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Book Group: Oct 2014 Big Brother - Discussion thread

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Autumnleaves Nov 2014 2:46pm, 9 Nov 2014 4,989 posts	0 Autumnleaves Sorry that was less than clear! I meant Lionel Shriver shied away - so on the one hand the family were all appalled by Edison's size and there was no sense in which they got beyond his appearance (apart from Cody). Admittedly he wasn't all that likeable. If he had been more so, then that attitude would have been more questionable. Then there was the way food and the provision of it was all bound up with love and affection and its expression, which didn't help anyone - until the 'mythical bit' where Edison prepares all those lovely meals for Pandora. What wasn't really challenged for me was the judgementalism - Pandora mentions that she looks at photos of herself for size first - I am aware that I started doing that a few years ago. It seems that we are all caught between needing to get a collective grip on our tendency to eat badly, not judge or blame or criticise individuals and therefore maybe we can't help - just like Pandora finds herself unable to help Edison.
Columba Nov 2014 8:45pm, 9 Nov 2014 5,435 posts	0 Columba It's by no means a universal phenomenon, - overweight, eating badly and being judgemental about people who are overweight. Even leaving out those parts of the world where people are chronically undernourished, there are surely many societies in which people are not grossly overweight and not overly concerned about weight. Read an article earlier today about crash test dummies. In the USA they've just made a whole lot of new ones to reflect the fact that many drivers are now extremely overweight. The dummies they've been using since the 1980s are around 12 stone. They have now built dummies twice that.
Autumnleaves Nov 2014 8:22am, 10 Nov 2014 4,993 posts	0 Autumnleaves We watched the 1978 version of Superman last night - struck by how normal sized everyone looked -- not super skinny, not large - including Otis, the comedy baddie, shown always eating and obviously for that time, meant to be large - but who now just looked very slightly overweight. Even in the background.
Longwayround (LWR) Nov 2014 10:39pm, 15 Nov 2014 1,359 posts	0 Longwayround (LWR) I finished the book while Atlantis was on the tellybox with some decent jazz playing through my headphones. It took me a while to get into the book since the characters were pretty much all so unappealing (Cody being the possible exception) and I found the setup a little implausible but gradually Shriver won me round. Books don't have to be about people I like. I'll post more later but I could quite happily have seen the book conclude with Edison's snout in the cakey trough rather than with the awkward afterword. I need a fictional narrator to inform me that I've just read a work of fiction even less than I need an author to inform me of this fact. Several pages ago V'rap asked why a doctor wouldn't have investigated the cause(s) of Edison's huge weight gain. I wonder whether the fact that such tests would cost money and that Edison was broke in a country with a very different opinion of state-subsidised healthcare could be the answer to that.
Columba Nov 2014 7:01pm, 16 Nov 2014 5,485 posts	0 Columba It was fiction within fiction, LWR. In similar way to the "Joint Custody" TV family which was fictitious and yet had a real and major impact on the real Halfdanarson family.
McGoohan Nov 2014 7:20pm, 16 Nov 2014 13,101 posts	0 McGoohan I think that Shriver is seen as a bit of an 'author of issues' LWR and she does have a more in depth look at the US Health System in So Much for That (I haven't read that one yet though)
Fizz :-) Nov 2014 9:34pm, 21 Nov 2014 1,227 posts	0 Fizz :-) I've just finished this tonight, and I was very disappointed with the 'twist'. I'd heard nothing about the book, and don't know much about LS either, so had no expectation of it. There was a phrase, about looking back at the photo, that made me think it probably wasn't going to be a happy ending. Initially, I found all the italics very annoying, but I got used to them as I got more into the book. And ultimately, that's what disappointed me, I got into the book and the people became real to me, at least as real as most of you are To find out that it was all made up? Meh. Well ok, it's a novel and it was all made up, but you know what I mean. She did just redeem it with her final sentence.
Columba Nov 2014 6:59pm, 22 Nov 2014 5,532 posts	0 Columba Not all made up. The fact that part of it was "made up" clarifies things about Pandora herself. (I've forgotten what the final sentence was, - and have given the book to Younger Daughter, with the caution that it's a good book but not a pleasant one).
Fizz :-) Nov 2014 8:33pm, 23 Nov 2014 1,229 posts	0 Fizz :-) Postieboy quoted it in on page 4 (which I only recall as I am new to this thread), "Having dodged paying the piper whilst Edison was alive, I pay now instead. I pay every day".
pink fairy Nov 2014 5:09pm, 30 Nov 2014 291 posts	0 pink fairy Very late to this party, but I finally finished this. Can't really decide how I felt about it, it took me quite a while to get into and I didn't find the style that easy to read although I got used to it as it went on. Once I got into the second half I found it harder to put down, but I was a bit nonplussed by the ending (both the initial and then the twist). I also found the relationship between Pandora and Edison to not be particularly believable- I know Shriver was trying to make a point about sibling relationships being 'cliquey' but I thought it was pushed to far. Particularly with the twist that this was Pandora's imagined relationship with her brother, it just seemed a bit strained to me that she would imagine them to be so intertwined. I also thought it weird that they had another sister who basically never got mentioned- I knew there was a twist and had guessed it would be something to do with her so was surprised that she was so insignificant right to the end.