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Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted each week by Jill at Breaking the Spine , in which a book blogger spotlights an upcoming release that he/she is "waiting" on.
This week I am waiting on So Much for That: A Novel by Lionel Shriver. Despite all the acclaim this author has garnered for her previous books I haven't read any of them yet. But this one grabs my interest - the healthcare debate runs through this novel. That is an area in which I have a special interest so I look forward to seeing how the book deals with it. Synopsis from Barnes & Noble
Shep Knacker has long saved for “The Afterlife”: an idyllic retirement on a tropical island in the Third World where his nest egg can last forever. Traffic jams on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway will be replaced with “talking, thinking, seeing, and being”—and enough sleep. When he sold his home repair business for a cool $1 million, his dream finally seemed within reach. Yet Glynis, his wife of twenty-six years, has concocted endless excuses why it’s never the right time to go. Sick of working as a peon for the company he founded, Shep announces that he’s leaving for what they’ve always tagged “The Afterlife,” with or without her. Just returned from a doctor’s appointment, Glynis has some news of her own: Shep can’t go anywhere because she desperately needs his health insurance. It rapidly becomes clear that this “health insurance company from hell” only partially covers the staggering bills for her treatments, and Shep’s nest egg for The Afterlife soon cracks under the strain. So Much for That follows the profound transformation of a marriage, for which grave illness proves an unexpected opportunity for tenderness, renewed intimacy, and dry humor, while also pressing the question: How much is one life worth?
This releases Mar 9, 2010.
What are you waiting on?
This sounds like a very powerful read. I haven't read any of her books either, but I recently won a couple of them, so I'm sure I will have to find the time to read them sometime soon.
ReplyDeleteI am really looking forward to this too! I would totally recommend 'We need to talk about Kevin' ... it is jaw-droppingly good. I was lucky enough to meet Lionel Shriver herself a few months back, I was really impressed with how open she is about her motivations for writing and she talked freely about the family rift that followed the publication of 'A Perfectly Good Family'. Impressive stuff...
ReplyDeleteAlso Oscars are up! And I could put up 5 (what an idiot!) thanks so much for helping out! xxx
Shriver does have a knack with the hard reads and it sounds like this will be another one.
ReplyDeleteBoy are you in for some deep upset. The book's a total stinker, start to finish. Can't remember the last time I so wanted to hurl a book against the wall. Sadly, this one was just a PDF and I didn't see the point in thrashing my e-reader :)
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great book, hope it does not disappoint!
ReplyDeleteI've only read one novel by Shriver and unfortunately I didn't enjoy it too much. However, I've heard great things about We Need to Talk About Kevin, and this sounds similar--it has a very "ripped from the headlines" feel.
ReplyDeleteActually, I’ve been waiting for this very same book. Lionel mentioned this WIP at the Oxford Literary Festival in 2008. If you haven’t read her other books, I’d highly recommend The Post Birthday World (reviewed on my blog.) She writes really well.
ReplyDeleteI can't WAIT for this one. And, you need to check out her earlier novels. I loved The Post Birthday World and We Need to Talk About Kevin. Great pick!
ReplyDeleteA woman named Lionel? Wild.
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