Are you suggesting the purpose of the sci-fi element is purely to act as a metaphorical framework for what you describe, ie "what makes us human and how life is short and you need to seize every opportunity to really live"? If so, I can't say I interpreted the novel in the same way. However you want to define it - as "literary fiction" (a term I understand but find rather odd - isn't all written fiction literary?) or as science fiction (albeit with the sci-fi element very firmly in the background), the book struck me as inherently dystopian in that however idyllic this society may seem, it has a moral vaccum in terms of what happens to the characters and their "purpose" (skirting around spoilers).