I first came across Big Brother on my own while looking up books by Lionel Shriver. I was fresh off of my first read of We Need to Talk About Kevin, and I was in that kind of book hangover that makes you swear you are going to read every book a certain author has ever written. Accordingly, I added all of her novels to my Goodreads wish list that day. This one, however, really stood out in my mind as the one I wanted to try next. Of course, I didn't end up getting around to actually reading it back then, but my Then Versus Now Challenge gave me the perfect opportunity to give it a try this year.
The plot of the novel follows Pandora, a middle aged woman who runs an quirky toy company making novelty dolls for adults. Her business is extremely successful and she enjoys quite a substantial income from it. She lives with her husband Fletcher and her two teenage stepchildren, and her life is mostly a happy one. A small amount of friction comes from Fletcher's new obsession with cycling and dieting. He has become ultra active and healthy, and refuses to eat anything he deems junk food, which is pretty much everything that's not chicken breast, fish, or vegetables. Pandora, meanwhile, loves all kinds of food and isn't nearly as strict with what she eats. In fact, she's put on a few pounds lately and is feeling a bit insecure about it, especially next to Fletcher's new dedication to fitness.
This small annoyance turns into something altogether more serious when Pandora's brother Edison comes for a long visit. Edison is an accomplished jazz pianist and he's been working in New York and traveling the world for the past several years. Pandora hasn't seen him in four years, so she is shocked to discover when she picks him up at the airport that he's gained a significant amount of weight. He's put on at least 200 pounds and is barely recognizable to her. This is awkward for her to deal with, as she isn't sure whether to say something, to offer to help him, or to pretend that nothing has changed. When she gets him home, it becomes clear that the extra weight isn't the only issue she will have to contend with during his stay. Edison is a terrible house guest. He's messy, breaks things, and eats an incredible volume of food. He takes over the kitchen as well, cooking outrageously calorie-dense meals. Fletcher, who has never gotten along with Edison all that well, begins to be openly hostile towards him, which Edison reflects right back to him.
Before long, it becomes clear that something is deeply troubling Edison and he is turning to food to ease his emotional pain. Pandora is unable to stand by and watch him struggle. To save his life, she devises an unorthodox plan; she decides to move into a small apartment with him and begin an intensive diet. She crunches some numbers and determines that Edison's weight has climbed so high that it will take nearly a year's worth of effort to get him down to his old weight of 163 pounds. In undertaking this mission, she is risking her marriage (Fletcher is not supportive of this at all), but she feels like this is the only way to keep Edison alive. Determined to turn her brother around, Pandora takes charge and gives it her best shot.
There were a lot of things I liked about Big Brother, but there were some elements that were troubling as well. On the positive side, I continued to enjoy Shriver's writing style, which is quite wordy and wry. I know that those qualities are exactly what some people don't like about her books, but I really appreciate the way she strings a sentence together. It's most definitely a matter of personal taste on that point. I also thought that Pandora's struggles and thoughts around weight were pretty realistic. She thinks some very harsh things about herself and her brother throughout the novel, but I do think it's an accurate portrayal of someone's inner monologue around a touchy, difficult subject. I imagine that if I was dealing with a similar situation with a relative who suddenly changed in weight so drastically, I would struggle with what to do (or not do) and say (or not say) as well.
The plot itself was not as suspenseful or exciting as what I was used to in We Need to Talk About Kevin, but I was still engaged in the story all the way through and I thought the pacing was pretty good. I was never bored and I was interested to see how the story ended. I wanted to see if Edison would actually lose all the weight or not, and that kept me powering through the pages.
What I didn't like so much were some of the depictions of Edison. The way Shriver describes his appearance and behavior felt fatphobic to be. He's constantly shown to be struggling to fit into various bits of furniture, breaking things, and lazing around the house. He doesn't pick up after himself, eats things that aren't really food on their own (like a box of powdered sugar, for example), and in one memorable scene, he overflows the toilet to such an extent that his excrement is literally floating down the hallway. I felt like Shriver's perception of weight and calories was off as well. If Edison ate to the extent that we see in the story all the time, he wouldn't be 386 pounds - he'd be dead. Her characterizations were just over the top and hyper-focused on how gross and lazy Edison was at his new weight, and it didn't feel right.
In addition, I felt like Pandora's perception of her own weight was off as well. Throughout the story, she comments repeatedly about how she's gained a few pounds and is uncomfortable with it. She mentions looking noticeably rounder in pictures, having cellulite on her thighs, etc. From the way she went on and on about it, I assumed she was somewhere in the 190-200 zone. However, when she finally gets on a scale in the story, she weighs in around 170, which is pretty close to my own pandemic weight and is really not enough poundage to be causing the level of distress she was experiencing. It seems to me that Shriver has some pretty significant emotional issues tied to weight, stemming I'm sure from her own, real-life brother's obesity, which she wrote a piece on in The Guardian back in 2009. Her brother actually died from complications of obesity, and her attitude throughout Big Brother seems to be a reflection of her anger and hurt from this loss. While this helps me to understand why she writes the way she does about weight, it doesn't help make her portrayal of Edison and Pandora more realistic or less offensive.
The ending of this novel was a surprise, and one that seems to leave a lot of readers torn, if the reviews on Goodreads are anything to go by. I can't elaborate without giving too much away, but I will say that after reading it and digesting it for a few days, I do like it. It adds a layer of complexity to the story that is worth thinking about afterwards.
Overall, I enjoyed this book well enough, so I settled on giving it a 3/5. I liked the writing, was interested in the plot, and appreciated the ugly honesty of the main character. However, Shriver's unrealistic and often unkind depiction of the overweight frequently made me cringe. I do not think this was as good as We Need to Talk About Kevin was - not even close, in fact. It was still a decent read though, just not one that I can recommend to anyone who isn't skinny.
Challenge Tally
Then vs. Now: 25/27
Total Books Read in 2020: 81
No comments:
Post a Comment
So, what do you think?