Game Control

by Lionel Shriver

Set against the vivid backdrop of modern-day Africa—a continent now primarily populated with wildlife of the two-legged sort—Lionel Shriver's  Game Control  is a wry, grimly comic tale of bad ideas and good intentions.  Eleanor Merritt, a do-gooding American family-planning worker, was drawn to Kenya to improve the lot of the poor. Unnervingly, she finds herself falling in love with the beguiling Calvin Piper despite, or perhaps because of, his misanthropic theories about population control and the future of the human race. Surely, Calvin whispers seductively in Eleanor's ear, if the poor are a responsibility they are also an imposition. With a deft, droll touch, Shriver highlights the hypocrisy of lofty intellectuals who would "save" humanity but who don't like people.

Genres: Fiction, Africa, Literary Fiction, Romance, Audiobook, Book Club, Novels

277 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

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 has appeared in the Guardian, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. She lives in London and Brooklyn, New York.

Author photo copyright Jerry Bauer, courtesy of Harper Collins.

Reviews

[Betty]

Heel interessant thema: UN programma's voor geboortebeperking in een explosief groeiende wereldbevolking die getroffen wordt door AIDS. Heel wat morele dillemma's passeren de revue. Maar de personages konden het niet waarmaken en het was hun ongeloofwaardigheid die uiteindelijk dit boek tot de middelmaat torpedeerde.

[Anton Segers]

Intelligente roman van een intelligente schrijfster (van o.a. 'We moeten het even over Kevin hebben'), met een messcherpe cynische kijk op ontwikkelingshulp en bevolkingscontrole, met superieure ironische dialogen, en veel mensenkennis.