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Q

by Evan Mandery (Goodreads Author)

3.28 of 5 stars 3.28 · rating details · 516 ratings · 159 reviews

"Q, Quentina Elizabeth Deveril, is the love of my life."

Shortly before his wedding, the unnamed hero of this uncommon romance is visited by a man who claims to be his future self and ominously admonishes him that he must not marry the love of his life, Q. At first the protagonist doubts this stranger, but in time he becomes convinced of the authenticity of the warning and...more

Paperback, 368 pages

Published August 23rd 2011 by William Morrow Paperbacks

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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Best Time Travel Fiction

205th out of 632 books — 2,157 voters

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Titles That Begin With Q

60th out of 72 books — 9 voters

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Feb 15, 2013 Danielle rated it 4 of 5 stars

in short: time travel. love. and 'what ifs.'

yes, you've heard it all before, and, yes, you've probably heard it told just like this one, and, yes, it still doesn't get old....love never does.

overall, i enjoyed this book. that being said, i do have some complaints.

1st gripe: what's with the BIG words in this book? i wouldn't be soooo against 'such words' if it added to the story, but it didn't. further more, how many dialouges have you heard words like "parsimonious" and "hubris" being used. (...more in short: time travel. love. and 'what ifs.'

yes, you've heard it all before, and, yes, you've probably heard it told just like this one, and, yes, it still doesn't get old....love never does.

overall, i enjoyed this book. that being said, i do have some complaints.

1st gripe: what's with the BIG words in this book? i wouldn't be soooo against 'such words' if it added to the story, but it didn't. further more, how many dialouges have you heard words like "parsimonious" and "hubris" being used. (i needed a freaking dictionary just to read this book!) personally, such words, in everyday converstations, are not realistic; consquently, when used, sound contrived and pretentious. who knows....maybe i'm just stupid. maybe people really do talk like this. or maybe it's the author's way of defining the character. or maybe it's just crap. whatever it is...it isn't working.

2nd gripe: i couldn't distinugish between the author and the main character. based on the dialogue about their child's name,i am assuming the main character's name is Evan, same as the author's name, further driving home my point. i couldnt quite figure out who to hate: Evan or Evan. maybe the author thinks it was witty to place himself as the main character. or maybe he doesn't have the imagnation to develop a distinctive character. or maybe they are distinguishable, and i coulnd't figure it out. whatever it is...it isn't working.

3rd gripe: the stories within the book (the computer story is the only one i read) and the many (unnesscary)tangents. maybe these tangents and blahs are used to help us to get to the know the main character. or maybe it is just 'fillers' to keep the book going. or maybe they are important to the story and i just couldn't figure out how. whatever it is...it isn't working.

now, you are probably wondering why i gave this book 4 stars since my review is less than complimentary. well...i laughed, that's why. i laughed even harder when i was suppose to laugh but didn't. i enjoyed their thanksgiving supper and found myself asking questions.

in short: the book was enjoyable and made me think.

and the ending, while not orignial or suprising, melted my heart...if only a little. so how could i give anything less than 4 stars! i couldn't. so i didn't. and now you know what works for me. (less)

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Oct 05, 2011 Patrick Wensink rated it 5 of 5 stars

Q has been, thusfar, my favorite read of 2011. Mandery's First Contact explored alien invasions in a robust, realistic way and thankfully, he's applied that same wonderful sense of style to time travel.

Mandery's obsession with pop culture and comedy (look no further than one character's thousand mile journey for a Chik-Fil-A sandwich) wraps tightly among what is first and foremost a love story, but is turned on its head by rupturing the space time continuum.

At the core of this heartbreaking and...more

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Jun 09, 2012 Sara rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, not-worth-finishing

About halfway through now. I'm not sure I can finish. It's not a one-star book--which is to say that the writing is not so bad it makes my eyes bleed--but the characters are neither likable nor complex and I can't bring myself to care what happens to them. In fact, I hope they break up! Not just because the narrator is self-satisfied and persuaded of his own liberal, intellectual superiority (which he performs mainly through consuming the right kinds of products and comparing himself to other pe...more About halfway through now. I'm not sure I can finish. It's not a one-star book--which is to say that the writing is not so bad it makes my eyes bleed--but the characters are neither likable nor complex and I can't bring myself to care what happens to them. In fact, I hope they break up! Not just because the narrator is self-satisfied and persuaded of his own liberal, intellectual superiority (which he performs mainly through consuming the right kinds of products and comparing himself to other people). Not just because the narrator's love interest is a straight-up MPDG who serves no purpose in the text but to nurture things with her magical love and quirkiness. Not just because the only evidences we see of their great love are their carefully choreographed first dates and the fact that everyone else comments on how in love they are. But because the conflict that threatens to break them apart appears to have been developed after about two seconds' thought from the author, so he can't be very invested in their survival either.
(view spoiler)
I can imagine dozens of other more logicial and consistent possibilities. For example: given how terrible the narrator is, I was really hoping that the conflict that drove them apart would be how terrible he is. Seriously, at the moment I set the book down (possibly for good), he's assisting his partner in a protest for the protection of her job and cherished cause. The narrator is nonstop snark, condescension, and mockery of her colleagues in this venture. He doesn't seem to notice any conflict between his support of his partner and her cause, and his utter contempt for the actualities of it.

Maybe this book gets better, but if it hasn't picked up this far in, it's too late.(less)

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Apr 16, 2012 Bennett Callaghan rated it 5 of 5 stars

In Q, Mandery writes with equal measures of wit, irony, and poignancy--all tinged with a certain existential angst and philosophical reflection--that is characteristic of his other novels
as well (see: First Contact or It's Later than You Think and Dreaming
of Gwen Stefani). In my opinion, this is Mandery's best work although
I highly enjoyed his other novels as well. If you have read the other
reviews, you already know what it is about, so I won't detail the plot
here. I will say, however, that Q wa...more

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Feb 11, 2013 David Hebblethwaite rated it 3 of 5 stars

An (unnamed) New York academic and writer meets one Quentina Elizabeth Deveril (also known as Q), and promptly falls in love. The pair of them start dating, and find they’re just right for each other. Wedding bells look set to chime… until our man receives a note from himself, asking him to meet for a meal. He goes there, to find his sixty-year-old self, who has apparently travelled back in time to warn the younger him against marrying Q. The two of them, his future self says, will have a son wh...more An (unnamed) New York academic and writer meets one Quentina Elizabeth Deveril (also known as Q), and promptly falls in love. The pair of them start dating, and find they’re just right for each other. Wedding bells look set to chime… until our man receives a note from himself, asking him to meet for a meal. He goes there, to find his sixty-year-old self, who has apparently travelled back in time to warn the younger him against marrying Q. The two of them, his future self says, will have a son who dies young from an inherited illness, and that will destroy Q. The protagonist decides to call the wedding off, and moves on with his life – but different future selves keep coming back in time to dispense their advice.

Q is Evan Mandery’s third novel; perhaps the first thing one notices is that it’s written in a rather mannered way that pushes it to one side of reality. This technique leads to some fine comic moments, such as the narrator’s and Q’s date on a bizarre miniature golf course, or the time they go on a protest march against a construction project, dressed in vegetable costumes. It also gives the protagonist’s exchanges with his older selves an effectively deadpan tone. But the same style sometimes leaves events without a full emotional grounding – sometimes Q reads too much like a joke.

The narrative thread of Q is full of digressions on subjects ranging from Sigmund Freud’s study of eels to The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; these illustrate the book’s theme of what-ifs and alternatives. As time goes on, our narrator has cause to reflect on what’s important, in life and history; Mandery shows how the most important things are not always what we think they are at the time. The main plot runs like a whirlpool, as the visitations from time travellers become more and more frequent, and the novel heads ever closer to absurdity – until the ending, which is pitched just right, and is really quite affecting.

Any Cop? Mandery’s style walks the line between annoying and charming, and doesn’t always stay on the right side. But, once you get into the swing of Q, it works. It’s worth a look.

(Review first published at Bookmunch.)(less)

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Jan 02, 2013 Shelly rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: general-fiction

I am ashamed to admit that reading this book was an accident. There are a surprising number of books with the title Q and what I thought would be a book about Martin Luther turned out to be a time travel romance that I would recommend to anyone.

Warning: Beyond this point there are spoilers.

What would you do if your future self kept coming back into your life to give you guidance? My personal reaction would probably be to tell that person to screw off and let me make my own mistakes and experienc...more I am ashamed to admit that reading this book was an accident. There are a surprising number of books with the title Q and what I thought would be a book about Martin Luther turned out to be a time travel romance that I would recommend to anyone.

Warning: Beyond this point there are spoilers.

What would you do if your future self kept coming back into your life to give you guidance? My personal reaction would probably be to tell that person to screw off and let me make my own mistakes and experience my own pain and joy (One of my favourite Kirk lines of all time is from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier when he shouts "I need my pain"). The unnamed hero of this novel is decidedly not me and tries everything his future self suggests, to obvious dire results.

This book has a slightly dark sense of humour and I found myself reading parts out loud to my husband. At first this is countered by emotional poignancy, however Mandery seems unable to keep up the balance between the two emotional states until the very last chapter. I would say that this is one of only two flaws in the book, the plot device of "future self advising past self to do something silly" wears a little thin near the end.

Q also plays on meta themes extraordinarily well and with a very enjoyable amount of tongue in cheek criticism of those themes (for example: the book within a book theme, or how boring it is to read about whale biology). The vocabulary in this book is a delight for any "wordie." His use of the unforgivable word "academician" is forgiven by using "self-defenestration", the ultimate redeeming word (at least for me) in what is one of the funniest stories about suicide I have ever read.

Despite the premise of this book, it is not a science fiction. Time travel is a plot device, but not the point of the book. I would honestly recommend this to anyone. I finished it in one day and thought about the book every minute I had to spend away from it for the tasks of daily life.

And PS: Why didn't the hero just get a vasectomy. BAM! Problem solved.

PPS: This is the first book I have ever read on an e-reader. I feel this should be noted for posterity.(less)

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Jul 14, 2012 Sara rated it 3 of 5 stars

Throughout this book there are humorous bits that I found myself thinking I wish I had married a guy this great but this quirky. Evan Mandery did such a great job crafting the character of the unknown man who falls in love with Q and then follows the advice of his older self telling him what he absolutely must do in his life to prevent bad things from potentially happening. But what I love about this character is that I can completely identify with him because he cares so much for those around h...more Throughout this book there are humorous bits that I found myself thinking I wish I had married a guy this great but this quirky. Evan Mandery did such a great job crafting the character of the unknown man who falls in love with Q and then follows the advice of his older self telling him what he absolutely must do in his life to prevent bad things from potentially happening. But what I love about this character is that I can completely identify with him because he cares so much for those around him that I think he often forgets about himself in the mix.

I wanted to share a fun passage with you that I felt like kind of highlighted the type of guy he was. One you can identify with, find funny, but paints a picture of him. (This is in reference to tipping the coat check person and how he never knows really what to give.)

"I feel this way about many services. I do not mind paying a black smith or a gastroenerologist because I cannot make horseshoes or perform colonoscopies myself. I am, however, perfectly capable of draping my jacket over the back of a chair. I am highly capable, too, of parking my car in a lot. I do not need someone to drive it from the front door to a spot fifty feet away, at a cost of two or three dollars. Nor do I need someone to wash my clubs with a towel after a round of golf--setting me back five dollars for two minutes work on his part.

I am particularly uncomfortable with the concept of the bathroom attendant. This person provides no direct assistance, of course, and it makes me uncomfortable to have someone squirt soap in my hands and offer me a towel. I do not use any of the sundries spread across the counters of upscale bathrooms. I do not use cologne, I do not groom myself in public bathrooms and thus do not require aftershave lotion or styling gel, and I would never consider, not even for a second, taking a sucking candy or a stick of gum from a tray near a row of urinals."

But what makes this more humourous is that while he can be so indignant having to tip for a multitude of services since it is a socially accepted thing to do, he is spending money all over the place catering to his future self. Expensive lunches and dinners at high end and hard to get into restaurant, or my favorite, the unrefundable ticket to Nepal later on. It just makes me giggle because again, while it isn't very good for him (well... now but the future self is benefitting) he's doing it to cater to someone else even though it goes against his better judgement.

Overall, this book was pretty fascinating as a concept and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I will admit to there being some slow parts that seem tedious at the time but in after thought since the story is being told through this character's voice, it makes me think those would be a logical rambling tangent that a person would do while telling a story. So in hindsight... maybe those parts are needed to make the story feel more like a buddy is telling you his life story in a bar in a few years.

But it also leaves you with the question- if you knew that marrying a person would ultimately lead to tremendous heartache because of the loss of a child... would you still marry that person? Keep in mind that both of you would want children but genetically.. it would be a mistake to do so. What would YOU do? (less)

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Apr 17, 2012 Jason rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: hate-and-other-four-letter-words, stupid-triangle

So stupid. I have a strong feeling that I may have been intrigued primarily by its unoriginal concept’s similarity to an episode of the best show, Buffy (“Hell’s Bells”). Neurotic, annoying, and there are minor details left unexplained. I kept with it hoping the story would go somewhere, but it does not. Tangents annoy. The second half is ridiculous and does not hold up to the cool premise. The main character is boring and his novel/story ideas sound really dull to match him. Yes, the protagonis...more

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Apr 05, 2012 Danderma rated it 2 of 5 stars

To be frank I picked up this book because I was standing at the long check out line in Waterstones and my eyes fell on the NY Times quote printed on the cover above. Tear prone? I am very much tear prone so of course I picked the book up.

I wanted a heartfelt sad ending where I can cry my eyes out. I didn’t even read the story description until I was about to start it, which made it even more intriguing. The book tells the story of Q, Quentina Elizabeth Deveril, the love of the narrator’s life wh...more

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Feb 27, 2012 Raglianti rated it 5 of 5 stars

"Q" is really funny. And smart.
The author made a great choice, because the best way to avoid making the reader think or question about the paradoxes and impossibilities of time travel, is with humor. It doesn't matter (that much) the accuracy of the physic's laws or the science at all (although in the story the paradoxes are discussed), because what is truly important in "Q" are the humor and the romance, and the philosophy which underlays the whole plot, with the idea that the progress or the...more

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Feb 03, 2012 Kamala rated it 5 of 5 stars

Q, a love story, written by Evan Mandery, is a fantastic book. The novel tells the story of a man, an unnamed narrator, who leaves his fiancé after he is warned that their marriage, should it occur, would lead to great unhappiness for all involved. After making this dramatic life change, the narrator is repeatedly visited by different future selves who each prompt the narrator to take his life in a new direction. For instance, one future self tells the narrator to give up his career as a writer....more

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Jan 04, 2012 Jenny Brown rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm wavering in my review of this book. Part of me wants to give this three stars, but ultimately, this book lingered too long in my mind for me to give it fewer than four. The conceit is fascinating--time travel enables the unnamed protagonist to travel back in time to warn himself not to marry the love of his life, Q. Throughout the novel, future selves direct the present-day self, changing the course of his life many times over. At times, this device was frustrating, making me wonder why he d...more

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Dec 26, 2011 Nancy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really liked this book.

A man (we never learn his name) is visited by his future self who tells him not to marry Q, the love of his life, due to the effect it will have on his future. He is visited by many of his future selves, each wanting him to change something, presumably for their own good. It is an interesting story, and you can feel the main character getting more and more frustrated as he goes, trying to do what's right. Should he do what he wants to do, or listen to the future him who...more

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Dec 26, 2011 Alan rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Believers in second chances... and third, and fourth...

Recommended to Alan by: io9.com

If I were to go back in time and meet my younger self, would I tell him to give up on reading this book?

Two almost insufferably cute people meet cute in Manhattan, bonding over a chance encounter in an almost-empty movie theater showing Casablanca and Play It Again, Sam back to back. They are relatively young, though both turn out to be oddly knowledgeable about bygone media—their shared touchstones are TV series like Maude (1972) and Alice (1976). Erin Grey in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1...more

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Nov 05, 2011 Debbie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Q is one of those books with the unfortunate side effect that when you are done, you find yourself wandering forlornly around Amazon lamenting the fact that the author doesn't have at least a dozen more books for you to read right away (only 2 others—both fantastic). Q is that good—a rare combination of humor, truth and poignancy. It is told from the point of view of a character called “I” who falls in love with his soul mate, “Q.” Everything goes along peachy until one day I's 60-year-old depre...more

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Oct 27, 2011 Cynthia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Comedic Science Fiction Writers for $2000 Alex.
Answer: Evan Mandery. Who is the spawn of Woody Allen and H.G. Wells?

What if. What if the road not traveled was? The latest novel by veteran comedy writer Evan Mandery features time traveling Larry David-esque, future selves popping up at the most inopportune moments to redirect the life of the hapless main character. As fate would have it, the narrator is himself a counterfactual history writer who imagines alternate life scenarios for well-known i...more

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Oct 05, 2011 Glen Bianchi rated it 5 of 5 stars

Mandery manages once again to combine his unique, offbeat sense of humor with thoughtful, fascinating philosophical/scientific themes, all orbiting around and anchored by a good old-fashioned star-crossed love story. The element of time travel adds a new layer for him to tinker with, and the results are often hilarious and always entertaining. John Irving-esque (Mandery makes this comparison himself late in the book) books-within-the book are wholly fleshed-out, frighteningly researched, farcica...more

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Oct 03, 2011 Alex rated it 5 of 5 stars

Surprising, fantastic, and just great! Q: A novel pulls the reader through the love story of a lifetime. Our protagonist, an aspiring writer and a professor at the City University of New York, goes from one life style to another in order to become a better self; this might sound like an ordinary life, yet it all becomes different when the advice for change comes from a different and older self. He is forced to leave the love of his life and fiancee, Q, in order to avert an impending life disaste...more

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Aug 24, 2011 Kathleen (Kat) Smith rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, romance-fiction

What would happen if somewhere in the future, the ability to travel through time became a reality? What if you could travel back in time to talk to your earlier version of yourself and stop events before they could ruin your life and make you miserable? Would you do it?

In the novel, Q by Evan Mandery, this is the premise for the story. A man in the story is never mentioned by his name, which is odd when you consider it but it doesn't interrupt the story. He meets the girl of his dreams. She is c...more

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Aug 18, 2011 Nancy rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is nearly a 4 star book. I found the writing to be clever and the dialogue to be particularly fun. The author is very well read and provides intriguing ideas for the reader to mull over regarding the roads less traveled. At times, I found the writer's work to be absolutely profound but not in the prominent ideas. It was more in the periphery thought process of the protagonist where the juiciest material occurred. I loved the way he summarizes the workings of the bully and how the bully forc...more This is nearly a 4 star book. I found the writing to be clever and the dialogue to be particularly fun. The author is very well read and provides intriguing ideas for the reader to mull over regarding the roads less traveled. At times, I found the writer's work to be absolutely profound but not in the prominent ideas. It was more in the periphery thought process of the protagonist where the juiciest material occurred. I loved the way he summarizes the workings of the bully and how the bully forces the world around him to conform to his reality but is much more articulate than I was just now.

The premise of the story is that the unnamed protagonist that, for the sake of simplicity, I am going to name Evan (after the author) meets a marvelous young woman and they hit it off immediately. There is humor, depth, and a sweet romance that seems destined to play out for the rest of their lives until "Evan" shows up as an older version to warn him what will happen if he marries Q.

At the same time, Evan is up for tenure. He needs to publish an original work. Working from the same premise as his real self, he chooses to pursue a book about Freud and what if he had followed a different path that he seemed destined to continue but didn't. Would Freud have still gone into psychoanalysis? His original novel was also built on hypotheticals and what-would-have-happened-ifs. Clever at first, I lost interest quickly as the books are recapped.

Back to "Evan's" life, his future self continues to pop up to tell him how the future will unfold if he doesn't do something different. Then, the future self tells him what to do differently, costing him a great deal of money and time. In essence, the author is exploring String Theory only in a much easier context. Not that I can explain String Theory or Einstein's Theory of Relativity but the author also uses examples from the Twilight Zone and Star Trek. Good call.

So the question remains - does what we do really change the end result? Is there an end result or is it just random anyway? Could we do things better or is it simply different. I really did enjoy the lively discussion at the Thanksgiving Dinner and, in particular, the thoughts on the senile professor.

I enjoyed the book and the thoughts presented. I struggled with some of the points of reference as my experiences do not reflect the author's. There were a lot of Jewish inside jokes I didn't understand. I also thought the book was about 50 pages too long. There were stretches were I was bored and others where I was riveted.
(less)

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Nov 21, 2011 Jane rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love the concept:

A man is visited by his future self, who has travelled through time to warn him that he absolutely must not marry the love of his life.

That's Quentina Elizabeth Dervil, known to everyone as Q.

I loved watching them fall in love. Because it felt so real. Two people meeting, talking about this that and everything, their lives so naturally coming together ...

That pulled me right into the story.

And that's why I was infuriated when the unnamed narrator's future self and insisted tha...more

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Jan 28, 2012 Kimberly rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: good-riddance, books-i-regret-reading

First of all, the girl on the cover looks nothing like the Q in my head.

Second of all, Mandery's writing leaves a lot to be desired and tainted my opinions from page 2. A large portion of the book is devoted to random diatribes on anything from the play by plays of a miniature golf game to the relevance of Douglas Adam's work to a detailed synopsis of The Twilight Zone (none of which are relevant to the themes at hand).

Thirdly, the unusual device of time travel is butchered. Seriously, Mandery...more

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Dec 09, 2012 Virginia rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As a big fan of time travel novels I really liked the premise of this book.There was some humour as well although at times the writer tries too hard to be witty. There are philosophical ponderings which are sometimes delivered in a rather heavy handed fashion.The story wanders off on random tangents, like excerpts from the bizarre books the protagonist writes (including one about Freud that rambled on and on and nearly made me put the book down permanently).This really spoiled it for me.

The vis...more

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Mar 18, 2012 Marguerite Kaye added it

DNF so not going to grade it. I wanted to like this, but it just wasn't for me. The premise was that the narrator meets and falls in love with his soul mate, then he's warned by his future self to steer clear of her or else. Good idea, I thought. But...

Firstly, there was an element of sort of magic realism that I didn't like. Secondly, there was the style of the book, which was like a combination of Martin Amis at his most self-indulgent and James Joyce at his most incomprehensible with a dash o...more

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Apr 01, 2012 Blair rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, read-on-kindle, overrated

Q: A Love Story is a misleading title if ever there was one. It is a love story only in the sense that it's a book with a love story in it - most of the plot doesn't relate to this, regardless of what you might (understandably) assume. More unusually and significantly, it's also a time travel story. But more than either of these, it's a comedy. Oh, and the character of Q barely features, only making a couple of appearances, which seems odd given the author's choice to name the book after her.

The...more Q: A Love Story is a misleading title if ever there was one. It is a love story only in the sense that it's a book with a love story in it - most of the plot doesn't relate to this, regardless of what you might (understandably) assume. More unusually and significantly, it's also a time travel story. But more than either of these, it's a comedy. Oh, and the character of Q barely features, only making a couple of appearances, which seems odd given the author's choice to name the book after her.

The premise, however, is great, and certainly caught my attention when I impulsively picked up the hardback from a bookshop display. The unnamed narrator (possibly representing the author himself?), a rather unsuccessful writer, is blissfully happy with the love of his life, Quentina, known to all as Q. He's happy, that is, until the day he is visited by a man who claims to be an older version of himself, from a point in the not-too-distant future when time travel has been invented. This man tells the narrator he must leave Q, or else something terrible will come to pass that will ruin both their lives. The narrator chooses to heed the warning, and thereafter, his life becomes dominated by attempts to avoid various awful fates.

I loved the idea of a person being visited by their future self, and I also loved that the story was set in contemporary New York - there seemed to be so much that could potentially be done with this scenario. Unfortunately, the book wastes it. The tenderness of the love story and all the potential intrigues of the time travel detail are jettisoned in favour of what seemed to me like a rather heavy-handed satire. None of the minor characters are developed further than a one-note caricature. There's an irritating repeated emphasis on the 'quirkiness' of the narrator and Q - they're very eco-conscious, they like painfully cool indie music and cult films, Q grows organic vegetables in an Eden-like garden in the heart of NYC etc etc - which, honestly, made them seem more like awful stereotypes of smug, middle-class, white hipsters (I hate that word, but it's SO apt for these people!) than anything else. And Q is, of course, one of those radiantly beautiful, incredibly kind, apparently flawless female characters with no negative traits whatsoever that authors so love to invent. After a while of this I did begin to wonder whether Mandery actually wanted the reader to find the protagonists insufferable - confusing since you're meant to care about the romance between them.

Ultimately, Q is much more of a farce than a love story. Mandery dwells on the ridiculousness of the narrator blindly following whatever his future selves, who crop up with increasing regularity as the book progresses, tell him to do. Entertaining, I suppose, but not half as good as what could have been done with an idea like this. The writing reminded me of Jonathan Franzen's style, and indeed this story may appeal to fans of Franzen, but its humour lacks any kind of real edge. I have to give it some credit for a genuinely interesting, original premise and a half-decent ending. Unfortunately, in every other way it was rather disappointing.(less)

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Sep 24, 2011 Seth rated it 3 of 5 stars

Hmm. I really enjoyed First Contact-Or, It's Later Than You Think and was eagerly anticipating the release of Q. And I enjoyed it. It's funny and sweet and clever.

But I didn't love it for a few reasons. First, I think Mandery's apparent use of a [to some unknown degree] fictionalized version of himself as the main character in Q just isn't interesting or necessary, and, to the contrary, is a little distracting. (I thought the same about his appearances in First Contact.) Second, I think the mai...more

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Oct 04, 2011 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shortly before his wedding, the unnamed protagonist is visited by his future self and is told, in no uncertain terms, that he must not marry the love of his life: Q. At first doubtful, but finally convinced, the narrator breaks off his engagement and tries to find a new path. He's helped along the way by other future versions of himself, versions that have lived the life he has now chosen and who try to help him pick a better life. After living out their (or really, his) suggestions, the protago...more Shortly before his wedding, the unnamed protagonist is visited by his future self and is told, in no uncertain terms, that he must not marry the love of his life: Q. At first doubtful, but finally convinced, the narrator breaks off his engagement and tries to find a new path. He's helped along the way by other future versions of himself, versions that have lived the life he has now chosen and who try to help him pick a better life. After living out their (or really, his) suggestions, the protagonist reflects on the life he's led. Was it really better this way? Does knowing your future mean it should be altered, and if you change it, will that really make it better?

Q is an interesting (and from what I can tell, original) take on time travel literature. At once philosophical, it is also a heartbreaking love story that transcends time. It deals with the age-old question, "If I could go back and do it all over again, would I?"

I loved the storyline and plot. I thought it was well-written and an exceedingly great idea for a story. But it wasn't perfect. Mandery seems to have a general dislike of contractions and uses them sparingly. This can make the dialogue seem a bit forced and unnatural. Also, the protagonist appeared to be very unperturbed by the fact that he was face to face with his future self. Time travel is still a very sci-fi concept, but he seemed to accept the inevitability of it not only being discovered, but that he would use it as a means to re-structure his life. Personally, I would have freaked out a little bit more.

Finally, the narrator is himself a writer, and we are given snippets of his works. Sometimes an entire chapter of the book would be a chapter from one of his novels. I couldn't see much point in this other than Mandery trying to show how the protagonist's writing was directly influenced by his personal life. If there's a deeper meaning to this, I didn't get it and I felt it could have been omitted. There were, however, some very funny parts to the novel which counteracted the seemingly unnecessary ones.

Overall, an original and well-written novel that will leave you with a smile on your face. 4 out of 5 stars.(less)

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Sep 01, 2011 Laura added it

I'm pretty into time travel. I think I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago that I have some mixed feelings about science fiction as a genre. I don't really have mixed feelings about time travel. There is a lot of time travel in Evan Mandery's novel Q. I was pretty into Q.

So what is it about (besides, of course, time travel)? Q is the girlfriend of our narrator, a counter-historical novelist and academic. The two have a quirky romance and are planning their wedding, when a future version of the n...more I'm pretty into time travel. I think I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago that I have some mixed feelings about science fiction as a genre. I don't really have mixed feelings about time travel. There is a lot of time travel in Evan Mandery's novel Q. I was pretty into Q.

So what is it about (besides, of course, time travel)? Q is the girlfriend of our narrator, a counter-historical novelist and academic. The two have a quirky romance and are planning their wedding, when a future version of the narrator shows up and tells him that he "must not marry Q." Thus begins a chain of interruptions and events that our narrator rides like a wave, all the while wondering if he has irrevocably altered the course of his life for the worse by leaving his one true love.

Q is part love story. And the love story is dear. I even shed a tear or two by the end. However, Q is also the kind of playful, postmodern novel that I personally love to read. It doesn't take itself too seriously, toying with its own conventions, filled with clever detail. I didn't like the narrator, in particular, but I was still rooting for him. I even thought I might have read his not-terribly-good novel, exploring how history might have changed if Sigmund Freud had pursued his early explorations into eel anatomy and reproduction. The novel explores history in a number of different ways as the narrator theorizes and lives the consequences of re-writing ones' narrative. These explorations reminded me of one of my favorite novels, Graham Swift's Waterland, although Mandery's approach is much less heavy, more humorous. The comparison on the cover to Vonnegut seems apt, although I would say there are some Palahniukian (I may have made that up) moments as well.

While a lot of the novel is cerebral and hip (which happens to be my thing), Mandery also reveals himself to be a sensualist through his divine descriptions of food, which would make any foodies mouth water. Here's one:

"Here is a wild mushroom corn pudding with goat cheese and an herbed cream sauce," she says, pointing. "This is winter squash stuffed with curried pork. This is Vidalia onion casserole. Here is cranberry relish spiced with mincemeat and pecans. Here are fresh-baked sweet rolls. Here are plain sweet potatoes, just for you, just like your grandmother used to make...And finally, the piece de resistance." She walks to the oven, opens the door, and reveals the giant thirty-pound fowl. "The turkey is glazed with honey, stuffed with andouille sausage, bacon, croutons, apples, dried cranberries, and pears, and has been roasting slowly, upside down, for the past sixteen hours."

I flew through Q and enjoyed almost every moment. I was laughing out loud, and crying in the end. The clever linguistic play and the philosophical jaunts into the nature of time and quantum theory were fun, but weren't the whole of the book. Underneath there is a touching love story and an emotional exploration of how we make meaning in our lives and confront our aging selves. In the end, what really turned on the water works was the "Acknowledgements" page on which Mandery explores the relationships that mattered in his life. It isn't often that an "Acknowledgements" page makes me cry, so I was lucky that I stuck around and read this one, since I just wanted to keep reading this wonderful book. Highly recommended.

**I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. (less)

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Aug 24, 2011 Michele rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: genre-fiction, 2011-50bookpledge, format-arc

Well, Q can definitely stand for quirky. The premise of this story was intriguing enough: a man is about to get married to Q, the love of his life, but is then visited by a future version of himself, warning him not to go through with it. The narrator, never named throughout the book, changes the course of his life because of a futuristic visit, but it doesn’t stop there. While trying to appease his future self, he constantly keeps changing the path that his life is to take. He’s a writer, but h...more Well, Q can definitely stand for quirky. The premise of this story was intriguing enough: a man is about to get married to Q, the love of his life, but is then visited by a future version of himself, warning him not to go through with it. The narrator, never named throughout the book, changes the course of his life because of a futuristic visit, but it doesn’t stop there. While trying to appease his future self, he constantly keeps changing the path that his life is to take. He’s a writer, but his future self says that he should take up something else instead. He takes up something else, and a different future self says he should try another thing.

I found the narrator to be quite obnoxious. I don’t know if that was what the reader was supposed to feel towards him, but I found him really unbearable to listen to. He often sounded very contrived and self-indulgent. The narrator starts off as a mediocre writer, and there are a few chapters filled with his works in progress. He’s even told by a future version of himself that he isn’t a good writer, yet us as the readers are subjected to sitting through pages and pages of a Freud “what if” story? I found his lack of conviction and how easily he was swayed by these “messages from the future” really irritating. He changed/selected hobbies, careers and love interests at the drop of a hat because his constantly changing future kept telling him to.

Time travel is a tough subject to write about. If not properly thought out and written, it can easily confuse the readers. Evan Mandery alleviates this confusion by having the narrator clarify for himself (and the readers) on how he will refer to his present-day self and any future selves going forward. The pacing of the book varied quite drastically at times. At times I felt the story was lost among the many philosophical tangents that occur throughout the book. And perhaps it’s in the spirit of the time travel theme, but at times it was long drawn out moments and years, but nearing the end of the novel it seemed to just jump from year to year, future self to another future self. After the way the pacing was throughout the book, the conclusion seemed rushed and jumpy.

All that being said, however, the idea of the story was still quite entertaining to read. I couldn’t put it down because I wanted to find out what happens to him! The idea for Q is an interesting one (though a little reminiscent of being visited by the Ghost of Christmas Future from A Christmas Carol).

With all the philosophical themes throughout the story, Mandery brings up a good one that readers can't help but consider: If you could find out something bad about your future, would you want to know? At what point do you say enough is enough and you just live the life you’re dealt? Who is to say it wouldn’t backfire; that by changing it now, your future would then also be altered anyway?

Review can also be found on here.(less)

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Aug 05, 2012 Kate rated it 3 of 5 stars

If you could go back in time, would you save yourself from the greatest heartbreak of your life? This is the question that Q asks, in a whimsically postmodern fashion that mostly (mostly) manages to avoid quite straying into Zooey Deschanel territory.

I know I'm setting the movement back, but BAAAAARF.

Now, the first thing to remember is not to panic at the initial premise. Our unnamed narrator is a struggling writer (slightly worried this is thinly veiled metatext) whose own postmodern offering, Time's Broken Arrow (UH OH) is moderately successf...more

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About Evan Mandery

Evan Mandery is the author of three novels: Dreaming of Gwen Stefani, published by Ig Books in 2007, First Contact (Or, It's Later Than You Think) published in 2010 by HarperCollins, and, most recently, Q. He has also written two works of non-fiction: The Campaign (Westview 1999), a funny chronicle of his year as research director on Ruth Messinger's doomed 1997 mayoral campaign, and Capital Punis...more

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First Contact-Or, It's Later Than You Think (Parrot Sketch Excluded)

The Campaign: Rudy Giuliani, Ruth Messinger, Al Sharpton, And The Race To Be Mayor Of New York City

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“Give up on trying to be original. Every song has been sung, every picture has been painted, and every story has been told. The best one can do is sing, draw, or tell it again well.” — 7 people liked it

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