”)---that they end up simply being common human themes, regardless of one’s generation.
Yu’s writing resides somewhere between the dry humor of Kurt Vonnegut’s short fiction and Ben Marcus’s experimental short fiction: accessible enough to be entertaining but weird enough to be challenging, in a good way. Reading Yu, I was reminded of some of the best short stories I have ever read, many of which happen to be science fiction stories: John W. Campbell’s “Who Goes There?”, Harlan Ellison’s “”Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman”, Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder”; stories that cleverly introduce readers to concepts in the form of symbolism and metaphor, surrealist imagery of a world not our own but that bears an eerie resemblance to our own. Reading Yu, I am reminded of what the best of science fiction succeeds in doing: namely, putting a funhouse mirror up to ourselves and reminding us how utterly ridiculous, horrifying, and pathetic we are.
June 29, 2024
Charles Yu is one of a handful of writers that come to mind when I think of post-2010 Asian American authors, but due to his male-centric story structures, I've yet to be impressed by one of his books.
Sorry Please Thank You, Yu's third book and second collection of short stories, is at its strongest when it leans speculative and its weakest when it's purely sci-fi. The collection peaks with its first story "Standard Loneliness Package," which examines melancholy and coping mechanisms through a near future in which people can outsource their sadness to office workers -- and does so with a detached thoughtfulness akin to the styles of Ishiguro and Murakami.
Unfortunately, the book never quite reaches such a level of thoughtfulness again. Strictly sci-fi stories like "First Person Shooter" and "Hero Absorbs Major Damage" play their hand at classic tropes like the zombie tale and trapped-in-a-video-game storyline without diverting from the tired story arcs at all, and consequently fall victim to its usual criticisms: the stories are painfully male-centric and by the book, with bland male protagonists striving to gain heroic recognitions while clumsily impressing underwritten female counterparts. Format-bending listicle stories like "Troubleshooting," "Human For Beginners," and "Inventory" move away from the world-building of sci-fi to focus on wit and observation, but read like uninspired high school creative writing exercises without sufficient substance to support the irregular formats. In fact, Yu's writing is better when he forgoes format irregularity and humor altogether; "Open" and the titular story "Sorry Please Thank You" are some of the strongest of the bunch partially because they don't feel the need to wryly comment on themselves throughout, and the audience reads them with the consideration they deserve in turn.
Sorry Please Thank You is a miss for me, but Yu's one-dimensional humor and sci-fi style might be better suited for YA audiences.
Sorry Please Thank You, Yu's third book and second collection of short stories, is at its strongest when it leans speculative and its weakest when it's purely sci-fi. The collection peaks with its first story "Standard Loneliness Package," which examines melancholy and coping mechanisms through a near future in which people can outsource their sadness to office workers -- and does so with a detached thoughtfulness akin to the styles of Ishiguro and Murakami.
Unfortunately, the book never quite reaches such a level of thoughtfulness again. Strictly sci-fi stories like "First Person Shooter" and "Hero Absorbs Major Damage" play their hand at classic tropes like the zombie tale and trapped-in-a-video-game storyline without diverting from the tired story arcs at all, and consequently fall victim to its usual criticisms: the stories are painfully male-centric and by the book, with bland male protagonists striving to gain heroic recognitions while clumsily impressing underwritten female counterparts. Format-bending listicle stories like "Troubleshooting," "Human For Beginners," and "Inventory" move away from the world-building of sci-fi to focus on wit and observation, but read like uninspired high school creative writing exercises without sufficient substance to support the irregular formats. In fact, Yu's writing is better when he forgoes format irregularity and humor altogether; "Open" and the titular story "Sorry Please Thank You" are some of the strongest of the bunch partially because they don't feel the need to wryly comment on themselves throughout, and the audience reads them with the consideration they deserve in turn.
Sorry Please Thank You is a miss for me, but Yu's one-dimensional humor and sci-fi style might be better suited for YA audiences.
January 16, 2016
Tất cả những truyện ngắn trong tập truyện này đều có nội dung và cách dẫn dắt vô cùng thú vị: đó là câu chuyện về một người làm nghề chịu đựng nỗi đau thay thế người khác, cả thể xác lẫn tinh thần, khi người ta có thể trả tiền để chuyển nỗi đau của mình cho những nhân viên chuyên nghiệp; hoặc câu chuyện của một nhân vật trong game, khi bị các game thủ kiểm soát hoàn toàn về hành động, nhưng họ vẫn có suy nghĩ, cảm xúc cho riêng mình; câu chuyện về một cặp đôi có thể mở các cánh của để bước qua những thế giới khác, mà ở đó họ thuộc về nhau; những bức thư gửi cho bản sao của mình ở các thế giới song song hoặc liệu chính những hình ảnh ta tưởng tượng về bản thân mình có cảm xúc riêng....
Với cách nhìn thế giới khác lạ như thế, Charles Yu dường như vẫn kể cùng một câu chuyện về nỗi cô đơn, những nỗi đau không ai thấu hiểu, những câu chuyện không người chia sẻ, tất cả dường như đang cất lên tiếng kêu giữa vũ trụ bao la này.
Với cách nhìn thế giới khác lạ như thế, Charles Yu dường như vẫn kể cùng một câu chuyện về nỗi cô đơn, những nỗi đau không ai thấu hiểu, những câu chuyện không người chia sẻ, tất cả dường như đang cất lên tiếng kêu giữa vũ trụ bao la này.
January 6, 2016
Sorry, please, thank you, you're welcome - words to live by.
This was a good is made up of some stories that were just okay, most that were good and two that were great.
This sci-fi collection was easy to get into and highly readable.
This was a good is made up of some stories that were just okay, most that were good and two that were great.
This sci-fi collection was easy to get into and highly readable.
November 19, 2021
I put Charles Yu’s second short story collection, Sorry Please Thank You, on my 2021 TBR after reading his short story ‘Good News Bad News’ in A People’s Future of the United States. Yu has been compared to the brilliant science fiction writer Ted Chiang, but honestly I don’t think they have much in common (cynically, you might say that they’ve been squashed together because they’re both Chinese-American men who write speculative short fiction). Chiang’s work is intensely cerebral and serious, whereas Yu’s short stories are much more playful, satirical and strongly reminiscent of early George Saunders (e.g. CivilWarLand In Bad Decline). Like Saunders, Yu is fond of making fun of American corporate culture and late capitalism, enjoying phrases like ‘the new slogan, Be The Person You Wish You Were™’ and ‘I’ve always loved Autumn®’. And as with Saunders’ early writing, this can work well for one story but quickly become tiresome over the course of an entire collection.
Luckily, there are some gems here. I thought the opening story, ‘Standard Loneliness Package’, was really wonderful; I read it twice in a row to fully appreciate how Yu pulls it off. It’s based on a pretty standard kind of science fiction premise; our narrator works in a call centre where people can pay him to feel their pain for them. However, Yu elevates this material beyond a simple ‘what if?’ by the skill with which he weaves various elements of the story together. His deliberately repetitive style builds resonance, so the final paragraphs are horribly moving even though you don’t quite know why. While nothing else in this collection is quite as good, the shorter ‘Troubleshooting’ works on the same kind of terms, but is even more pared down. Yu also gives us two stories that imagine what it would be like to be a character in formulaic fictional worlds; of the two, I thought the Star Trek inspired one (‘Yeoman’) was a lot better and funnier than the Dungeons and Dragons/World of Warcraft inspired one (‘Hero Absorbs Major Damage’). The rest of the collection is padded out with a lot of very short pieces that cover similar ground, which is a shame, because Yu’s best stories show that when he’s good, he’s really good. 3.5 stars.
Luckily, there are some gems here. I thought the opening story, ‘Standard Loneliness Package’, was really wonderful; I read it twice in a row to fully appreciate how Yu pulls it off. It’s based on a pretty standard kind of science fiction premise; our narrator works in a call centre where people can pay him to feel their pain for them. However, Yu elevates this material beyond a simple ‘what if?’ by the skill with which he weaves various elements of the story together. His deliberately repetitive style builds resonance, so the final paragraphs are horribly moving even though you don’t quite know why. While nothing else in this collection is quite as good, the shorter ‘Troubleshooting’ works on the same kind of terms, but is even more pared down. Yu also gives us two stories that imagine what it would be like to be a character in formulaic fictional worlds; of the two, I thought the Star Trek inspired one (‘Yeoman’) was a lot better and funnier than the Dungeons and Dragons/World of Warcraft inspired one (‘Hero Absorbs Major Damage’). The rest of the collection is padded out with a lot of very short pieces that cover similar ground, which is a shame, because Yu’s best stories show that when he’s good, he’s really good. 3.5 stars.
November 30, 2020
I loved loved loved the first story "Standard Loneliness Package." Quite inventive and impactful. I thought I was in for a firecracker of a short story collection because of it. Sadly, none of the other stories reached the heights of that first story. They weren't bad, but there wasn't enough for me to chew on. Yu is one of a kind. Between this and Interior Chinatown, there's no doubt about that.
February 18, 2024
My favorite review of this is “written by a man for men” and I wholeheartedly agree. The collection isn’t bad; in fact, “Standard Loneliness Package” is one of my favorite short stories I’ve read as of yet. But in general, a lot of these just didn’t click for me. I think the commentary is done well overall, but yeah. That’s it.
November 8, 2022
Wow. This collection is incredible. Amid RPGs, zombies, space voyages, and dystopian outsourcing, Charles Yu covers the range of human emotion with his unique and delightful blend of meta sci-fi.
November 21, 2020
a bit too cheeky and meta for my taste at times but some of these stories really hit
July 25, 2012
Charles Yu has been making a big splash. His short story collection THIRD CLASS SUPERHERO won him the 5 Under 35 Award from the National Book Foundation. Then he received the Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award. Last year his debut novel HOW TO LIVE SAFELY IN A SCIENCE FICTIONAL UNIVERSE came out to near universal acclaim including being named a New York Times notable book and 2011 Best Book of the Year by such publications as Time Magazine and io9. He comfortably straddles science fiction and literary fiction. Now he returns to short stories with a collection containing works that have previously appeared in publications as varied as The Oxford-American, Playboy, and THE THACKERY T. LAMBSHEAD CABINET OF CURIOSITIES.
SORRY PLEASE THANK YOU is divided into four sections: Sorry, Please, Thank You, and All of the Above. It's a clever idea, but the division doesn't feel organic. Many of the stories in different sections are preoccupied with the same themes. Yu continually returns to pondering the authenticity of relationships and satisfaction or dissatisfaction with one's self.
But here's the really important thing about Yu: he's fiercely funny. Sometimes he goes overboard with the meta or postmodern formatting. It works when there's really something to think about when you untangle what he's saying. Other times it's just flash for no good reason. Maybe I just really didn't like "Human for Beginners." It starts promising, then gets pleasantly weird, then fast becomes tedious.
If you can't tell by my last statement, not every story in SORRY PLEASE THANK YOU is a winner. But the high points shine brightly and come fairly frequently. The collection opens with the one-two punch of "Standard Loneliness Package" and "First Person Shooter." "Standard Loneliness Package" imagines a future where the rich pay other people to feel their pain, guilt, and other less pleasant emotions. On the other hand, people in dire straights mortgage their lives and other people rent it for escape. The protagonist attempts to romance coworker Kirthi, a heartbreak specialist. In this story, Yu pulls off the darker side of human emotion beautifully. "First Person Shooter" also deals with a romance between coworkers. But this time they work in a WalMart expy and are trying to deal with a zombie roaming the store.
The Please section is the longest and weakest. But "Hero Absorbs Major Damage" and "Open" are both must reads. "Hero Absorbs Major Damage" explore the typical RPG through the point of view of an avatar who tries to lead his team as best he can and sometimes worships the fallible young deity Fred. "Open" begins perfectly. It shows off Yu's command of language and his playful universes. Plus, it ends with quite the hook.
"We need to talk about that," I said.
"Why? Why do we always have to talk everything to death?"
"The word 'door' is floating in the middle of our apartment. You don't think maybe this is something we need to discuss?"
- p. 131, ARC
What follows is an intriguing story about identity and intimacy.
Thank You contains "Yeoman" as well as the best story in the collection "Designer Emotion 67." "Yeoman" is for fans of John Scalzi's REDSHIRTS: A Novel with Three Codas and Galaxy Quest. When a man receives a promotion to crew's yeoman, he realize it means he's going to die. That's not an option, considering he has a baby on the way. It's a hilarious send up of science fiction tropes and the yeoman's wife is priceless. "Designer Emotion 67" is a transcript of PharmaLife, Inc.'s annual report to shareholders in 2050. "The Depression-industrial complex has been built (175)" and now they're exploring the possibilities in curing Dread. The CEO is cocky and brash and should probably have an intern edit his speech, but he does know what the shareholders are really after. Money. It's crazy yet plausible and funny in all the worst ways.
SORRY PLEASE THANK YOU ends on a dark note with eponymous story "Sorry Please Thank You." A suicide note on a bar napkin, it hovers somewhere between Yu's best and worst. It has his long, propulsive paragraphs were the narrator babbles, searching to make sense of something. It's preoccupied with human interaction. There's the strange bitterness about love. It may not be a highlight of the anthology, but it's a fitting end.
Fans of the short story and of Charles Yu should pick up a copy of SORRY PLEASE THANK YOU. (Although if you have no stomach for postmodernism, you might stay away.) Yu's work in this collection will further his standing with both the literary and sci-fi crowds. Six standouts in a collection of thirteen stories isn't bad at all.
SORRY PLEASE THANK YOU is divided into four sections: Sorry, Please, Thank You, and All of the Above. It's a clever idea, but the division doesn't feel organic. Many of the stories in different sections are preoccupied with the same themes. Yu continually returns to pondering the authenticity of relationships and satisfaction or dissatisfaction with one's self.
But here's the really important thing about Yu: he's fiercely funny. Sometimes he goes overboard with the meta or postmodern formatting. It works when there's really something to think about when you untangle what he's saying. Other times it's just flash for no good reason. Maybe I just really didn't like "Human for Beginners." It starts promising, then gets pleasantly weird, then fast becomes tedious.
If you can't tell by my last statement, not every story in SORRY PLEASE THANK YOU is a winner. But the high points shine brightly and come fairly frequently. The collection opens with the one-two punch of "Standard Loneliness Package" and "First Person Shooter." "Standard Loneliness Package" imagines a future where the rich pay other people to feel their pain, guilt, and other less pleasant emotions. On the other hand, people in dire straights mortgage their lives and other people rent it for escape. The protagonist attempts to romance coworker Kirthi, a heartbreak specialist. In this story, Yu pulls off the darker side of human emotion beautifully. "First Person Shooter" also deals with a romance between coworkers. But this time they work in a WalMart expy and are trying to deal with a zombie roaming the store.
The Please section is the longest and weakest. But "Hero Absorbs Major Damage" and "Open" are both must reads. "Hero Absorbs Major Damage" explore the typical RPG through the point of view of an avatar who tries to lead his team as best he can and sometimes worships the fallible young deity Fred. "Open" begins perfectly. It shows off Yu's command of language and his playful universes. Plus, it ends with quite the hook.
"We need to talk about that," I said.
"Why? Why do we always have to talk everything to death?"
"The word 'door' is floating in the middle of our apartment. You don't think maybe this is something we need to discuss?"
- p. 131, ARC
What follows is an intriguing story about identity and intimacy.
Thank You contains "Yeoman" as well as the best story in the collection "Designer Emotion 67." "Yeoman" is for fans of John Scalzi's REDSHIRTS: A Novel with Three Codas and Galaxy Quest. When a man receives a promotion to crew's yeoman, he realize it means he's going to die. That's not an option, considering he has a baby on the way. It's a hilarious send up of science fiction tropes and the yeoman's wife is priceless. "Designer Emotion 67" is a transcript of PharmaLife, Inc.'s annual report to shareholders in 2050. "The Depression-industrial complex has been built (175)" and now they're exploring the possibilities in curing Dread. The CEO is cocky and brash and should probably have an intern edit his speech, but he does know what the shareholders are really after. Money. It's crazy yet plausible and funny in all the worst ways.
SORRY PLEASE THANK YOU ends on a dark note with eponymous story "Sorry Please Thank You." A suicide note on a bar napkin, it hovers somewhere between Yu's best and worst. It has his long, propulsive paragraphs were the narrator babbles, searching to make sense of something. It's preoccupied with human interaction. There's the strange bitterness about love. It may not be a highlight of the anthology, but it's a fitting end.
Fans of the short story and of Charles Yu should pick up a copy of SORRY PLEASE THANK YOU. (Although if you have no stomach for postmodernism, you might stay away.) Yu's work in this collection will further his standing with both the literary and sci-fi crowds. Six standouts in a collection of thirteen stories isn't bad at all.
January 23, 2022
charles yu is my favorite brand of straight asian man... self aware himbo... nerdy... just hanging out... having some fun...
February 18, 2022
I generally enjoy short story collections, as they can offer a variety of different ideas and concepts, and usually find some gems amidst the bad, mediocre, and merely decent. Usually I'm able to find several stories I enjoy from a collection, or even just one or two that I like. "Sorry Please Thank You" stands out, then, as one of the few story collections where I did not enjoy a single story. Which takes some doing, even in a collection as avant-garde and experimental -- and seemingly self-absorbed -- as this one.
Charles Yu is hailed in quotes on the book's dust jacket and Amazon page as the next Douglas Adams or Kurt Vonnegut... but the key difference is that, while I'm not terribly fond of either of those writers, they could at least be funny once in awhile. Yu, meanwhile, only seems capable of writing two types of stories -- stories featuring a self-insert-ish main character who ignores a fascinating concept in favor of whining about how terrible his life is and how all his problems can be blamed on his girlfriend or lack thereof, or stories that are so experimental they're borderline-unreadable. There are some interesting ideas to be had -- a business that outsources your pain and emotions to others, a zombie roaming a Walmart-esque store getting ready for a date, etc. -- but these get lost, drowned by the author's love of his own voice.
The best story in this batch would have to be "First Person Shooter," the aforementioned zombie story. It was at least cute and a different take on a zombie story, though still spoiled by the fact that the main character won't stop obsessing over the co-worker he wants to date. And two of the other stories that actually come closer to working -- the video-game-based "Hero Takes Major Damage" and the Star-Trek-esque "Yeoman" -- have concepts that were executed MUCH better in other writer's works (Yahtzee Croshaw's Mogworld and John Scalzi's Redshirts respectively).
This collection was actually bad enough that it made me drop the author's novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe from my TBR. Because while I understand, as a writer, that the short story is a different beast from the full-length novel, this story collection doesn't give me any confidence that he can pull off a novel. I was disappointed in this collection, and it's sad that I couldn't find even one story in the batch to enjoy.
So I'm "sorry" I read this, I ask other readers to "please" not waste their time with this collection, and I say "thank you" to the library for making this available so I didn't burn actual cash on a copy.
Charles Yu is hailed in quotes on the book's dust jacket and Amazon page as the next Douglas Adams or Kurt Vonnegut... but the key difference is that, while I'm not terribly fond of either of those writers, they could at least be funny once in awhile. Yu, meanwhile, only seems capable of writing two types of stories -- stories featuring a self-insert-ish main character who ignores a fascinating concept in favor of whining about how terrible his life is and how all his problems can be blamed on his girlfriend or lack thereof, or stories that are so experimental they're borderline-unreadable. There are some interesting ideas to be had -- a business that outsources your pain and emotions to others, a zombie roaming a Walmart-esque store getting ready for a date, etc. -- but these get lost, drowned by the author's love of his own voice.
The best story in this batch would have to be "First Person Shooter," the aforementioned zombie story. It was at least cute and a different take on a zombie story, though still spoiled by the fact that the main character won't stop obsessing over the co-worker he wants to date. And two of the other stories that actually come closer to working -- the video-game-based "Hero Takes Major Damage" and the Star-Trek-esque "Yeoman" -- have concepts that were executed MUCH better in other writer's works (Yahtzee Croshaw's Mogworld and John Scalzi's Redshirts respectively).
This collection was actually bad enough that it made me drop the author's novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe from my TBR. Because while I understand, as a writer, that the short story is a different beast from the full-length novel, this story collection doesn't give me any confidence that he can pull off a novel. I was disappointed in this collection, and it's sad that I couldn't find even one story in the batch to enjoy.
So I'm "sorry" I read this, I ask other readers to "please" not waste their time with this collection, and I say "thank you" to the library for making this available so I didn't burn actual cash on a copy.
January 15, 2022
a solid 3.5 and the most Asian Man Book out of charles yu's books ... but honestly many hilarious and some intimate moments that still made it worth reading. it's really interesting to see his work grow and mature from "how to live safely..." to this to interior chinatown, which carries on the humor and inventive spirit and expands the big, empathetic heart of his stories, yet ultimately works more productively through the emo asian masculinity stuff. s/o charles yu tho one of my top asian men fr
October 4, 2015
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and devoured it within hours of starting! I had actually picked this up whilst reading Patrick Ness's Chaos Walking trilogy, since I found myself in a slump and needed a break from the series, which seemed to be dragging. Boy, am I glad I did! This was exactly what I needed at the time. A series of short stories that are completely bizarre at times, but always entertaining. I can't even begin to choose a favourite, as they all have a little something special in them.
Each story is so different from the one preceding it, showcasing the superb writing skills of Charles Yu. This was the first book I ever read for him, and when I picked it up at the bookstore, I did so very randomly based only on its title. In fact, I remember refusing to read what it's about, because I wanted to be surprised. So I actually had no idea that it was a book of short stories at all when I first bought it.
He has such a creative mind that I can't help but be jealous. Every story I read I would think "I wish I had come up with that", so simple, yet so good. Some stories were ridiculous, but hilarious.
This book opens with "Standard Loneliness Package", which describes an Indian employee's experience working at a company that outsources emotions. Any bad experience you want to avoid, you can have a person sit in on it for a certain fee, so you can skip all the negative emotions that come with it. It could be anything, ranging from a trip to the dentist to a funeral and worst of all, heartbreak. A very profound story with a very profound message, this was a great opening tale.
Another story that stood out for me was "Note to Self", which was quite literally a note to different versions of oneself in different realities or universes. This was a highly entertaining story that had me laughing to myself.
Then there's "Hero Absorbs Major Damage" which tells the story of characters in a video game that are led by a hero into different battles that they try to win. At the beginning, it isn't clear that this is a video game, so you get to know these characters and think of them as real people fighting to survive. I particularly enjoyed the interaction between the hero and the game player at the end.
"Designer Emotion 67" was hilarious. That is all you need to know.
Finally, my favourite story was probably "Adult Contemporary". This is a story about a man that is literally buying a different lifestyle, one in which his life is being narrated. Very clever story.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys wit and humour all rolled into one, and who appreciates creativity and doesn't necessarily need the story to have a "point". Because a lot of these stories don't. They just simply are.
Each story is so different from the one preceding it, showcasing the superb writing skills of Charles Yu. This was the first book I ever read for him, and when I picked it up at the bookstore, I did so very randomly based only on its title. In fact, I remember refusing to read what it's about, because I wanted to be surprised. So I actually had no idea that it was a book of short stories at all when I first bought it.
He has such a creative mind that I can't help but be jealous. Every story I read I would think "I wish I had come up with that", so simple, yet so good. Some stories were ridiculous, but hilarious.
This book opens with "Standard Loneliness Package", which describes an Indian employee's experience working at a company that outsources emotions. Any bad experience you want to avoid, you can have a person sit in on it for a certain fee, so you can skip all the negative emotions that come with it. It could be anything, ranging from a trip to the dentist to a funeral and worst of all, heartbreak. A very profound story with a very profound message, this was a great opening tale.
Another story that stood out for me was "Note to Self", which was quite literally a note to different versions of oneself in different realities or universes. This was a highly entertaining story that had me laughing to myself.
Then there's "Hero Absorbs Major Damage" which tells the story of characters in a video game that are led by a hero into different battles that they try to win. At the beginning, it isn't clear that this is a video game, so you get to know these characters and think of them as real people fighting to survive. I particularly enjoyed the interaction between the hero and the game player at the end.
"Designer Emotion 67" was hilarious. That is all you need to know.
Finally, my favourite story was probably "Adult Contemporary". This is a story about a man that is literally buying a different lifestyle, one in which his life is being narrated. Very clever story.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys wit and humour all rolled into one, and who appreciates creativity and doesn't necessarily need the story to have a "point". Because a lot of these stories don't. They just simply are.
August 23, 2012
in my experience, there's generally two geographical locations for Charles Yu's works: Out There on the Edge, and So Far Out There I Can't Follow Him. this book is a mixed bag of both locations.
Out There on the Edge is a very very good place to be: reaching to that space is stretching, is moving arthritic thought processes, is growth, and a number of the stories in this book will encourage you, like a really good yoga teacher, on that path. plus, the stories can be very funny in places. in this book, "Standard Loneliness Package," "Hero Absorbs Major Damage," and "Open" fall into this category. these are lovely, lovely stories examining what it is to be a very small, specific human in a world subject to random pain and chaos. these stories in particular will give you cause to look into the abyss, and discover what it might mean to you (if meaning is to be had).
So Far Out There I Can't Follow... please note that i accept that it is a personal limitation that i can't follow. i can't fault Yu's writing. it's just, there is a limit to how hard i am willing to work in a story, and Yu exeeds my limits. "Troubleshooting," "Inventory," and "The Book of Categories" end up just... puzzling me.
note: i am a big-time Yu fan. i loved How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, even when i felt i couldn't quite get a grip on what space i was exploring. that book, like this book of short stories, sometimes left me feeling unmoored, and that was quite ok. the best books leave one feeling that there was something there, something that the author was trying to tell you or at least point you in the direction of, that signifies. if a book leaves me thinking, so much the better. it's only, sometimes i fear i am not smart enough to follow.
Out There on the Edge is a very very good place to be: reaching to that space is stretching, is moving arthritic thought processes, is growth, and a number of the stories in this book will encourage you, like a really good yoga teacher, on that path. plus, the stories can be very funny in places. in this book, "Standard Loneliness Package," "Hero Absorbs Major Damage," and "Open" fall into this category. these are lovely, lovely stories examining what it is to be a very small, specific human in a world subject to random pain and chaos. these stories in particular will give you cause to look into the abyss, and discover what it might mean to you (if meaning is to be had).
So Far Out There I Can't Follow... please note that i accept that it is a personal limitation that i can't follow. i can't fault Yu's writing. it's just, there is a limit to how hard i am willing to work in a story, and Yu exeeds my limits. "Troubleshooting," "Inventory," and "The Book of Categories" end up just... puzzling me.
note: i am a big-time Yu fan. i loved How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, even when i felt i couldn't quite get a grip on what space i was exploring. that book, like this book of short stories, sometimes left me feeling unmoored, and that was quite ok. the best books leave one feeling that there was something there, something that the author was trying to tell you or at least point you in the direction of, that signifies. if a book leaves me thinking, so much the better. it's only, sometimes i fear i am not smart enough to follow.
March 28, 2013
So, I liked this more than How to Live Safely. Wasn't a huge fan of the stories with a heavy fantasy/scifi emphasis, but there were some good ones in here. My favorites --
(Warning! There are possible spoilers ahead.)
Standard Loneliness Package: A company has developed a technology for transferring emotional experiences .. and they outsource all the unpleasant experiences (funerals, sickness, losing your job) to a help center in India, where the main character works and falls in love with a female coworker. It was sorta funny and sad. Yeah …
Inventory: This wasn't really a story. It reminded me of some of my old depressing blog posts from a bygone era, but I guess I liked that -- incoherent thoughts.
Open: A couple on the verge of breaking up finds a door in their living room which transports them to an experience that at first seems to repair the rift in their relationship only to further exacerbate its state of disrepair.
The Book of Categories: I didn't really understand this one at first, but it was structurally clever, I thought.
Adult Contemporary: This was actually not a favorite, but it reminded me of "The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish," in Cloud Atlas. Seeing as how I don't know who I'd share that thought with irl, I figured that I'd write it down here for the good people of the internet.
Yeah, definitely worth a read if you're into short stories.
(Warning! There are possible spoilers ahead.)
Standard Loneliness Package: A company has developed a technology for transferring emotional experiences .. and they outsource all the unpleasant experiences (funerals, sickness, losing your job) to a help center in India, where the main character works and falls in love with a female coworker. It was sorta funny and sad. Yeah …
Inventory: This wasn't really a story. It reminded me of some of my old depressing blog posts from a bygone era, but I guess I liked that -- incoherent thoughts.
Open: A couple on the verge of breaking up finds a door in their living room which transports them to an experience that at first seems to repair the rift in their relationship only to further exacerbate its state of disrepair.
The Book of Categories: I didn't really understand this one at first, but it was structurally clever, I thought.
Adult Contemporary: This was actually not a favorite, but it reminded me of "The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish," in Cloud Atlas. Seeing as how I don't know who I'd share that thought with irl, I figured that I'd write it down here for the good people of the internet.
Yeah, definitely worth a read if you're into short stories.
July 6, 2012
I enjoy the work of Charles Yu. I liked his first collection of stories, Third-Class Superhero, and his novel, How to Live Safely in a Science-Fictional Universe, for their New Yorker-meets-quantum physics style. There's something inherently funny and interesting about the combination of worrying about marriages, employment, and family ties in the context of time travel, space travel, and alternate universes. That said, the well runs a bit dry in Sorry Please Thank You. About half of the stories are brilliant and funny or heartbreaking or both. "Yeomans," about what a "red-shirted ensign" in a Star Trek-like universe goes through knowing the yeoman always dies, is the best story in the lot, but there are clever and affecting stories all the way through. "Hero Absorbs Major Damage" is a fascinating and fully realized look at a video game from another perspective. The other half of the stories, however, in particular "Human for Beginners," just ramble on and on, throwing in a quantum physics buzzword here, a Trek-type reference there, but all in the service of... not much. ("Human" is especially galling in its use of pagination tricks to pad out its already-interminable length.) I think it was just too soon for another collection of Yu's stories -- there aren't enough good ones to make it completely worthwhile.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 477 reviews