A Perfectly Good Family

Lionel Shriver's writing has made me not want to waste my time reading mediocre literature. I don't think she wants me to spend less on books, but she's definitely to blame for my snobbery. Keep it up, Lionel.

This book is okay, I can't seem to get into it and I'm halfway through. I enjoyed We'll Have to Talk About Kevin, (by the same author), much better.

I kept wondering if Shriver could resolve the book's central conflict by the end of the story without copping out. She did. It was funny, clever, made perfect sense and I didn't see it coming. I liked this novel a lot. If you're just starting out with Lionel Shriver, I'd recommend Kevin first, this one next and then Birthday.

If anyone has ever captured the total ambivalence most siblings (who are honest) experience, it's Lionel Shriver. I did not find this book to be nearly as compelling as her astounding masterpiece "We Need To Talk About Kevin" but it has its great paragraphs, certainly. A very good friend of mine (going through adult sibling madness, as I did--I no longer speak to my two siblings) read this book after I did, and we both agreed: WE DO NOT LIKE THESE PEOPLE. We don't like them at all. This caused me to put the book down at one point in an irritated way and debate whether to continue. Almost exactly at that point, however, it got pretty absorbing--Shriver picked up her always amazing thread and I must say, the ending truly stunned me. Be warned: these people as individuals are not endearing and their various behaviors border on repugnant sometimes, but Shriver always constructs completely believeable people, and in this context, she has not failed. I'm still so struck by "Kevin" that maybe I could not do justice to this book, but it does have its own merit. I mean, when three adult siblings fight over their dead parents' house, it can't be boring.