The Post-Birthday World

I'll be the first to admit I thought the literary 'Sliding Doors' was simply going to be a clever device to map out a story with obvious results. I couldn't of been more wrong. This was a book I kept closing at night and found it replaying in my head like scenes form a movie. This is the first book I'd read by Shriver and found her writing both exceptional, and her observations on love and life both keen and razor sharp in their exactness. Yes, the book can be uncomfortable, especially for anyone whose been in a long term relationship, but that's why the book is so affecting.It pushes buttons and provokes discourse, whether verbal or not, about love, life, and the choices we make. What I appreciated is that as an author she takes a completely unbiased view and just presents two mirrored alternatives from which you can draw your own conclusions. I didn't, like many people, find the book depressing, and actually found it pretty affirming ultimately.

I'm surprised to see so many people disappointed with this book, and I did think that it dragged a little in places. I also thought the excessive repetitions between storylines was a little too cute and tiring--oh, this line got repeated by a different person; oh, this person is contradicting their other universe alter-ego, how ironic--until I realized that there was more going on beneath the surface, which was incidental. It's not important that, for example, Betsy argues in story A that sex doesn't last while in storyline B chides Irina for saying the same thing. These two scenes aren't incompatible, lazy treatments of Betsy's character but rather both work together to demonstrate how Betsy plays devil's advocate to maintain a position of self-righteous authority over Irina, whom she vaguely resents. Further, Jude and Irina having identical fights with Ramsey at the Lewis Carroll banquet isn't cutely amateurish or an example of poetic justice, but meant to indicate similarities in Irina's and Jude's assertive personalities, and ask tough questions about why two intelligent, talented, and clearly like-minded women hate each other. I think Shriver uses dialogue brilliantly--demonstrating again and again how we never actually say what we really mean--or rather, that it's not so much content that delivers our message, but how we say what we say and to whom, and where, and when. Conversations between friends, strangers, and lovers are not simply the free interchange of ideas floating in midair but tools wielded with purpose and agenda to define one's self and one's partner, to enact in a power play, to hide as much as we reveal. Once I discovered how Shriver actually wanted me to read the novel--not to preen admiringly at how precious it was that she repeated dialogue in two similar passages forty pages apart, but to think extremely critically at what these differences reveal about the characters and relationships as they are continually lifted and dropped in twin narrative arcs--it opened up and revealed itself to be very sophisticated. Trust that the author has a plan and that there is more going on that some literary gimmick, and you'll be amply rewarded. I still can't stop thinking about this novel.

.....here is a wonderful novel about the choices we make in love - and how it affects our lives. I was really blown away by this novel and recommend it to all and sundry. The writing was so smart, and not in an "aren't I clever with pop references?" way which many chick-lit authors do. Not that this is "chick lit" - far from it in depth and scope. Although it was hard to follow the parallel worlds at first, I really got into it and was turning the pages with excitement to see what would come next. I am an avid reader and have read many many books for the past 20 years and am always looking for a new voice. This book really spoke to me about the nature of love, commitment, the pull and mystery of sex. CHECK IT OUT!! I loved it and recommend it to any woman, esp. in late 20's-40s, when the choices of partner one makes defines our world (yet at an age where we can still think about the 'what if' factor). WONDERFUL NOVEL. I can see why Lionel Shriver has won awards with her writing. P.S. Another treat, for me, was reading about expatriate life in London. For anyone who's lived abroad or experienced the UK - resonates! P.P.S By way of response to the previous reviewer's remark that the snooker player's speaking in cockney English was 'distracting'...it is part of his character and adds a lot (kind of like Mark Twain's southern dialect in "Huckleberry Finn"). It's exactly the contrast between the two men - her intellectual "husband" who attends world symposiums on terrorism vs. the less-educated, less-stable yet superstar snooker player husband, which creates tension.

You have to hand it to Lionel Shriver, she wades right in to the neurotic base of contemporary culture; in this novel she visits both New York and London. Her characters feel like people you might know if you're urban. They try to do the right thing, but they're pulled by ambition and work and childhood memories and the need for sex and comfort. When you're powerfully attracted to someone, is it more moral to leave one partner for another, cold, or to have a discreet affair on the side? Shriver weighs in in favor the former, but she can't force herself to let go of the other life she led and imagines ongoing. Her protagonist, Irina, has enough tics to drive you nuts, but she's struggling to establish a beach head beyond her mother and her sister and her women friends. The men she fancies, Lawrence and Ramsey, are , respectively, intellect and physicality personified. She has artistic talent but subordinates it to other diversions. Reading her description of a restaurant meal or a food shopping trip, you have the unnerving feeling that you encountered her not long ago, and it was not an altogether pleasant experience. She is equally and persistently opinionated about politics, both British and American. But so are a lot of people, and the determination with which Shriver nails these opinions convinces you that she's a talented observer of the many ways people struggle to make their peace with culture and each other. Anyone who read "We Have to Talk About Kevin" will recognize her ambivalence about parenthood. Certainly, in this post-birthday world, parents are anything but benign. Irina, particularly, is a character with many, many choices large and small, and I can't say I was sorry when she realizes that ultimately, some things are not within our personal control. It's a concession that Shriver renders convincingly. I wonder where she will turn her attention next.

It's difficult to believe that some of the other reviewers read the same book! You will like this novel if: You like a story told in non-linear fashion. The story follows a parallel structure (in alternating chapters), depending on whether Irina chooses one evening to become involved with virile Ramsey or remain faithful to bookish Lawrence. The parallel structure works beautifully: the similarities and differences between the two different versions are essential to the plot (to show the consequences of Irina's choice), and they are not overstated or too obvious. You want to read a novel by an author who understands human relationships. This insightful tale of intimate relationships shows why they all too often fail: it's very difficult, if not impossible, to get everything you need from one person. Something is always missing. And after appreciating what you do get, it's all too easy to shift your focus to what you're missing and let your regrets sour a good relationship. On the other hand, it can also be all too easy to stubbornly stay with a fairly good relationship rather than risk taking the plunge into something new that might be much better. The parallel stories carefully examine each alternative. You enjoy reading about characters who are complicated and multifaceted. The author avoids the trap of making one man outstanding and the other a cad. Ramsey and Lawrence (and Irina) are not unlikable! They are flawed, or in other words human, and therefore appealing. Sure, Ramsey and Lawrence act like clods at times, but so do we all. Both men also show unusual kindness and consideration at times; neither is any more selfish than most of us. Sure, Irina puts up with their negatives. Most of us would do the same, partly because each man has important positives and partly because THERE ISN'T LIKELY TO BE ANYONE BETTER OUT THERE--the perfect partner occurs only in childish fiction, and this is mature fiction. If you've ever been involved in a lengthy intimate relationship, your heart will go out to these characters--to Irina for having to make a difficult choice and live with the consequences, to Ramsey and Lawrence for struggling to deal with their weaknesses (often unsuccessfully, as also happens to all of us) yet still showing desirable qualities as well. You like a story where the author leaves you with something to think about at the end. It isn't clear which one of Irina's choices the author recommends (although I do have my own guess) because life choices are often unclear, or what psychologists call multiple approach-avoidance conflicts: struggling to weigh the positives and negatives that each choice offers because none of them is clearly outstanding. You like taking your time perusing well-written prose so you can enjoy perceptive analogies, metaphors, similies, and events that make you chuckle or even laugh out loud. In sum: Clearly, this novel is not for all tastes. Hopefully, the above review will help you d