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So Much for That by Lionel Shriver

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All his life Shep Knacker has dreamed of leaving New York and living in simplicity in the Third World. Yet he comes to realise that his wife, Glynis, has never been serious about making the change. On the very day that he announces he is leaving for the island of Pemba with or without her, she informs him that she is gravely ill. So he can't leave. If nothing else, Glynis needs his health insurance. But despite their having insurance coverage, the co-payments required for her astronomically expensive treatments systematically deplete Shep's nest egg, and this once well-off small businessman hurtles toward bankruptcy. Lionel Shriver's brilliant and affecting new novel takes a hard look at America's health-care system and asks the uncomfortable question: how much money is one human life worth? Reviews A risk taker with a protean imagination, Shriver (The Post-Birthday World) has produced another dazzling, provocative novel, a witty and timely exploration of the failure of our health-care system. Shep Knacker's long-cherished plan to use the million dollars from the sale of his handyman business to retire to a tropical island receives a gut-wrenching blow when his wife, Glynis, is diagnosed with a rare cancer. Transformed into a full-time caregiver, the good-natured Shep is buoyed during the illness of self-centered, vindictive, and obnoxiously demanding Glynis by his working mate and best friend, Jackson Burdina, whose teenage daughter, Flicka, also has a terminal disease. Ironically, Glynis tenaciously clings to life, while Flicka, with whom she bonds, wants to end hers. Jackson, meanwhile, acutely conscious that he's going broke, rails pungently against government regulations and the insurance industry. A mouthpiece for the plight of middle-class workers, Jackson's diatribes about contemporary society-the medical, educational and banking systems, exorbitant taxation, political chicanery-ring painfully true. As Shep's Merrill-Lynch account dwindles and further medical calamities arise, Shriver twists the plot to raise suspense until the heart-lifting denouement. (Mar.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. Shep Knacker believes in the "Afterlife" and has spent every moment of his adult life planning for it. But he's not a born-again Christian. Shep's version involves a hammock on a sandy beach in a Third World country where he and his wife, Glynis, can retire and live like royalty for dollars a day. Poised to set his dreams in motion, Shep learns that Glynis has cancer. Now every penny must go to medical expenses not covered by an inadequate health insurance policy. Shriver's (The Post-Birthday World) latest novel is both a realistic portrait of a family dealing with terminal illness and a thorough critique of the American health-care system. Verdict Shriver's strong, clear writing is marred by several complex subplots and lengthy rants by Shep's best friend, Jackson, who is anti almost everything and dealing with a botched surgery himself as well as a daughter with an incurable disorder. Readers who prefer a more focused plot will want to stick with Jodi Picoult, but Shriver's fans and others willing to follow the author's turns will find themselves thinking about the novel long after they've finished it. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/09.]-Christine Perkins, Bellingham P.L., WA Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.
Publication Details

Title: So Much for That

Author(s):

  • Lionel Shriver

Illustrator:

Binding: Paperback

Published by: HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd: Australia, 2010

Edition:

ISBN: 9780732287030 | 0732287030

448 pages. 23.3 x 15.7 x 3.3 centimetres (0

  • ENG- English
Book Condition: Very Good
4719c

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Foxing - Wikipedia
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Age tanning, or browning, occurs over time on the pages of books. This process can show up on just the edges of pages, when this occurs it is sometimes referred to as "edge tanning." This kind of deterioration is commonly seen in books printed before the advent of acid-free paper in the 1980s.
r/BookCollecting - Is this mold or normal aging for a well used book?
 
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  • Trade Name: Book Express Ltd
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  • Address: 35 Nathan Terrace, Shannon, 4821, New Zealand.
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  • NZBN: 9429031911290

       

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