Pandora, a successful business owner and Edison, a talented jazz pianist, have always been close. And when Pandora is woken with a call about her brother Edison, the same is true. Telephone calls which come in the middle of the night rarely are for good news. Shriver seems to be less acerbic than she has in her previous novels:less outrage and shock are dealt by the writer's hand here. If you have not read Shriver before, then start with this, her 2013 novel, Big Brother. It is such a shame too, because a writer as talented as Shriver, dealing with such a universal subject, could have written a fantastic book. I was having a hard time enjoying the book before the last 20 pages, but the ending made me feel completely ripped off. And Edison is more of a cliche than a fully fleshed-out character.īut the biggest sin to me is the book's ending, which pretty much made everything you read up to that point meaningless.
I also had difficulty believing she and her husband - who is pretty much a total jerk - were ever happy. I feel like we spend way too much time inside her head. But I had some major problems with the book as well.įor one thing, I grew tired of Pandora. There is certainly much to like in "Big Brother." Shriver writes insightfully about this country's obsession with weight loss and health. Together, they go on a crash liquid diet and begin a year-long adventure in weight loss. In an effort to restore her brother to good health, Pandora moves out of her home and into an apartment with her brother. When her older jazz musician brother, Edison, moves in with them for a couple of months, her family life deteriorates further.Įdison, much to Pandora's shock, has put on 200 pounds in the years since she has seen him. Pandora's marriage is already strained by her husband's fanatical obsession with healthy eating and exercise. The story is narrated by Pandora - a forty-something woman who lives with her husband Fletcher and her two teenage step-children. I loved her books "Let's Talk About Kevin" and especially "So Much for That." So I was looking forward to reading her new book "Big Brother," particularly since it deals with an issue that (unfortunately) is near and dear to my heart - being overweight.
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