"Shriver has a gift for creating real and complicated characters... A highly engrossing novel." — San Francisco Chronicle
From New York Times bestselling author Lionel Shriver (The Post-Birthday World, We Need to Talk About Kevin), comes a searing, deeply humane novel about a crumbling marriage resurrected in the face of illness, and a family's struggle to come to terms with disease, dying, and the obscene cost of medical care in modern America.
November 30, 2009
A risk taker with a protean imagination, Shriver (The Post-Birthday World
) has produced another dazzling, provocative novel, a witty and timely exploration of the failure of our health-care system. Shep Knacker's long-cherished plan to use the million dollars from the sale of his handyman business to retire to a tropical island receives a gut-wrenching blow when his wife, Glynis, is diagnosed with a rare cancer. Transformed into a full-time caregiver, the good-natured Shep is buoyed during the illness of self-centered, vindictive, and obnoxiously demanding Glynis by his working mate and best friend, Jackson Burdina, whose teenage daughter, Flicka, also has a terminal disease. Ironically, Glynis tenaciously clings to life, while Flicka, with whom she bonds, wants to end hers. Jackson, meanwhile, acutely conscious that he's going broke, rails pungently against government regulations and the insurance industry. A mouthpiece for the plight of middle-class workers, Jackson's diatribes about contemporary society—the medical, educational and banking systems, exorbitant taxation, political chicanery—ring painfully true. As Shep's Merrill-Lynch account dwindles and further medical calamities arise, Shriver twists the plot to raise suspense until the heart-lifting denouement.
Starred review from May 31, 2010
Dan John Miller's performance of Shriver's novelistic inquiry into the failures of the American health care system is not to be missed. Miller's vocal choices are perfect for every character, from Shep's elderly, New Hampshire–accented father to severely disabled teenage Flicka, whose fiery intelligence come through despite her slurred speech. When Shep explains his lifelong goal of retiring to a remote, primitive country, Miller's passionate voice, full of determination and longing, makes it clear that this is no whimsical daydream, but a desperate need that is at the very core of Shep's identity. Miller's performance explores every facet of Shriver's multilayered, flawed characters, such as Shep's wife, Glynis, who is an admirably tough, uncompromisingly honest survivor, but also stubborn, rude, and often selfish. A “must-listen.” A Harper hardcover.
January 1, 2010
In Shrivers latest and exceptionally timely novel, she probes not so delicately into the workings of a marriage, while at the same time exposing the many deficiencies in the American health-care system. Shep Knacker, 48, is finally ready to escape from tax planning and traffic jams to what he for years has called The Afterlife. He and his wife, Glynis, have taken annual research trips to exotic locales like Goa, Laos, and Morocco, Shep diligently compiling notebooks bursting with home prices, crime rates, weather, andfor Zach, their teenage sonInternet access. As Shep announces to Glynis that the time has come to start enjoying their leisure time while they still can, she calmly reports shes just been diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare and extremely virulent cancer. Shep calmly shreds their airplane tickets, and over the next year watches his Merrill Lynch account drop to nothing, The Afterlife nest egg spent on chemo, hospitalizations, and out-of-network specialists. Shriver perceptively dissects every facet of Glynis illness, from Zachs withdrawal to friends who never visit or call, immersing the reader in how this family deals with terminal disease, and its rippling effects.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)
January 15, 2010
Shep Knacker believes in the "Afterlife" and has spent every moment of his adult life planning for it. But he's not a born-again Christian. Shep's version involves a hammock on a sandy beach in a Third World country where he and his wife, Glynis, can retire and live like royalty for dollars a day. Poised to set his dreams in motion, Shep learns that Glynis has cancer. Now every penny must go to medical expenses not covered by an inadequate health insurance policy. Shriver's ("The Post-Birthday World") latest novel is both a realistic portrait of a family dealing with terminal illness and a thorough critique of the American health-care system. VERDICT Shriver's strong, clear writing is marred by several complex subplots and lengthy rants by Shep's best friend, Jackson, who is anti almost everything and dealing with a botched surgery himself as well as a daughter with an incurable disorder. Readers who prefer a more focused plot will want to stick with Jodi Picoult, but Shriver's fans and others willing to follow the author's turns will find themselves thinking about the novel long after they've finished it. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 11/15/09.]Christine Perkins, Bellingham P.L., WA
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