So Much for That by Lionel Shriver
Harper, March 2010
Can a novel with a message about the state of American health care be entertaining? Yes, if it’s written by Lionel Shriver. So Much for That follows Shep and Glynis Knacker, an upper-middle class couple who are about to retire to Africa on their life’s savings—until Glynis is diagnosed with mesothelioma. The illness and treatment that follows drains their retirement fund and tests their marriage. Is the “cure” is worse than the cancer? How much is one life worth? Shriver takes up these and other issues in the honest, unsentimental style she has trademarked in previous works like The Post-Birthday World and We Need to Talk About Kevin.
Shep could feel it, that for Zach suddenly the whole happy-family playacting was too much. The boy didn’t know that until a week ago his father was about to abscond to the east coast of Africa, and he didn’t know that his mother had just been diagnosed with a rare and deadly cancer, much less did he know that as far as his mother was concered the disease was his father’s fault. But these highly incidental unsaids emitted the equivalent of the high-frequency sound waves that convenience stores now broadcast outside their shops to keep loitering gangs from the door. What dulled adult ears could no longer detect was unbearable to adolescents, and the same might be said of emotional fraud. Zach popped his pizza pocket early from the taoster and took his half-frozen dinner in a paper towel upstairs without even bothering with “See ya.”
Roast chicken, boiled potatoes and steamed green beans. Glynis commended his preparation, but only picked. “I feel fat,” she admitted.
“You’re underweight. It’s only fluid. You have to stop thinking like that.”
“Suddenly I’m supposed to become a different person?”
“You can be the same person who eats more.”
“Your chicken,” she said, “is probably not what I feel so little appetite for.” This was surely true. Given the purpose of food, an appetite at meals implied an appetite for the future.
What are you reading today?
Related in BookPage: Our interview with Lionel Shriver for The Post-Birthday World.
I hear ads for a mesothelioma attorney on a Chicago radio station all the time. Interesting premise! And I like the idea of exploring cure vs. disease — though sadly it’s all too real to me right now, as a dear friend just recently was told his cancer has returned, metastisized and he’s been given less than a year to live. So I know he’s thinking a lot of these same things right now. ONe of the books I’m currently reading, “Blessed with Bipolar,” also deals with health issues and living with them. THe author takes the position that being bipolar is a gift from God and shows God’s work in action, working for our absolutely best in anything we may suffer. The diagnosis is not a death sentence, which I find a very hopeful message.
So sorry to hear about your friend, Liz. Thanks for sharing what you’re reading…that sounds like an interesting angle on dealing with illness.
Well, at least you’re finding the book funny, because when I think about “grand world trip canceled because of illness” it makes me think of the opening montage to the film “Up” and then I cry and cry and cry…
I liked all of the sticky questions Shriver asks in Kevin, but I haven’t read Post-Birthday World yet… it’s on the list!
Oh! I didn’t make that connection. I cried so many times during that movie. This isn’t really like that at all, though — Shriver’s characters are not as lovable as the ones in UP.
You should def check out PBW; it is wonderful. And not written in letters! (yes, I WAS eavesdropping on your conversation yesterday, why do you ask?) I do think her including things that you wouldn’t normally have to explain to a person who was there is justified for reasons I cannot write here without spoiling the book.
I assumed you would hear me talking about Kevin… such is the fate of cubicles!
And I did still enjoy that book even though I still get annoyed at the letter convention, just because I found the ideas posed so provocative. And I get why she chose an epistolary format, and it does add to the novel, but it bugged me so much that I spent a good deal of time trying to think of why she would use it when it was so clunky… and then it dawned on me why letters, and I will say no more because then I will spoil the book. Let’s just say, I understand her desire to use the letters, but I still don’t think that format fully worked. I wrote a review on the blog back when I read it, so you can always check it out for a more cogent discussion of what I did or did not like about that book. But I do still want to read PBW!