This book is about a time travel machine repair man. I thought for sure I would like it. But I should have been warned by the fact that the protagonist’s name is Charles Yu, the same as the author’s. This kind of thing is always a RED ALERT that you are going to have a clever-clever novel. And indeed it is CLEVER-CLEVER. There is all sorts of pretty predictable stuff about selfhood and blah blah can I read a book before I have written it and blah blah. I had to give up part way through.