El tema es espectacular: cómo nos relacionamos con la comida, por qué comemos, de qué tenemos hambre. ¿Qué se esconde detrás de la obesidad y la obsesión con el peso? Está escrito al estilo Shriver, con ese talento enorme que tiene la autora con las palabras. Pero tiene un gran PERO. Un pero tan ...
With its cleverly assembled cast of the angry and the mild, the liberal and the anti-establishment, this book sets the stage for some spectacular ranting. While the subject matter – the US health system and welfare/tax in general – was interesting to me as a non US-reader, it felt at times that ...
Publicised as "a satire about terrorism", "The New Republic" didn't exactly sound like my cup of tea, because I didn't feel I knew enough about terrorism to relish a lampooning. But background reading turned out to be unimportant. The terrorism is addressed in an accessible and rather superficial...
The short review: HOLY CRAP YOU GUYS NOBODY TOLD ME THERE'D BE EYEBALL STUFF I HATE EYEBALL STUFF THIS BOOK IS SCARY AS &$#%! HOW DO I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH?The details: A few weeks ago, a GR friend of mine reviewed a book about women who are regretlessly childless. (Yes, my spellchecker just to...
I read this book because I immensely enjoyed two of Lionel Shriver's other books -- The Post-Birthday World and We Need to Talk About Kevin. Usually when I find a book that I like, I immediately try to find other books by the author and read them. Although I enjoyed this book, I didn't find it as...
Post-Birthday World is a bit of a mixed bag. I read the bulk of it in two days and was tearing up towards the end. After I set the book down and my mother asked me how it was, my response was, "It was okay," then I proceeded to tell her, at length, about the story, what I liked and what I didn't ...
Beautiful and charismatic, nineteen-year-old Checker Secretti is the most gifted and original drummer that the club-goers of Astoria, Queens, have ever heard. When he plays, conundrums seem to solve themselves, brilliant thoughts spring to mind, and couples fall in love. The members of his band, ...
Still unattached and childless at fifty-nine, world-renowned anthropologist Gray Kaiser is seemingly invincible—and untouchable. Returning to make a documentary at the site of her first great triumph in Kenya, she is accompanied by her faithful middle-aged assistant, Errol McEchern, who has loved...
Lionel Shriver never ceases to amaze me with her edginess in telling a story. The characters are so real and so flawed. Usually her stories take the reader right to the edge of being unbelievable. This one was not quite so extreme, but none the less intriquing.3 adult children have inherited t...
I truly could not imagine a Margaret Ann writing any of these books, which would be the truth, had Lionel Shriver not legally changed her name. The easily recognizable voice she carries in all her novels has wit, sarcasm, candor, and a dark side a "Margaret Ann" simply could not carry. Alas, we a...