Synopses & Reviews
Big Brother is a striking novel about siblings, marriage, and obesity from Lionel Shriver, the acclaimed author the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin.
For Pandora, cooking is a form of love. Alas, her husband, Fletcher, a self-employed high-end cabinetmaker, now spurns the “toxic” dishes that hed savored through their courtship, and spends hours each day to manic cycling. Then, when Pandora picks up her older brother Edison at the airport, she doesnt recognize him. In the years since theyve seen one another, the once slim, hip New York jazz pianist has gained hundreds of pounds. What happened? After Edison has more than overstayed his welcome, Fletcher delivers his wife an ultimatum: Its him or me.
Rich with Shrivers distinctive wit and ferocious energy, Big Brother is about fat: an issue both social and excruciatingly personal. It asks just how much sacrifice we'll make to save single members of our families, and whether it's ever possible to save loved ones from themselves.
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“The fellowship of Lionel Shriver fanatics is about to grow larger, so to speak. Big Brother, a tragicomic meditation on family and food, may be her best book yet.” Gary Shteyngart, author of < i=""> Super Sad True Love Story <>
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“What would you do for love of a brother? For love of a husband? For love of food? In Big Brother, Shrivers new and wonderfully timely novel, her heroine wrestles with these vexing questions. Only the scales dont lie.” Margot Livesey, author of < i=""> The Flight of Gemma Hardy <>
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“An intelligent meditation on food, guilt, and the real (and imagined) debts we owe the ones we love.” < i=""> Publishers Weekly <>
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“Shriver brilliantly explores the strength of sibling bonds versus the often more fragile ties of marriage.” < i=""> Booklist <>
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“A searing, addictive novel about the power and limitations of food, family, success, and desire. Shriver examines Americas weight obsession with both razor-sharp insight and compassion.” J. Courtney Sullivan, author of < i=""> Maine <> and < i=""> Commencement <>
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“Brilliantly imagined, beautifully written, and superbly entertaining, Shrivers novel confronts readers with the decisive question: can we save our loved ones from themselves? A must-read for Shriver fans, this novel will win over new readers as well.” < i=""> Library Journal <>
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“[Shriver] has a knack for conveying subtle shifts in family dynamics. . . . Ms Shriver offers some sage observations. . . . Yet her main gift as a novelist is a talent for coolly nailing down uncomfortable realities.” < i=""> The Economist <>
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“Shriver is brilliant on the novel shock that is hunger. . . . Most of all, though, theres her glorious, fearless, almost fanatically hard-working prose.” < i=""> Guardian <>
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“Shriver is wonderful at the things she is always wonderful at. Pace and plot. . . . Psychology.” < i=""> Independent <>
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“(A) delicious, highly readable novel . . . (which) raises challenging questions about how much a loving person can give to another without sacrificing his or her own well-being.” < i=""> People <> , People Pick (4 Stars)
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“Her [Shrivers] best work--Big Brother is her twelfth novel--presents characters so fully formed that they inhabit her ideas rather than trumpet them.” < i=""> New Republic <>
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“Big Brother is vintage Shriver - observant, unsettling, funny, but also, as Pandora admits, ‘Very, very sad.” < i=""> Miami Herald <>
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“The ever-caustic Shriver has great fun at the expense of crash diets and a host of other sacred pop-culture, er, cows. Politically correct its not, but Big Brother finds the funny - and the pathos - in fat.” < i=""> USA Today <>
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“As a writer, Shrivers talents are many: Shes especially skilled at playing with readerss reflexes for sympathy and revulsion, never letting us get too comfortable with whatever firm understanding we think we have of a character.” < i=""> Washington Post <>
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“The diet - the story of a heroically undertaken significant change - is pretty nearly irresistible. But what really powers this story, an outsize look at the most basic of human activities, eating, is a search for the definition, and appreciation, of ‘ordinary life.” < i=""> Minneapolis Star Tribune <>
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“The moving (and shocking) finale will have you thinking about the ‘byzantine emotional mathematics we all put ourselves through when overwhelmed with family responsibilities.” Oprah.com
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“Lionel Shrivers Big Brother has the muscle to overpower its readers. It is a conversation piece of impressive heft.” < i=""> New York Times <>
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“A great plot setup that presents an array of targets for Shriver to obliterate with her knife-sharp prose.” < i=""> The Rumpus <>
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“Would I recommend Big Brother? Absolutely. It confronts the touchy subject of American lard exuberantly and intelligently; it makes you think about what you put in your mouth and why.” < i=""> Bloomberg <>
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“Pandora is a masterly creation.” < i=""> New York Times Book Review <>
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“The latest compelling, humane and bleakly comic novel from the author of We Need to Talk about Kevin.” < i=""> Evening Standard <> (London)
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“A surprising sledgehammer of a novel” < i=""> The Times <> (London)
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“A gutsy, heartfelt novel” < i=""> Sunday Times <> (London)
Synopsis
When Pandora picks up her older brother Edison at her local Iowa airport, she literally doesn't recognize him. In the four years since the siblings last saw one another, the once slim, hip New York jazz pianist has gained hundreds of pounds. What happened?
And it's not just the weight. After his brother-in-law has more than overstayed his welcome, Pandora's husband, Fletcher, delivers an ultimatum: it's him or me. Putting her marriage and her adopted family on the line, Pandora chooses her brother—who without her support in losing weight, will surely eat himself into an early grave.
About the Author
Lionel Shriver's novels include The New Republic, So Much for That, The Post-Birthday World, and the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin. Her journalism has appeared in The Guardian, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and many other publications.