A review by alibi313
Big Brother by Lionel Shriver

4.0

While a lot of readers seemed to have faulted this novel for its ending, critiquing the book more harshly, I actually bumped my review up a notch because of the surprise. Besides hating on the title character's love of and discussion of jazz in his hipster patois and his sister's inordinate self-sacrifice throughout much of the book, I found myself getting progressively more annoyed at the notion that Edison would have a

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personality change to accompany his dramatic weight loss

. Uh-uh, no way. When the story was

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revealed to be nothing more than the narrator's guilt-ridden fantasy, it put the whole thing in a more realistic perspective. It was a bit of a downer, but preferable to the author peddling this rose-colored view as anything resembling real life--I always thought Shriver was a better novelist than that. And it turns out she is. Redeemed the book for me.

Except for the jazz. God I hate jazz.