by Lionel Shriver
I think the ending was a bit of a cheat. Having her husband die sanctified Irina's marriage and allowed her to construct her choice to marry and stay with Ramsey as the right choice; as the only choice that would lead to happiness. Exploring an ending that allowed Ramsey to live and explored whether...
The book, I found, has a tendency to lean towards the gimmicky. Instead of fully exploring two divergent, independent universes, the narrative is limited to a kind of bizarro, mirror universe. If Irina has hot sex in one timeline, then she has tepid sex in the second one. If she starts an argument, ...
Reading other people's petty arguments is dull, and I found the parallels between the 'good' and 'bad' Irina chapters lacking subtlety.
My friend introduced me to Lionel Shriver by saying, "You need to read The Post-birthday World. Wait, read We Need to Talk about Kevin first. I'm not sure you'd appreciate Birthday without Kevin." I did as she asked, and I honestly can't recommend any novel by Lionel Shriver highly enough. Her writi...
A fascinating book, but also a very sad book - like a more depressing version of Sliding Doors.I loved the concept - chapter 1 was an introduction, leading up to the fork in the road, and from then on every chapter was repeated, following first the life of one Irina, then the life of another. I defi...
After an initially interesting premise, this book takes a turn for the overwritten and plodding. I raced through it to give it back to the person who lent it to me, otherwise, it probably would have languished in my "paused" bookshelf forever. At least I've got closure.
I picked up this book after hearing about it on the Diane Rehm show, but I couldn't make myself finish it. The biggest problem was that the characters, essentially, made mountains out of molehills and their dialogue so full of arrogance and self-importance that it's impossible to empathize with the...
I enjoyed this book for the what-if factor. I've always wondered how different your life would be if you had chosen path A over path B.
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