A review by mandyherbet
Big Brother by Lionel Shriver
1.0
Lionel Shriver holds some rather strong opinions about the obesity crisis and boy, is she keen to let you know EXACTLY what she thinks. As a result, the characters in this book lack depth and the narrator (Pandora, AKA Lionel herself really) lacks any real compassion or understanding for human behaviour.
Pandora is married to Fletcher (although why, I still have no idea since they both seem to be nasty and judgemental assholes) and they live in Iowa with Fletcher's two kids. Fletcher is a health nut who abhors any kind of joy, and Pandora runs a company that creates nasty dolls that mock people, pretty much. She's loaded, he's not and there you have the dynamic in their 'marriage'. Fletcher also seems to be a jealous, possessive ass, who resents Pandora's relationship with her brother, Edison.
Pandora and Edison are supposedly really close, or so we're told over and over and over again. Except she hasn't seen Edison in 4 years. By that definition, I'm close to my postman. REALLY close. So when Edison is down on his luck, Pandora ignores Fletcher and sends her brother a plane ticket and cash to come stay with them, I mean her, I mean them. Oh, who cares. Anyway, Edison arrives and it turns out that he's turned into a lard ass. He's morbidly obese and eats sugar from the packet so it coats his face. In other words, he's the ultimate cliche, the flattest of flat characters who only serve a purpose to illustrate Lionel's distain for FATTIES EVERYWHERE.
And voila, we have Pandora stuck in the middle between her healthy nazi husband who hates happiness and her lard-ass brother who stuffs his face full of crap, breaks things and clogs the toilet up with his sh&t. Literally. He stays with them for two months, during which Pandora's marriage pretty much falls apart and, on the eve of his return to New York, he confesses that he has nothing to go back to. Pandora decides to leave her husband (although that's not what she calls it) and move into an apartment with Edison to help him lose weight, because that's what family does. Let's just say that my family doesn't do that. No family I know does that. It's stupid.
And anyway, she has some weight to lose because apparently gaining even 20 pounds in your 40s is BAD and HOW CAN YOU LIVE, so she and Edison go on this unsustainable meal-replacement diet for a frigging YEAR and wow, Edison loses all the weight on schedule, because in Lionel Shriver's world, there's no such thing as a plateau or real life. Because it's all about WILL POWER, dontcha know?
There's more to it but I'm tired. One thing I do have to say is that Lionel Shriver has the most incredible vocabulary I've ever seen. There are more words in more sentences than you'll find anywhere else. In fact, I'll bet that every word in the dictionary features in this book. The longer the better.
Pandora is married to Fletcher (although why, I still have no idea since they both seem to be nasty and judgemental assholes) and they live in Iowa with Fletcher's two kids. Fletcher is a health nut who abhors any kind of joy, and Pandora runs a company that creates nasty dolls that mock people, pretty much. She's loaded, he's not and there you have the dynamic in their 'marriage'. Fletcher also seems to be a jealous, possessive ass, who resents Pandora's relationship with her brother, Edison.
Pandora and Edison are supposedly really close, or so we're told over and over and over again. Except she hasn't seen Edison in 4 years. By that definition, I'm close to my postman. REALLY close. So when Edison is down on his luck, Pandora ignores Fletcher and sends her brother a plane ticket and cash to come stay with them, I mean her, I mean them. Oh, who cares. Anyway, Edison arrives and it turns out that he's turned into a lard ass. He's morbidly obese and eats sugar from the packet so it coats his face. In other words, he's the ultimate cliche, the flattest of flat characters who only serve a purpose to illustrate Lionel's distain for FATTIES EVERYWHERE.
And voila, we have Pandora stuck in the middle between her healthy nazi husband who hates happiness and her lard-ass brother who stuffs his face full of crap, breaks things and clogs the toilet up with his sh&t. Literally. He stays with them for two months, during which Pandora's marriage pretty much falls apart and, on the eve of his return to New York, he confesses that he has nothing to go back to. Pandora decides to leave her husband (although that's not what she calls it) and move into an apartment with Edison to help him lose weight, because that's what family does. Let's just say that my family doesn't do that. No family I know does that. It's stupid.
And anyway, she has some weight to lose because apparently gaining even 20 pounds in your 40s is BAD and HOW CAN YOU LIVE, so she and Edison go on this unsustainable meal-replacement diet for a frigging YEAR and wow, Edison loses all the weight on schedule, because in Lionel Shriver's world, there's no such thing as a plateau or real life. Because it's all about WILL POWER, dontcha know?
There's more to it but I'm tired. One thing I do have to say is that Lionel Shriver has the most incredible vocabulary I've ever seen. There are more words in more sentences than you'll find anywhere else. In fact, I'll bet that every word in the dictionary features in this book. The longer the better.