Explain the fictional inventiveness & playfulness in stern's novel ' Tristram Shandy'

This story directly resembles a old fashioned, sit down conversation with an "old" family member. It's fun, it's enlightening, it's filled with a lot of rambling and repetition, and the conversation runs in circles. But it also gives you a great feeling and can truly make you miss the characters in your family who've passed away or make you appreciate the ones you still have. It's touching and playful...... and it's inventive in the fact that we don'y see this type of literature regularly.