MixedThe New York Times Book ReviewThe unfortunate small-i irony of this collection of experimental metafiction is that Yu, a Los Angeles writer, seems to have big ideas about conspicuous consumption and emotional longing, but he rarely bothers to sculpture grounded stories from such raw, vague abstractions. The droll title story is an enjoyable exception, hinting at Yu’s potential ... More often Yu maintains a cool, disrespectful distance from the worlds he creates, writing in such tediously clever formats as mathematical problems and disjointed field notes. And Yu populates his fiction not with evocative characters but with generic types...as though he fears concrete details might overwhelm the cosmic jokes.
