The new one by Lionel Shriver

When I heard that Lionel Shriver had published a new book, I literally rushed out to get one. I even went to Easons to buy it, which is usually against my principles, but it was the closest book shop to the bus stop and I wanted to optimize reading time. Its always an odd mixture of excitement and apprehension when an author who has written a book (We Need To Talk About Kevin) thats firmly nestled on my definite Top-Ten-Super-Awesomest-Books(-If-You-Hated-This-Please-Never-Speak-To-Me-Again ) List brings out something new. Dont judge a book by its cover (or title) yadayada but we all know we do and this one was...interesting:

I honestly didn't know what to expect. Odd title, right? At the end theres a note that says Lionels husband came up with it. But I digress. The book is about a guy who saves up money his whole career to escape to what he calls The Afterlife in a third world country, and this plan to leave eventually kind of defines him as a person both to himself and other people, but when he eventually decides its now or never, his wife gets an incredibly rare and vicious kind of cancer and all their money has to go towards her healthcare. Healthcare, and the scam that is the American Healthcare system, is a major topic throughout the book; the guys best friend has a daughter with a rare genetic disease that requires constant care and causes her to rack up a pricetag of just under 2 million dollars at age 17. Between the daughter (named Flicka after the pony in 'My Friend Flicka'!) and the wife, there is definitely an element of questioning how much one human life is worth, in hard cash. 

I really enjoyed the book. It's well written, interesting and multi-layered. I'll admit, I occasionally had to put it away because the descriptions of chemo, enemas etc were making me a bit nauseous, but there is a very sweet story in how Shep cares for his wife during her illness, and many interesting topics raised by his best friends signature political rants (which were not unlike a certain best friend of mines political rants). Im not gonna give away the end because I'm not EVIL. It hasn't replaced We Need to Talk About Kevin on my list, but its defintely tying with Post-Birthday World for 2nd Favourite Shriver Novel, which is high praise. 

It was actually very interesting reading a book all about Healthcare in the U.S.A. at the same time as the passing of Obama's Healthcare reform bill in the Senate. I had watched the debates live and been following the progress on the news before I picked up So Much For That, and it definitely put things into perspective. I still don't claim to fully understand, but here's something I do know:

I love Obama! 

I watched his speech to the troops in Bagram this evening. I'm anti war and all that, but he was still awesome; I think he made it clear that he supports the troops not the war and that he is doing his best to resolve the situation in a way thats good for everyone. AND he was totally rocking the military jacket.

Brushing off his shoulder, coz he dont care what the haters say.

One word describes this man.

Awesome.