SO MUCH FOR THAT
LIONEL SHRIVER
FOURTH ESTATE NZ$29.99

Lionel Shriver is one of those polarising authors for whom it is impossible to feel neutral about. Many  people I spoke to after the event at the AWRF were full of awe and admiration for her were and racing off to buy her latest book, SO MUCH FOR THAT, while others said they never wanted to hear her or read her again! She is I guess something of a polemicist.
Love her or loath her there is no doubt she is a formidable talent , a wonderful writer and journalist.

This new title is a big beefy book of around 450 pages (great value at this price) and has already been widely reviewed in the US press.
At the opening night of the AWRF she read a most intimate and moving section from the novel. Some thought it a most inappropriate piece to read in this situation, it certainly stunned the audience.
One word that has cropped up in several reviews is the word affecting. This is a moving and affecting novel has been commonly used  to desribe the book and I think that is an accurate assessment. In it she takes a hard look at America's less than impressive health-care system through the eyes of a long-married couple who are being progressively bankrupted because of the cost of the wife's incredibly expensive medical treatment for a rare form of cancer.




About the author:
Lionel Shriver's books include The Post-Birthday World, Double Fault, Game Control, and the Orange Prize-winning We Need to Talk About Kevin. She writes frequently for the Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and The Independent. She lives in London.