This could actually have been a great story, if the author hadn't decided to make it a science fiction novel. The story is written as a self biography, where the author uses time travel to re-examine the relationship with his parents. 
 As the main story isn't enough to warrant the full length of a novel, the author has padded the novel with sci-fi blurbs and attempts at humor. Unfortunately he doesn't quite reach escape velocity from the seriousness of the heart of the book. 
 So the result comes of as a bad hash-up of Douglas and Coupland or in other words, pretentious drivel.