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So Much for That

3.64 of 5 stars 3.64 · rating details · 3,333 ratings · 787 reviews

From the acclaimed author of the New York Times bestseller The Post-Birthday World comes a searing, ruthlessly honest new novel about a marriage both stressed and strengthened by the demands of serious illness.

Shep Knacker has long saved for "The Afterlife": an idyllic retreat to the Third World where his nest egg can last forever. Traffic jams on the Brooklyn-Queens Expre...more

Paperback, 480 pages

Published March 8th 2011 by Harper Perennial (first published March 1st 2010)

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Jun 14, 2012 Kinga rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Oh, how I wanted to like this book. How I wanted to like Lionel Shriver! Alas, Lionel Shriver is not a very likeable writer.

"So Much For That" is about Shep who has been saving all his life so he can retire early to run away to a place where people bask in the sun and live on a dollar per day and he is now ready to go. And then his wife goes and spoils it all by saying something stupid like 'I have cancer'. So rather than living on a dollar a day, they live on a few thousand a day covering all t...more Oh, how I wanted to like this book. How I wanted to like Lionel Shriver! Alas, Lionel Shriver is not a very likeable writer.

"So Much For That" is about Shep who has been saving all his life so he can retire early to run away to a place where people bask in the sun and live on a dollar per day and he is now ready to go. And then his wife goes and spoils it all by saying something stupid like 'I have cancer'. So rather than living on a dollar a day, they live on a few thousand a day covering all the medical expenses Glynis now generates.

This book is really a rant about the American health care system. But not only! It's also a rant about taxes, parking tickets, the government, the police, the education system... Shriver doesn't even stop there, when she is on a roll no one is safe - not artists and not people who misuse the word 'literally'. As all that ranting couldn't possible fit in the narrative, Shriver invents the character of Jackson whose main purpose in the book is to rant. So there is some ranting in the narrative, then it seamlessly moves onto the dialogue which has this natural feel of people reciting wikipedia articles to each other and then back to the narrative. In the end there is only one voice in this book - Lionel Shriver's very angry voice. And this is my main problem with this novel - if you want to write fiction, then create a world, create the characters, send them on some journery. If you are just angry at the US health care system, then write essays and opionion columns. Don't use the characters as props in your tirade, don't make idiots out of them by having them orate for pages about everything you're mad about. As a matter of fact some characters in 'So Much For That' are just personifications of a rant. There is Beryl for example, a character so ridiculous and two-dimensional that it seems like it was just a spiteful caricature of someone Shriver knows and strongly dislikes.

There is constant whining of a middle class who comes to the shocking conclusion that life isn't just.
"There's something especially terrible about being told over and over that you have the most wonderful life on earth and it doesn't get any better and it's still shit" Oh, cry me a river. Really. I have up to here of you and your First World Problems.

"“No,” said Shep, and changed the subject. “I guess we’re lucky, though. We live in the States. Hey, we get the best medical care in the world.” “Think again, pal. In comparison to all the other rich countries like England, Australia… Canada… I don’t remember the rest. Look at all the statistics that matter – infant mortality, cancer survival, you name it? We come in last. And we pay twice as much.” “Yeah, well. At least we don’t have socialized medicine.” Jackson guffawed. Shep wasn’t stupid, but he could be painfully cooperative. That “socialized medicine” bogyman went all the way back to the 1940s, when Harry Truman had wanted to bring in a national health service, just like the Brits. Nervous that doctors wouldn’t keep raking it in, the American Medical Association concocted this inspired cold war buzz phrase, which had struck terror in the hearts of their countrymen ever since. A genius stroke of labeling. Like when supermarkets came out with that “no frills” line, packaging a perfectly standard, decent product in stark, ugly-ass black-and-white, thus ensuring that no one with any class would buy it, at half the brand-name price. It worked. Even Jackson’s cash-strapped mother hadn’t wanted to be caught dead with no-frills tissues in her cart. “You realize fortysomething percent of this country is either on Medicaid or Medicare?” said Jackson;"

"She went on, “this World Wellness Group outfit is the health insurance company from hell. They levy co-pays on everything, including the meds, and we have to fill dozens of prescriptions every month. With their whopping deductible, you’re out five grand before you’re reimbursed a dime. Their idea of a ‘reasonable and customary’ fee is what a doctor’s visit cost in 1959, and then they stick you with the shortfall. They’re way too restrictive about going out of network, and Flicka requires very specialized care. Then there’s co-insurance on top of the co-pays: twenty percent of the total bill, and that’s in network. And here’s the killer: there’s no cap on out-of-pocket expenses. Add to that that their lifetime payment cap – you know, how much they’ll fork out in total, ever – is also pretty low, only two or three million, when someone like Flicka could easily exceed numbers like that before she’s twenty… Well, we had to find other coverage.”

Talking about contrived dialogues. There really are good 300 hundred pages of it, and to use the pun from the very book, they are not good pages. After that, it seems like Shriver has finally got everything off her chest and run out of steam. The plot is set free at last and it is guaranteed you're going to read the last 150 pages or so in one sitting taking in everything including a quite obvious product placement and a sappy ending.

It is possible that Shriver was very aware of the shittness of the first part of the book because one of her characters says at some point (and let's remember the characters in Shriver's book never speak for themselves, they are just spokespeople for the author):

""“You know, these movies…” He was groping. “Remember how sometimes, in the middle, a movie seems to drag? I get restless, and take a leak, or go for popcorn. But sometimes, the last part, it heats up, and then right before the credits one of us starts to cry – well, then you forget about the crummy middle, don’t you? You don’t care about the fact that it started slow, or had some plot twist along the way that didn’t scan. Because it moved you, because it finally pulled together, you think, when you walk out, that it was a good movie, and you’re glad you went. See, Gnu?” he promised. “We can still end well.”

Having said all that, I will admit the book is a page turner in its weird tedious way. But readability is not the way to my heart. It's the way to my bed. If a book is very readable I can easily find myself seduced and I spend a whole night in my bed with it. But after it is all over, if readability was all the book had to offer, we will part our ways and never see each other again (what is it with me and all those sexual innuendos lately?).

Oh Look, I have just found this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/... - I should've read this instead of the book. Brilliant. (less)

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Jul 09, 2011 Jennifer (aka EM) rated it 1 of 5 stars

Left it at p. 46 and turned my attention to something else, thinking it was maybe my mood influencing the strong negative reaction I was having. Alas, no. Abandoned at p. 66. Those last twenty pages contained more hyperbole, overblown language, pontificating and exposition than I could stomach.

This is the speech Glynis makes to her husband, Shep, after a medical appointment during which she's learned that asbestos is likely the cause of her cancer -- asbestos her husband most likely brought hom...more

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Oct 25, 2009 Will Byrnes rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: public-health

Lionel Shriver has written a very grown-up story that deals with serious subjects in a serious way. Shepherd Knacker has been saving all his life for what he calls the “Afterlife,” retirement to some sort of desert isle, away from the world in which he must work in order to finance his dream. But his plans hit a snag when his wife, Glynis, is diagnosed with a particularly virulent strain of cancer. His best friend, Jackson, has a teenage child with a rare genetic disease and the clear prospect o...more Lionel Shriver has written a very grown-up story that deals with serious subjects in a serious way. Shepherd Knacker has been saving all his life for what he calls the “Afterlife,” retirement to some sort of desert isle, away from the world in which he must work in order to finance his dream. But his plans hit a snag when his wife, Glynis, is diagnosed with a particularly virulent strain of cancer. His best friend, Jackson, has a teenage child with a rare genetic disease and the clear prospect of an early death. Faced with the titanic cost of medical care, both men face potential financial ruin, even with insurance. What is the cost of clinging to fading hope? What are the limits of what should be done to preserve human life? When is it ok to say “enough already?” Lest one think this is a one-sided perspective, there are strong arguments made for varying points of view in the medical insurance debacle that persists in today’s USA.

Shriver looks at these questions through the lens of the characters’ relationships. How do the stresses both families' experience affect them? Does such terror strengthen a couple’s love or crush it? Is it the right thing to do to surrender a lifelong dream just to gain what may turn out to be only little extra time for someone who is likely to die anyway?

There is plenty here about family dynamics, who gives and who takes, who really cares about others and who is only looking out for number one. It says a lot about relationships outside the family as well. How can Shep and Jackson be best friends when there is so much left unsaid between them? How do friends really act when you are in crisis? Who can you count on? There are some workplace scenes that offered a bit of dark comic relief, reflecting some of the madness one must endure in order to survive.

One of the most interesting elements of the book for me was Shriver’s depiction of both Glynis’ and the adolescent, Flicka’s, ways of coping with their burdens.

I confess that as a long-time resident of both Park Slope and Windsor Terrace, where much of the story is set, I enjoyed the local geographic elements. And I recognized in some of the characters, aspects of common Park Slope views that were far too familiar. I can also relate personally to some elements of Shep’s struggle. It enhanced my appreciation.

This is a terrific book, engaging, content-rich, timely. While I do not think it rises to the level of great literature, it is a must-read for anyone interested in the health care debate, or anyone who likes very good contemporary fiction.
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Mar 23, 2010 Alecia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There are parts of this book that I would actually rate no more than 2 stars. Sometimes the writing gets overwrought, awkward, and has the characters thinking or talking about the healthcare system or other issues in a preachy, pedantic way. But, in the end, the powerful writing and subject matter of the book impelled me to give it 4 stars (which, as one can see by my list, I do not give easily).

If you want to read a gifted writer describe how it is to be a terminally ill patient, a husband/car...more

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May 11, 2013 Kyle.s rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This is a good book but it did not quite live up to my expectations after reading about Kevin. I thourght (and still think) that the issues in this book would suit the kind of storytelling Shriver did in Kevin. The best thing about Kevin was the way the story and charecters were open to multiple interpretations. This is still the case in this book but to a lesser extent.

Reading the cover of the book you get the impression that the book will be about the dillema of how much a life is worth. How...more

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Apr 07, 2010 Robyn rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Lionel Shriver has managed to get her work classified as fiction by draping a thin plot over what really is a treatise on the shortcomings of the American health care system. Paired with this dense diatribe are deep tangents into character studies. The result is an agonizing read with a lot of words and not much action.

I fully admit that I gave up half-way through and decided to stop wasting my time of the soapbox ravings of overly verbose author. The germ of the "plot" is not a bad one and held...more

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Jun 04, 2011 Denise rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own, health, fiction, medicine, politics, social-issues, award-nominee

Fictionalized account of lived experience of life threatening and chronic illness within America's health system. At the risk of leaving nothing to inference the author has made some of the dialogues/monologue on health care somewhat overbearing and put-on. At times this can be irritating. But I have to say that the issues are real, the character's situations seem real and the fault in health care are wide. The upbeat ending makes for a fairytale which few are fortunate to experience. Thoroughly...more

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Jan 01, 2013 Hannah Wingfield rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This isn’t a book for the faint-hearted. It is gory, unflinching, cold-hearted until (almost) the end, and depressing as hell. It centres around two middle-aged American couples: Shep and Glynis; and Jackson and Carol. Shep has spent his life scrimping and saving for his retirement, during which he plans to experience an “Afterlife” by living in a country with good weather and cheap living costs – however this all goes belly up (to put it politely) when Glynis announces that she has cancer. Not...more

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Oct 11, 2012 Maggie Emmett rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: english, political

I had not read anything by Lionel Shriver (yes, shame on me),I saw this book on a remainder table, bought it and loved it. It was her ninth novel, so I better get busy.
First comment: Thank goodness we have Medicare in Australia & National Health in England!Would not want Cancer in USA...
I will be reading more by this author. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It was wonderful to find such a positive truly good male character like Shep. I think so many people plan an after (work) life, but very f...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Paula rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This unusual novels addresses difficult topics in a very human way - particularly the failures of our health care system in the US. Serious prolonged illness impoverishes families (even those WITH insurance) and at what point does more treatment simply prolong life at the expense of any sort of quality of life?

As a novel, I found the beginnign and ending to be very strong and engaging. but, the middle dragged with too much literary real estate taken up with long rants against the government by...more This unusual novels addresses difficult topics in a very human way - particularly the failures of our health care system in the US. Serious prolonged illness impoverishes families (even those WITH insurance) and at what point does more treatment simply prolong life at the expense of any sort of quality of life?

As a novel, I found the beginnign and ending to be very strong and engaging. but, the middle dragged with too much literary real estate taken up with long rants against the government by the main character's best friend, Jackson. The best portions of the book were depicting a real-life, imperfect, relationship between Shep and his very flawed wife, Glynnis. However, the novel's treatment of the impact their mother's illness had on their chidren was dealt with superficially - and as a mother, I was hungry to know how that they were coping.

Few quotes:

Shep was termperamentally predisposed to feel fortunate, although he himself had plenty of substance to resent, had he been so inclined.

Here's my favorite quote - since it describes exactly why I too fantasize about an early retirement and running off to a desert island:

Her husband had misguidedly hoarded his pennies, when the only currency they spent that had ever counted was time.
" What would I lke to get away from? Complexity. Anxiety. A feeling I've had my whole life that at any given time there's something I'm forgetting, some detail or chore, something that I'm supposed to be doing or should have already done... I go through the day with it, I go to sleep with it. "

Few more quotes:

He yearned for protocol. He couldn't see the utility of a civilization that had an etiquette for sending greeting cards in December or placing the fork to the left of htp elate, but as for what to do while your wife was sliced open you were on your own.

Regarding a very busy and involved friend: "He'd been unable to discern whether this frantic bustle of hers was what it claimed to be - an ardent determination to live every remaining day to the fullets--or quite the opposite: an evastion. An equally ardent determination to distract herself, from what only she could know, and thus a complete failure to inhabit her life.

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Jun 28, 2012 Anne Lynch rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the first Lionel Shriver book that I have read and I am now racing off to read more. The story is about a man who wants to escape his dull job and then finds out his wife is dying of cancer. He then has to stay in work for the sake of their health fund and spend his life savings on keeping her alive. The question of course is - how much is a life worth and is the incredibly invasive treatment worth all the pain and suffering. Shriver castes an acerbic eye over the American health care sy...more

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May 31, 2012 Bert rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: popularcontemporary

There are two reasons I read this book:

1. I devoured We Need to Talk About Kevin, and was desperate to sample more of this writers work to see if I liked her as much as I thought I did.

2. I already had a copy of the book on my shelf waiting for me after Waterstones had seen me an unbound proof to review last year. (Oops, naughty me for not getting round to it for a year!)

Without these two reasons I doubt I'd have ever picked this book up. The plot line is depressing, to say the least.

As I have...more

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Apr 05, 2012 Rebecca rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I read a book back in NZ from this author and while it was super freaky, I enjoyed it a lot. This author writes tombs, so I had to mentally prepare for this one too. Unfortunately, it wasn't as good. I mean, there was a twist in the end, that I totally didn't see coming (unlike oddly, the last book I read, which I did see coming, but I still liked it anyway). Maybe because I just didn't care about the topic as much? I mean, I guess I did/do, but I didn't like the lead guy at all. I thought he wa...more

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Feb 09, 2012 Sandy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've described Lionel Shriver as a genius at making the reader care deeply about people who aren't very nice or likeable. This one didn't work as well for me because the condemnation of the American health care system and misanthropic views of most of the characters got in the way. The health care system is the real main character of the book. The premise is interesting: Shep Knacker is about to escape to a Tanzanian island when his wife, Glynis, is diagnosed with a deadly cancer. He drops his p...more I've described Lionel Shriver as a genius at making the reader care deeply about people who aren't very nice or likeable. This one didn't work as well for me because the condemnation of the American health care system and misanthropic views of most of the characters got in the way. The health care system is the real main character of the book. The premise is interesting: Shep Knacker is about to escape to a Tanzanian island when his wife, Glynis, is diagnosed with a deadly cancer. He drops his plans and looks after his wife. There's a parallel story, sometimes told from Shep's best friend's point of view. The friend, Jackson, is a ranter, complaining in a well-informed way about the problems of America, people, the world. At first, Jackson's diatribes are entertaining, even illuminating, but it soon wears thin. The more interesting story of Flicka, Jackson's daughter, who has a very, very rare disease, would have been enough for a novel in itself. Unfortunately, both Glynis and Flicka are one dimensional, carbon copies of each other with their rage against their diseases. I suppose they get short shrift because the families of the afflicted are the ones readers are suppose to identify with. There are very strong opinions here about life, death, health care, capitalism, family... I would have preferred less opinionated information and more story. Others have lauded the ending after the lull in the middle, but I found it unsatisfying, bordering on silly. Also, this may be something I imagined, but I kept having to force myself to remember that the novel was set in New York, not London. It's not because I know Shriver lives there or because she's written other novels set in Great Britain, because I never once had that problem when reading "We Need To Talk About Kevin" (one of the best novels I've ever read). So why did I rate this novel 3 stars? Because Shriver is a brilliant writer whose style I admire and I stayed up late one night to finish it. Shriver kept me turning the pages...
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Jan 23, 2012 John Nebauer rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

This was difficult to wade through in many places. Much of the writing felt awkward, which was a disappointment after reading We have to talk about Kevin. Most of the characters seemed one-dimensional.

Nevertheless, though I did not really enjoy it, it was worth persevering with. It is at one level an indictment of American, and more generally, Western medicine. It is a critique of an attitude that demands that people be kept alive, regardless of the cost, and regardless of their quality of life....more

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Jan 04, 2012 Allie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So Much For That lacks all the force of So Much for Kevin.

My copy has an article at the very end (by Shriver) that is a condensed version of the book, which I wish I had either read instead, or not read at all. An old friend of Shriver, Terri had mesothelioma, and clearly Shriver regrets having been the kind of distant, but really absent, well wisher that she was to Terri. Having read that, the warm fuzziness I felt toward some characters and anger toward others dissipated and the whole thing n...more

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Dec 31, 2011 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars

So Much for That by Lionel Shriver is a perfect book selection for all book clubs, especially book clubs that love controversy and welcome discussion of gritty, real life issues. Dealing with cancer, health care in the US, death, and money this book challenges readers in almost every possible way. Shepherd Knacker has spent most of his adult life working, with the sole purpose of stashing away enough money to finance “an Afterlife,” otherwise known as a post retirement sojourn to a country where...more

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Nov 04, 2011 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

THIS IS A REVIEW OF THE AUDIOBOOK VERSION

Book Description

Shep Knacker has spent most of his adult life preparing for "The Afterlife"—his shorthand for early retirement in a Third World country where his nest egg will last longer. Numerous research trips with his wife Glynis have narrowed down the options to an island off the coast of Africa. Yet Glynis always finsa one reason or another to delay The Afterlife. Impatient to pull the trigger (after all, he sold his handyman company for $1 million...more THIS IS A REVIEW OF THE AUDIOBOOK VERSION

Book Description

Shep Knacker has spent most of his adult life preparing for "The Afterlife"—his shorthand for early retirement in a Third World country where his nest egg will last longer. Numerous research trips with his wife Glynis have narrowed down the options to an island off the coast of Africa. Yet Glynis always finsa one reason or another to delay The Afterlife. Impatient to pull the trigger (after all, he sold his handyman company for $1 million a few years back and has been miserably slaving away for the asshat new owner since then), Shep decides he is ready to start enjoying The Afterlife NOW—even if that means going without Glynis and their teenage son Zack. With one-way tickets in hand, Shep girds himself to do battle with Glynis to convince her that he isn't willing to wait any longer, that The Afterlife must begin now. However, it turns out that Glynis has news of her own—she's been diagnosed with a rare but deadly form of cancer called peritoneal mesothelioma. What can a good husband do? Of course, Shep delays The Afterlife. Yet as the months tick by and the balance of his retirement account dwindles steadily due to mounting medical bills, Shep begins to realize that The Afterlife might never be in his grasp.

My Thoughts

You just never know what you are going to get with a Lionel Shriver book. After thrilling to the parallel universes in The Post-Birthday World and feeling depressed and disturbed after her stunning We Need To Talk About Kevin, I signed up for her latest book without hesitation. I so wish I'd listened to the reviews I'd read beforehand that said that the book felt more like a diatribe against the U.S. health-care system than a novel as So Much For That was a bit of a slog.

Shep's best friend, Jackson, takes on the role of pissed-off ranter—launching on these epic rants about Mooches and Mugs (his favorite term for all the corrupt asshats who are sticking it to us idiots). These rants quickly grew tiresome, and I felt that Shriver let Jackson run on way too long. In addition, I thought the ending was unrealistic and uncharacteristic of Shriver. I honestly couldn't believe how she ended the book. If there was ever a book made for an unhappy ending, this was it. Yet Shriver turned everything on its head and gave these very unlikable characters an almost fairytale ending that just didn't jibe with the rest of the book. (Well, except for Jackson.)

That being said, Shriver is still is darn good writer. Her focus on little details and her way with words made this book tolerable. However, her writing skills often created vivid and graphic scenes that were almost too much for me to handle. At one point, when Shriver described some bodily functions plaguing Glynis, I felt my stomach turning with nausea. In addition, a subplot with Jackson's botched surgery contained one too many graphic descriptions that almost turned me off of intimate relations forever. Let's just say this: you'll never look at an "Enlarge Your Penis" spam e-mails the same way again.

In the end, this book felt more like Shriver communicating an agenda rather than writing a novel. Still, the lady (yes ... Lionel Shriver is a woman ... it threw me off the first time I read her books) can write and that saved this from being a complete turn-off ... but just barely.

About the Narration: I thought Dan John Miller did an excellent job narrating what must have been a difficult and long read. His voice was gripping, and I didn't mind spending more than 17 hours listening to him. In fact, his narration may have kept me in the book longer than if I had read it in print. (I definitely would have skipped over almost any Jackson rant in the print version.) In addition, Miller created different voices for each character, including Shep, Glynis, Jackson and Jackson's disabled daughter Flicka. (I'll confess, when I first heard his voice for Flicka, it was a real turn-off and almost seemed like a parody. Yet, as I listened, I grew accustomed to it and thought perhaps the voice brought the character to life in a way she might not have come to life in the print version.) It was amazing to me how Miller could morph into each character's voices and I'd know immediately who was talking ... even between Shep and Jackson.

Recommended for: People who have an axe to grind against Big Government, the health-care system, politicians and the "system" in general ... you'll find an ally in Jackson! I honestly don't know that I'd recommend this book to anyone. It wasn't an easy read/listen, the characters were often unlikeable, and the "plot" felt more like a chance for Shriver to communicate an agenda rather than craft a cohesive and gripping narrative. (I'm not saying I disagree with Shriver's agenda and criticisms. I just felt she bludgeoned the reader with it.) Although Shriver can write, she has written better books than this one.(less)

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Nov 01, 2011 P J rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Perhaps three unusual medical conditions are several too many for one novel - peritoneal mesothelioma and familial dysautonomia are rare enough conditions, although perhaps not rarer than complications arising from a botched penis enlargement, although the last is probably more, ah, accessible for most of us. What they illustrate in ‘So Much for That’ is the crippling cost of medical care in the USA. Us Europeans can only be horrified by what quickly happens to the million dollars that the hero,...more Perhaps three unusual medical conditions are several too many for one novel - peritoneal mesothelioma and familial dysautonomia are rare enough conditions, although perhaps not rarer than complications arising from a botched penis enlargement, although the last is probably more, ah, accessible for most of us. What they illustrate in ‘So Much for That’ is the crippling cost of medical care in the USA. Us Europeans can only be horrified by what quickly happens to the million dollars that the hero, Shep Knacker, has stashed away from the sale of his business when he needs to pay for his wife’s treatment for the first of these, a rare cancer of the lining of the abdomen associated with past exposure to asbestos fibres. It is Glynis Knacker’s treatment for this condition which provides the most harrowing parts of this book and which make We Need to Talk About Kevin seem like Mrs Brown’s analysis of her problems with William.
Ms Shriver’s characters are possessed of their usual combative views here and her pitiless exposure of the human condition at times feels like cruelty – oh it’s here all right, don’t go near this if you’re of a sensitive disposition.
But much-put-upon Shep, is finally Shep Agonistes, Taking the whole shambles with him, he does what he has always wanted to do. (His retired preacher father, late in life and in the old folks home becomes a joyful convert to non-believer.) They all live (or die or of course both) happily on a tropical island in a condition which Shep has always referred to as the ‘afterlife’, one feels a lack of subtlety here maybe. The ending I’m afraid tends towards schmaltzy - a fairy-tale ending for the realist – a salvation for the atheist.
But so what? We are going to die and it may well not be a nice process. It must though, be better to do this as humans, possessed of ourselves without the sad delusional belief in the mumbo-jumbo which we have, I’m sure, found so embarrassing at many funerals. This is a good book written with the skill we have come to expect of Lionel Shriver. It horrified me and made me laugh out loud. It is in the end affirmative, and as God would know, if there was one, we need this.
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Sep 26, 2011 Val rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: illness

Writer's style-2 stars. Issues addressed in the book-5 stars (all very timely). Recommended reading if you want to read about such issues as the (in)adequacy of our healthcare system, the impact of environmental risks, e.g., asbestos, on our health, the challenges of family and marital life, the case for accepting a pre-mature death versus paying exorbitant sums to cure a non-curable disease, living with chronic illness, and determining the right balance between one extreme (saving for retiremen...more

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Sep 23, 2011 Karen rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am shocked by the accolades this book has received. There were parts of the book that were enjoyable and surprising, particularly the ending, but reading this novel was immensely painful, primarily because almost all of the characters were unlikeable, self-pitying, cynical, self-absorbed, and simply unbearable. I realize that to some degree this was the point -- the characters are supposed to be "human" and flawed -- but their extreme lack of empathy for others actually made them seem like car...more

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Aug 11, 2011 Aleeda rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am so glad I finished 2010 with this book rather than starting 2011 finishing it. For me it was one long, rant. An eloquent rant, but tiresome after the first 100 pages. The main focus of the rant is healthcare in the country, and I would be the first, from firsthand experience, to agree with many of the arguments. Still, I have personally found that it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

Shep has finally reached an enviable position: he has enough money, and foresight in pl...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Michelle Stie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: characters-disenchanted-with-life, dysfunctional-characters, journey

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I guess this is somewhat of a spoiler: this is a book about dying. Given that one of the primary characters has an extremely rare, devastating form of cancer, the ending is not much of a surprise. What Lionel Shriver does so well is that she focuses not only on what makes a good death, but how the way we die impacts those who survive us. Dying is inevitable--how we die is a choice. How we treat those around us is another choice, and the novel is unsparing in portraying the cruelties we inflict u...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Sharon added it · review of another edition

Shelves: did-not-finish

This is the third Book by Lionel Shriver, that I have begun to read, but of those 3 books, the only one I have ever managed to finish. is "we need to talk about Kevin"

Why I find it hard to finish her books, when she can write a good story, with topics that make you think? When the story is a important one with a point? The simple fact is, I can't finish them, because I can't stand the way she writes her female characters.

I recognise that women such as the ones in the book exist. But I just can't...more

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Jul 04, 2011 Tim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lionel Shriver's novel "So Much for That" successfully negotiates the tightrope walk of graphically, realistically presenting the horror of fatal disease but not allowing the book to be a complete downer. It's nice work.

Shriver tends not to bother avoiding overkill in her stories, and she doesn't here. Her characters get on their soap boxes, trading barbs and banter and scathing diatribes about whatever bee the author has in her bonnet at the moment. I have no problem with opinions and indictmen...more Lionel Shriver's novel "So Much for That" successfully negotiates the tightrope walk of graphically, realistically presenting the horror of fatal disease but not allowing the book to be a complete downer. It's nice work.

Shriver tends not to bother avoiding overkill in her stories, and she doesn't here. Her characters get on their soap boxes, trading barbs and banter and scathing diatribes about whatever bee the author has in her bonnet at the moment. I have no problem with opinions and indictments of modern society presented through the mouths of bold fictional characters. So we have Jackson Burdina, whose daughter suffers from a debilitating disease she can't beat, delivering speeches about the mess the health-care system is in and what he calls the mugs and the moochers — the sufferers and those running or manipulating the system — on opposite sides. His friend and co-worker Shep Knacker knows what Jackson is talking about even if he isn't protesting as much. Shep's wife, Glynis, has mesothelioma from asbestos exposure. Her plight — more specifically, how her family deals with her plight and the hoops the system makes everyone jump through — is the focus of Shriver's book. Shep, for years having longed to escape modern life in some primitive land (The Afterlife, he calls it), finally has his dream within his grasp. He's saved for years, and now he plans to leave America for Pemba, a tiny island off Tanzania, with or without Glynis. (On his search for an idyllic, out-of-the-way spot: "He loved the notion of living in a place that his spellchecker didn't recognize — that leapt from the screen underscored by alarmed red squiggles."). But Glynis drops the bomb of her illness, and that changes everything. "So much for that," as in, that idea is gone, and do you realize how much fighting this ultimately fatal disease is going to cost.

On the subject of book titles, except for "Checker and the Derailleurs," Shriver has done great with them: "Game Control," "We Need to Talk About Kevin," "The Post-Birthday World," "Double Fault," "Ordinary Decent Criminals." It's an underrated talent.

While, as I said, Shriver isn't one to shy away from packing her tales with pontificating protagonists and meaty subjects, she does push the envelope too far here with an excess of people in two families suffering health crises. There's Glynis and there's Jackson's daughter, Shep's sister can't smell, Shep's aging father suffers an accident and needs care, and Jackson's cosmetic surgery goes gruesomely wrong. It is Jackson's plight that felt like overkill. Shriver made his problem necessary for where she wants to go with the plot, but for me it was too much. It's a big mistake in a small plot strand.

Shriver's story is much more about those who care for the suffering than about those who suffer, though a chapter told more or less from Glynis' point of view is astonishingly good and moving. A tally of Shep's dwindling Merrill Lynch portfolio, savaged by paying for Glynis' care, is updated as chapters begin; the emotional cost is just as devastating, even as Shriver's wit keeps us ducking amusing barbs. Doctors, insurance companies, employers: no one is safe. Shriver also avoids making Glynis and Flicka (Jackson's daughter) noble, goody-two-shoes sufferers. Flicka is a feisty pill and Glynis is, well, a bitch. Which will surprise Shriver's dedicated readers not at all.

Dismayed by the extraneous nature of Jackson's physical plight, I saw "So Much for That" as a noble three-star book for a while, but Shriver ties up this story quite beautifully. Amid characters spouting bitterness and righteous indignation, she brings dark humor, realistic responses and touching resolution.
(less)

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Jun 09, 2011 Jeruen Dery rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After reading the second book of the famous Lord of the Rings trilogy, I reverted back to fiction that was more realistic. So I picked up this book, entitled So Much For That by Lionel Shriver. I wanted to read a book that didn't require excessive generations of imaginative fantasy, and something that talked about issues about real people, since I wanted something that was realistic for a change. But apparently, this wasn't realism either.

So let me tell you first what this book is about. The aut...more After reading the second book of the famous Lord of the Rings trilogy, I reverted back to fiction that was more realistic. So I picked up this book, entitled So Much For That by Lionel Shriver. I wanted to read a book that didn't require excessive generations of imaginative fantasy, and something that talked about issues about real people, since I wanted something that was realistic for a change. But apparently, this wasn't realism either.

So let me tell you first what this book is about. The author said in the back cover that this book is about "a crumbling marriage resurrected in the face of illness, and a family's struggle to come to terms with disease, dying, and the cost of medical care in modern America." So yeah, this novel is about the American health care system and how it sucks. But of course not, it doesn't say it that way in the outset. Instead, it uses the eyes of the characters that are involved.

So there's Shep, who used to own a small business, until he sold it to an annoying employee. He wanted to go to Pemba in Tanzania and retire, except that when he told his wife that he is going there with or without her, her wife tells him that he has cancer. So throughout the book, Shep takes care of Glynis, his wife.

Shep and Glynis have a couple who are close friends, Carol and Jackson. Jackson cannot keep his lid shut, and he basically is angry at everyone, and believes that everyone is out there to get him. He has complaints against the government, against the taxes, and so forth.

So, without telling much about the story, I can however vouch for the fact that there are quite a few interesting characters in this book. That's fine, since most people are interesting anyway. However, soon enough this book goes over the top. How?

Well, this book is basically about how the health care in this country sucks. Shep is forced to keep that shitty job because that's the only way he can get insurance for his wife. And not only Glynis has a health problem, but everyone has a health problem. Glynis has cancer, Shep's father Gabe is demented, Jackson and Carol's daughter Flicka has familial dysautonomia, and Jackson decides to get a penis enlargement surgery, but backfires and results in an infection. In the end, everyone seems to have a medical problem, and no character in the book is "normal". Thus, reading the book, especially from the latter half, gave me the thought of thinking "enough already, I see the point, the health care system sucks".

Actually I was surprised that it took 356 pages of the book before someone died: I am not telling who though (there's a total of 4 people who will die in this novel, and this is the first). I felt like I wanted to end the novel a couple of hundred pages ahead, because things were just getting too pathetic, that it was so unbelievable already. I also wanted to shoot the incidental relatives and their good-for-nothing attitudes. Beryl was so self-centered, and so was Glynis' sisters and mother.

Anyway, I guess what I didn't like most about the book was its ending: ever heard of deus ex machina? Well, out of nowhere, things get solved. Voila! They have resources again! Granted, all of the problems were solved, but given the time frame and magnitude, that if the book were a full day, everything else before the conclusion took about 23 hours and 50 minutes, and the conclusion took just about 10 minutes. It was short, abrupt, and rather unbelievably convenient.

In short, I don't like this book too much. I have to admit, I learned a lot about cancer and medical care from this book. But at the same time, it irritated me. Perhaps it is a good thing that I was able to be stirred by this book and become irritated, but it's just a book that screams activism to me, instead of fiction. If it were something about religion, I would totally consider this as an allegory or a fable. But somehow, allegories about health care don't exist yet.

I give this book 2.5 out of 5 stars.(less)

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May 11, 2011 Ellen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Received this book through First Reads--otherwise I may not have picked it out of a bookstore. It was a good thing, because I did enjoy it. Basically it's about a guy (Shep) who hates his job and has a less-than-great marriage, and he's been squirreling away money so he can pick up and move to Africa where he'll be comparatively rich and be able to live off the grid for the rest of his life. Then his wife comes home and tells him she has cancer--which turns out to be an awful, aggressive, termin...more

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May 02, 2011 Jane Odgers rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shep Knacker believes his life will begin in earnest only when he quits the rat race and moves to Pemba, an island off the coast of Tanzania whose principal attraction is the low cost of living. He built his own company and then sold it for a million dollars. He wants his liberty and plans to leave his wife for Pemba.
Glynis is diagnosed with mesothelioma. She needs his health insurance which is tied to his employment at the company he once owned. Co-pays, deductibles, out-of-network providers an...more

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Apr 05, 2011 Judith rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What a compelling story this is! I picked it up late last night and couldn't put it down till I fell asleep at 3 a.m. Then got up and couldn't do anything till I finished the book. The hero of this book is a hardworking long-suffering everyman whose lifelong dream to get away from it all is about to be realized. After scrimping and saving his whole life he finally has the funds and the guts to leave New York with his wife and son and move to a tropical island where he hopes to live the simple li...more What a compelling story this is! I picked it up late last night and couldn't put it down till I fell asleep at 3 a.m. Then got up and couldn't do anything till I finished the book. The hero of this book is a hardworking long-suffering everyman whose lifelong dream to get away from it all is about to be realized. After scrimping and saving his whole life he finally has the funds and the guts to leave New York with his wife and son and move to a tropical island where he hopes to live the simple life. This is no whim, but a careful and calculated endeavor to take his nest egg to a third world country where his family can live a good life on a comparatively small sum. His wife, who initially supported the idea, has been throwing road blocks up every time he gets serious about it. So he buys one way tickets for the three of them, packs his bag, and tells her he is going with or without her. She, in turn tells him that she just discovered she has cancer and he has to go back to work because they need his health insurance.

The story presents one of the complex issues of our modern medical world. How much is life worth? How far should we go and how much should we pay to extend the life of a loved one or of ourself, if the quality and prognosis are poor ? What would you do if it happened to you? or What will you do when it happens to you? And what is our obligation to support our aged parents, an ailing spouse, and a growing child all at the same time on a limited budget?

The characters in this book are all multidimensional and so interesting. The good guys are really good and the bad guys are really bad, and then there's a lot of poor schmoes like us stuck in the middle, trying to be good more often than bad. There is so much to think about in this book and so much to relate to. Fortunately, it's not all sadness and woe. There are humorous and light-hearted scenes interspersed with the heaviness to give the book balance, and obviously there's a certain tension to the whole predicament which creates suspense. I will remember scenes from this book for a long time. (less)

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Mar 07, 2011 Jessie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

OK, this one was really problematic for me - while it was pretty compulsively readable, there were many, MANY things that made me angry about this book. I didn't like most of the characters. I thought many of them were at least somewhat cliched. I felt like we see the same old same old arguments trotted out about health care, about taxes, about... all sorts of things. I felt like the book was REALLY sexist - women like men who are a little forceful with them. Girls get fat and stupid when they h...more

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About Lionel Shriver

Lionel Shriver's novels include the New York Times bestseller The Post-Birthday World and the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin, which won the 2005 Orange Prize and has now sold over a million copies worldwide. Earlier books include Double Fault, A Perfectly Good Family, and Checker and the Derailleurs. Her novels have been translated into twenty-five languages. Her journalism h...more

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Quotes from So Much for That

“What would I like to get away from? Complexity. Anxiety. A feeling I've had my whole life that at any given time there's something I'm forgetting, some detail or chore, something that I'm supposed to be doing or should have already done. That nagging sensation - I get up with it, I go through the day with it, I go to sleep with it. When I was a kid, I had a habit of coming home from school on Friday afternoons and immediately doing my homework. So I'd wake up on Saturday morning with this wonderful sensation, a clean, open feeling of relief and possibility and calm. There'd be nothing I had to do. Those Saturday mornings, they were a taste of real freedom that I've hardly ever experienced as an adult. I never wake up in Elmsford with the feeling that I've done my homework.” — 6 people liked it

“I have never in all my life considered you other people.” — 6 people liked it

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