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    Sorry Please Thank You: Stories
    Sorry Please Thank You: Stories
    Sorry Please Thank You: Stories
    Audiobook4 hours

    Sorry Please Thank You: Stories

    Written by Charles Yu

    Narrated by A Full Cast

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    New York Times Notable Book author Charles Yu wrote the best-selling novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. In his stunning, often humorous collection Sorry Please Thank You, Yu draws on pop culture and science to make incisive observations about society- and offer touching insight into the human condition. In two of Yu's remarkable stories, he focuses on a big-box-store night-shift employee with girl trouble and a company that outsources grief for profit.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateJul 24, 2012
    ISBN9781464048364
    Sorry Please Thank You: Stories
    Author

    Charles Yu

    CHARLES YU is the author of four books, including How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (a New York Times Notable Book and a Time magazine Best Book of the Year). He received the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 award and was nominated for two WGA Awards for his work on the HBO series Westworld. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Time, The Atlantic, and Wired, among other publications. His latest novel is Interior Chinatown.

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    Reviews for Sorry Please Thank You

    3.5/5

    101 ratings13 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Premise is that if you don’t want to feel guilt, or any other emotion, you can pay to have someone else feel your qualia. No need to cry during a funeral. Guilt over cheating on your partner, erase it! And like a lot of crap jobs right now, the job of feeling for others gets shipped to India. A very fine story, and it might even have convinced me to read the author’s highly touted literary science fiction novel.
    • 3/5
      A rather old fashioned story based around one new technology - in this case the ability to transfer emotion enabling the rich to pay others in special 'call centres' to take their guilt.
    • 4/5
      It's rare these days for me to really find a new author pretty much on my own; much of my reading is from recommendations at this point. But I did find Charles Yu's first novel, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, and read it last year. It fell in a gap in reviews, but I felt that it was a very solid book. I mean, it was a well considered plot about time travel that seemed like it was done via linguistics, just about. So I picked up his newest short story collection with some anticipation, and I wasn't at all disappointed.Yu writes science fiction stories both that are straight-up tales, and ones that take on tropes and notions from more well-known sci-fi areas, playing around with them to fairly good effect. For example, probably my favorite tales from the collection are Yeoman, which is narrated by one of those red-shirts that's always going about dying on missions on Star Trek, and looking at how this could happen or be put up with, and Hero Absorbs Major Damage, a story about an RPG setting where the lead isn't sure he's fit to carry out the destiny that they've signed on for. They're both rather gently humorous setups, with some holding up of conventions for amused examinations. It's pretty fun.The ones that are more his own, though, are just as insightful little tales. From these, I most enjoyed Standard Loneliness Package, about emotional transference technology, where people outsource their bad days and hard times to India; and Note to Self, which is a nice play with the multiple universe concept. There were more stories that are original takes than take-offs, and they did tend to have these nice perspectives. I never thought about zombies shopping for makeup before, for example.Yu's writing is usually fairly concise, and the book on the whole is a fairly slim volume, although there are enough stories to make it feel worth it. He does feel quite at home with the short story format; the tales have that crafted care you see in shorter fiction. And his writing tends to be on the sparse side, cool, but you still get a good sense of the scene and the story, the emotions behind it. It's a nifty trick.On the whole... I mean, I don't know if I'd start with this one, but if you want a feel for what Yu is trying to do as a writer, read the first four stories in this collection, and you'll get a sense. I'm definitely enjoying it, and I'm curious to see where he goes onto from here. Without apologies, I'd like more stories, please.
    • 4/5
      The stories in this collection are hard to describe, and it's even harder to know quite what to think about them. Some seem like proper, if odd, stories, others more like little... conceptual snippets? They're almost all very meta, in one way or another, with lives and characters and stories and story creators all tangled up to the point where it's impossible to tell them apart. (So, very much like Yu's novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, which I also found hard to describe or know what to think about.) There's real cleverness and intelligence here, and the best of the stories are strangely fascinating, but few of them felt at all satisfying. It's as if the writer is grasping at something complicated and deep, but even he is perhaps not entirely sure what it is, so he's just letting us see him grasping. Which is interesting to watch, at least, whatever else it might or might not be, but did kind of leave me feeling like I wanted something a little bit more.
    • 3/5
      There are maybe two strong stories in this collection ; the rest are sophomoric exercises in meta-ness and cleverness without any grounded character building or emotional investment. Charles yu is undoubtably inventive, but lacks the skills to carry his ideas to completion in this collection. Maybe his novel would be a little better? Strongest of all is the first story, standard loneliness package, about outsourcing unpleasant emotions.
    • 4/5
      There are a couple of masterpieces here--I especially liked "Hero Absorbs Major Damage" and "Standard Loneliness Package"--but most of the stories share the same bleak, world-weary mood (imagine Alice Munro and Greg Egan collaborating on a story together). Toward the end the stories began to feel a little too samy, which detracted from their impact. But this is my fault for reading the whole book in two sittings instead of pacing myself. I should know by now to pace myself when I'm reading a single-author short-story collection.
    • 3/5
      I absolutely loved the first story in this collection, "Standard Loneliness Package." The fantasy/science fiction premise isn't terribly original (those who can afford it can "outsource" the painful and unpleasant moments in their lives), but the character-driven story is told with wonderful grace, tenderness and style. After reading this piece I thought I'd found a new author to add to my top tier of favorites.Unfortunately, the book went downhill from there. Picking out a few example stories:"Hero Absorbs Major Damage" follows some characters inside a sword-and-sorcery video game who do battle with ogres and worry about their health-bars. Again, not an original idea, and this time handled rather blandly."Inventory" plays artsy, post-modernist, metafictional games, having a character named Charles Yu and many pages that are blank except for one or two sentences. I'm afraid I didn't see much substance underneath the surface glitz."Yeoman" I found downright off-putting, with unfunny humor about a yeoman on a Star Trek/Zapp Brannigan style spaceship who learns that it's part of his job description to "be prepared to die for no good reason."More metafictional shenanigans comprise "Adult Contemporary," in which the story's protagonist is tormented by its narrator/narrative, a little like Bugs and Daffy in "Duck Amuck," only without the humor and originality.There's an uptick at the end of the book with the titular story "Sorry Please Thank You," an achingly melancholy 3-page hymn of loneliness.I think Yu has the talent to be a great writer. Born in 1976, he's still young (though not as young as the early-20s I would have guessed after reading "Hero Absorbs Major Damage"). Hopefully with maturity he'll become less drawn to the empty flash and shallow humor that most of these stories exhibit, and will focus on the deeply felt human elements that make "Standard Loneliness Package" so wonderful.
    • 4/5
      Some pretty funny sci-fi-related stories in here. A company where the employees are paid to feel other people's pain, two Wal-Mart employees do battle with a vain zombie, a story from the point of view of a character in a D&D-type role playing game, and a Star Trek parody about a redshirt trying to avoid his fate. A couple of the stories are pretty short and a couple like "The Book of Categories" aren't as funny, but overall it's a good read if you like Douglas Adams or similar material.
    • 3/5
      A mixed collection of short stories.

      Some are extremely forgettable. I have already forgotten what they were, or what they were about, or even their titles. Zombies in a super-sized mall, a pithy reference to Star Trek redshirts dying. Ho hum.

      A few stood out very well - they reminded me of Philip K. Dick, and the use of science-fiction concepts to investigate human problems in an original or alternative way. The first story of 'outsourcing emotions' is painful and sensitive.

      The book seems half-done, but there is some real potential here.
    • 1/5
      Only liked one story, two thumbs down.
    • 3/5
      I'm a little torn about this series because I found the stories very uneven. The first one, in particular, is brilliant: the idea that one can rent another body to transfer pain takes the whole outsourcing concept to another inconceivable level, yet somehow seems within reach. Yu explores the implications very deftly. A couple of other stories in the same vein are equally compelling even if they aren't quite as shocking as this first one.Other stories, which are personal musings rather than actual stories, I found less interesting, some downright boring, which I ended up skimming rather than reading.Definitely a new voice with unique insights and an inquisitive imagination. It will be interesting to see if Yu manages to keep it fresh.
    • 4/5
      It's rare these days for me to really find a new author pretty much on my own; much of my reading is from recommendations at this point. But I did find Charles Yu's first novel, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, and read it last year. It fell in a gap in reviews, but I felt that it was a very solid book. I mean, it was a well considered plot about time travel that seemed like it was done via linguistics, just about. So I picked up his newest short story collection with some anticipation, and I wasn't at all disappointed.Yu writes science fiction stories both that are straight-up tales, and ones that take on tropes and notions from more well-known sci-fi areas, playing around with them to fairly good effect. For example, probably my favorite tales from the collection are Yeoman, which is narrated by one of those red-shirts that's always going about dying on missions on Star Trek, and looking at how this could happen or be put up with, and Hero Absorbs Major Damage, a story about an RPG setting where the lead isn't sure he's fit to carry out the destiny that they've signed on for. They're both rather gently humorous setups, with some holding up of conventions for amused examinations. It's pretty fun.The ones that are more his own, though, are just as insightful little tales. From these, I most enjoyed Standard Loneliness Package, about emotional transference technology, where people outsource their bad days and hard times to India; and Note to Self, which is a nice play with the multiple universe concept. There were more stories that are original takes than take-offs, and they did tend to have these nice perspectives. I never thought about zombies shopping for makeup before, for example.Yu's writing is usually fairly concise, and the book on the whole is a fairly slim volume, although there are enough stories to make it feel worth it. He does feel quite at home with the short story format; the tales have that crafted care you see in shorter fiction. And his writing tends to be on the sparse side, cool, but you still get a good sense of the scene and the story, the emotions behind it. It's a nifty trick.On the whole... I mean, I don't know if I'd start with this one, but if you want a feel for what Yu is trying to do as a writer, read the first four stories in this collection, and you'll get a sense. I'm definitely enjoying it, and I'm curious to see where he goes onto from here. Without apologies, I'd like more stories, please.
    • 4/5
      This collection of stories is a delight to read. Are they science fiction? I don't know, and reading them helped me realize how little I know of modern science fiction literature. They are certainly set in the future and have a sort of sci-fi dystopic tone to them. Yu is interested in the nature of being, of self and identity and consciousness --- and how much of this can be influenced or even owned by technology or big business or.....My favorite stories included the first, "Standard Loneliness Package," which explores the notion of consciousness/life as a commodity to be bought and sold. Can you sell your life for security? Can you buy a life? "Hero Absorbs Major Damage" was another favorite: the characters appear to be avatars in a good video game. I was reminded of my visit to my friend Evee in Oakland many years ago. I played an adventure video game (build structures, collect wood and food and energy in its various forms, kill bad buys, create babies....) at which I wasn't very skilled ("stop poking me!"). I enjoyed Yu's exploration of what it would be like if those video game characters were really experiencing the battle and the adventure."Note to Self" is a masterpiece."Yoeman" and "Designer Emotion 67" were appealing to me as a mental health care provider. The latter is an interesting consideration of the pharmacological industry's effort/ability to help us manage our moods..... at some cost, of course, and at great profit to a few.I recommend this collection of stories. I heard a brief review of it on NPR a couple of weeks ago and promptly put it on hold. I'm glad I did.