Bookish Thoughts: All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai

So, the thing is, I come from the world we were supposed to have. ~ Opening of All Our Wrong Todays

All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai

Dutton, 2017

Science Fiction/Literary Fiction; 384 pgs
Source: E-copy provided by publisher via The First Reads Program for an honest review.

From the first chapter, I fell into the novel quickly, enjoying the conversational style of the narration, written as a memoir by the lead character, Tom Barren. He's witty, kind and a bit self-deprecating, which only adds to his charm. At thirty-two, Tom has little ambition. His mother died recently and his father cares more about his work than he does about his son. Still Tom's father, a noted scientist working on a time travel machine, gives Tom a plum position in his organization as the understudy to former astronaut turned chrononaut, Penelope. A reckless decision leads to catastrophe, and soon the course of the world as Tom knows it is changed forever.

Tom comes from a utopia version of 2016, a time and place that looks a lot like the science fiction we dreamed about in the 1950's. Imagine a world with flying cars, teleportation, and space vacations. Tom's impulsive actions disrupt the timeline continuum, and he finds the future completely changed. You and I recognize it as our own reality. Tom sees a dystopian wasteland. All is not bad on this altered timeline, however. For once, his life seems to have purpose. Tom soon finds himself faced with a difficult decision: to try to fix the break in the timeline that he helped create or do what he can to hold onto his newfound family, love, and life.

After a great start, the novel slowed down for me a bit, and I began to question whether I would be able to finish the book. Given the narrative style of the novel, the reader spends a lot of time in Tom's head. His internal dialogue and thought processes seemed to go in circles at times. I am glad I stuck with it though because the novel does pick up again, and from then on I was hooked right until the very end.

I admit I wasn't completely sold on Tom at first, but the more I got to know him, the more I came to like him. Seeing him grow and develop as a character over the course of the novel helped with that. His experiences helped shape him as did the people in his life. His distant father in his version of 2016 left a lot to be desired, but like Tom, I was smitten with his family in our version of 2016. Both his mother and girlfriend are quite bookish--and that may have had something to do with it. His family proves to be very supportive of him, even as they question his sanity. Heck, even I found myself questioning his sanity a time or two.

At times I found the technical aspects a bit confusing, but, in many ways, this only added to the credibility of the narrator, who for all intents and purposes is writing a memoir of the events he experienced throughout his life, particularly his time traveling exploits. I am not sure I ever fully understood the intricacies of how Tom was able to keep his own consciousness and memories throughout the process, although he did attempt to explain it.

All Our Wrong Todays is a fascinating literary novel, weaving science, science fiction, romance, family drama, and a little bit of action in. Mind-bending is an apt description too. Overall, I enjoyed All Our Wrong Todays and will be curious to see what Elan Mastai writes next.

To learn more about Elan Mastai and his work, please visit the author's website. You can also find him on Twitter and Facebook.

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© 2017, Wendy Runyon of Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.