Big Brother

I didn't read anything about Big Brother before I starting on the book itself so was initially intrigued by the premise of Pandora's dilemma at having to accommodate her morbidly obese brother within her family's home for an extended visit. I was drawn into the relationships despite said brother, Edison, being overly irritating and Pandora's husband, Fletcher, feeling somewhat two-dimensional and cartoonish. Something else I noticed early on was that all Shriver's characters have odd first names! After a while I began to wonder where the storyline was as I had read around a quarter of the way through the book and it still felt like scene-setting. I found it hard to buy into Pandora's decision to dump her husband and his kids in favour of her brother. We are continually told that they are very close siblings and it's impossible to refuse a 'family thing' but this didn't ring true from the way the pair actually behaved at this point. It was like Shriver was contradicting her writing and I wasn't convinced. The diet the pair follow, Edison apparently for a whole year, is dangerous to undertake cold and with just a single doctor's visit and I didn't like that such a drastic measure is being publicised in a best-selling novel. It may work in fiction, but could increase health issues in real life, not solve them. Finally, after much repetition and the odd inclusion of an Iowan flood, we get to the final climax and its aftermath. Obviously, I'm not going to state what happens as not everyone who reads this will already have read Big Brother, but REALLY?! That's the best you could come up with? It's a disappointing ending!

I really like Lionel Shriver. I really don't like Lionel Shriver's characters. I don't know how she does it but she makes most of her character very unlikeable and rigid. This book is filled with characters that I just don't understand at all... they never seem happy, lol and they never act like "normal people". They definitely do not know how to communicate with each other.

For example, not having seen her brother for a few years, Pandora gets a call from her brother Edison's friend saying Edison is not doing so well and maybe she could send her brother a plane ticket and have him stay with her for a while. So, since Pandora is doing well with her own small business, she obliges. But when he gets off the plane, Pandora doesn't even recognize her own brother because he has gotten so enormously fat. Not just gained 20-30 pounds but more like 200 pounds! And she doesn't even mention the weight! I mean sure, she didn't want to hurt his feelings, whatever, but my god, come on!

Shriver brings up many thoughtful points about obesity in America, our reactions towards the obese, our consumer culture that leads to obsessive behavior etc... and that is very interesting and could lead to some very frank and thought provoking discussions but oy vey and yuk... the characters...

She adds a little twist ala We Need to Talk About Kevin but it's not at all shocking or devastating as in that book. All in all an okay read but somewhat disappointing for a Lionel Shriver.