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Interviews | January 3, 2012

Jill Owens: IMG Naomi Benaron: The Powells.com Interview

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Naomi BenaronRunning the Rift is the most recent winner of the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, as awarded by Barbara Kingsolver. It's also an... Continue »
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eBook editions

So Much for That

by Lionel Shriver

So Much for That Cover

ISBN13: 9780061458583
ISBN10: 0061458589
Condition: Standard
Dustjacket: Standard
All Product Details

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Awards

The Rooster 2011 Morning News Tournament of Books Nominee
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Staff Pick

In So Much for That, Lionel Shriver tackles large subjects — marriage, illness, and the failure of the American healthcare system — and dissects them with her astute and critical insights. Full of memorable characters, spot-on detail, and surprising conclusions, this is an unusual page-turner of a novel from a contemporary master.
Recommended by Jill Owens, Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Shep Knacker has long saved for a "The Afterlife": an idyllic retreat to the Third World where his nest egg can last forever. Traffic jams on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway will be replaced with a "talking, thinking, seeing, and being" — and enough sleep. When he sells his business for a cool million dollars, his dream finally seems within reach. Yet his wife Glynis has concocted endless excuses why it's never the right time to go. Weary of working as a peon for the jerk who bought his company, Shep announces he's leaving for a Tanzanian island, with or without her.

Just returned from a doctor's appointment, Glynis has some news of her own: Shep can't go anywhere because she desperately needs his health insurance. But their policy only partially covers the staggering bills for her treatments, and Shep's nest egg for "The Afterlife" soon cracks under the strain.

So Much for That follows the profound transformation of a marriage, and Shriver delivers a compelling novel that presses the question: How much is one life worth?

Review:

"Shriver has a gift for creating real and complicated characters...A highly engrossing novel." San Francisco Chronicle

Review:

"The rare novel that will shake and change you. With these wholly realistic and sympathetic characters, [Shriver] makes us consider the most existential questions of our lives and the dreadful calculus of modern health care in this country." Ron Charles, Washington Post

Review:

"Brave, bold. . . . A page turner. . . . Brilliantly funny and a superb plotter, Shriver is a master of the misanthrope. . . . [A] viciously smart writer." Time

Review:

"Neither stingy with subplots nor shy about taking on timely, complex issues, [Shriver] tosses plenty of both into the pot with real daring and brio." New York Times Book Review

Synopsis:

From the author of The Post-Birthday World and A Perfectly Good Family comes this deeply resonant novel that looks at America's healthcare system, and poses the disturbing moral question that affects more people every day: How much is one life worth?
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About the Author

Novelist and journalist Lionel Shriver won the coveted Orange Prize in 2005 for We Need to Talk about Kevin, a gripping literary page-turner that delves into the tragic possibilities of motherhood gone awry. Her features, op-eds, and reviews have appeared in such publications as the Guardian, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and the Economist.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 8 comments:
Sue Trainor, September 1, 2011 (view all comments by Sue Trainor)
I received this book as part of a Indiespensable package. Months after reading it I continue to think about the premise, various passages, and the characters. Even as the author deals with the health insurance industry and physicians who can't let a patient go, she pulls us into a man's quest to move away from the rat race. This book lingers ...
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Sue Trainor, September 1, 2011 (view all comments by Sue Trainor)
I received this book as part of a Indiespensable package. Months after reading it I continue to think about the premise, various passages, and the characters. Even as the author deals with the health insurance industry and physicians who can't let a patient go, she pulls us into a man's quest to move away from the rat race. This book lingers ...
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
report this comment
Nancy Ledbetter, January 14, 2011 (view all comments by Nancy Ledbetter)
Good story involving contemporary health care issues, and realistic relationship struggles. Very much appreciate that the characters with major health problems are not portrayed as saints.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780061458583
Subtitle:
A Novel
Author:
Shriver, Lionel
Publisher:
Harper
Subject:
Domestic fiction
Subject:
Psychological fiction
Subject:
General
Subject:
General Fiction
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Copyright:
2010
Edition Description:
Hardcover
Publication Date:
20100309
Binding:
Hardback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
448
Dimensions:
9 x 6 x 1.37 in 21.04 oz
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Related Aisles

So Much for That Used Hardcover
0 stars - 0 reviews
$6.95 In Stock
Product details 448 pages Harper - English 9780061458583 Reviews:
"Staff Pick" by ,

In So Much for That, Lionel Shriver tackles large subjects — marriage, illness, and the failure of the American healthcare system — and dissects them with her astute and critical insights. Full of memorable characters, spot-on detail, and surprising conclusions, this is an unusual page-turner of a novel from a contemporary master.

by Jill Owens
"Review" by , "Shriver has a gift for creating real and complicated characters...A highly engrossing novel."
"Review" by , "The rare novel that will shake and change you. With these wholly realistic and sympathetic characters, [Shriver] makes us consider the most existential questions of our lives and the dreadful calculus of modern health care in this country."
"Review" by , "Brave, bold. . . . A page turner. . . . Brilliantly funny and a superb plotter, Shriver is a master of the misanthrope. . . . [A] viciously smart writer."
"Review" by , "Neither stingy with subplots nor shy about taking on timely, complex issues, [Shriver] tosses plenty of both into the pot with real daring and brio."
"Synopsis" by , From the author of The Post-Birthday World and A Perfectly Good Family comes this deeply resonant novel that looks at America's healthcare system, and poses the disturbing moral question that affects more people every day: How much is one life worth?
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