To target someone so obviously plagued by the spectre of BED and then ridicule and lampoon them to a point where they’re only human if they’re thin is already detestable- to reiterate Edison wasn’t worth saving just made it even worse. The basics: Big Brother is the story of Pandora, who grew up in Los Angeles with a father who starred on a popular 1970's family sitcom with parallels to her life. Alas, her husband, Fletcher, a self-employed high-end cabinetmaker, now spurns the “toxic” dishes that he’d savored through their courtship, and devotes hours each day to manic cycling. It's a lot to swallow, and I was initially as skeptical as I am about fad diets — but the book grows on you. As Pandora rushes to sort him – and the mess – out, he confesses everything: there are no gigs, no career, nothing.

In time, this may become my most favorite Shriver novel; she is not assailing me with politic vitriol nor disturbing me with harrowing parenting stories. But all too often, I sensed authorial intrusion: it was as if I were being educated as to what to think about this issue. The book opens with Pandora’s older brother, Edison, and his impending and prolonged stay at her Iowa home. I truly believed that the voice used for the mother in the book (patronising and superfluous at best) was a brilliant character choice and b.I thought she took this issue and heightened it to be dramatic and funny and sympathetic and challenging. It doesn't sound good now that I'm typing it, but I tend to favor books with complex or unexpected protagonists.

Shriver's long residence abroad leads to several Briticisms incongruous in a novel narrated by an Iowan: "fiddly scraps from the food processor," "toilet roll" instead of toilet paper, "verges" for road shoulders, a "slimmer" instead of a dieter. On top of now being a morbidly obese person, the narrator also takes issue with her brother's other developed-habits, such as breaking furniture, convincing high school kids to drop out of high school, etc. It is no accident that I read Lionel Shriver’s Big Brother almost directly after Michael Moss’s excellent non-fiction book Salt Sugar Fat: how the Food Giants Hooked Us. If left to his own devices, he will almost certainly eat himself to death: "slow-motion-suicide-by-pie".There is no precise wrong/right answer in my opinion, per se, only vaguely times where it seems blatantly obvious that one should do something.

Pandora decided that despite the objections her husband would have, she needed to find out not only what had been going on in Edison's life, but she needed to help him to lose the weight. Although Fletcher is purportedly the love of Pandora's life, it's hard to understand why: He is not just hyper-disciplined about food and exercise, he's a "nutritional Nazi" and glowering killjoy. Well, now that I’ve read Big Brother by Lionel Shriver, I’ve realized that her book has made me a more sympathetic human being.

Lionel Shriver is famous for two things: her prize-winning novel about motherhood, We Need to Talk About Kevin, and her personal obsession with diet and exercise. In Big Brother's fictional scenario, Shriver's narrator attempts to rescue her enormous brother from his "slow-motion suicide-by-pie" by becoming his full-time, live-in weight-loss coach, putting her marriage on the line in the process. Only if you were so repelled by obesity that you were already averting your eyes could this picture work. I recognized an ancient Christmas present that had slid to the back of the pantry: pecans and hazelnuts candied in a thick brown goo.

Pandora, a middle aged woman, has a husband Fletcher, a stepson Tanner (17 years old) and a stepdaughter Cody (13 years old). Yes, I understand the response that this is preventable, etcetera, but like depression, like other medical diagnoses, which can show in other ways, none of us know these strangers' stories. But she would have felt a lot of sadness and regret about the situation, so the fantasy was like a tribute to him and a wish that things could have been different. That being said, when you strip away the pretentious language and often unnecessary meandering of the author, there was an incredibly poignant and beautiful story that paints the stark reality of obesity in many modern families.

The rest of Pandora's family was just as stunned by Edison's weight gain ; but despite everyone's shock, nobody talked about Edison's appearance. increasing each day and even more, when it became apparent that Edison's visit was going to have to be open ended. According to the friend on the other end of the line,however, Edison was experiencing some unspecified personal problems and needed a place to stay until he could figure how what to do.