So Much for That (Shriver) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
[Shriver's] managed to take an idea for a kind of thesis novel and instead create a deeply affecting portrait of two marriages, two families, as cancer in one case and a rare, debilitating childhood condition in the other threaten to push their daily lives past their tipping points. Though there is one farcical plot development that is poorly woven into the emotional fabric of the story, and though some of the asides about health care feel shoehorned into the narrative, the author's understanding of her people is so intimate, so unsentimental that it lofts the novel over such bumpy passages, insinuating these characters permanently into the reader's imagination.
Michiko Kakutani - New York Times


If Jodi Picoult has her finger on the zeitgeist, Shriver has her hands around its throat. Not only does her new book wrestle with actual laws and prices…but it reminds us just how politically argumentative a novel can be. Like Upton Sinclair, she forces us to look at how the sausage is made; if anything, So Much for That is even bloodier than The Jungle.… I admire that what [Shriver's] done here is without a dose of sentimentality. Yes, it's gangling and pedantic and far, far too long, but its anger is infectious. If you can take the story's grisly details and Shriver's badgering insight into all things, this is the rare novel that will shake and change you. With these wholly realistic and sympathetic characters, she makes us consider the most existential questions of our lives and the dreadful calculus of modern health care in this country.
Ron Charles - Washington Post


(Refers to audio version.) [Shep's] lifelong goal of retiring to a remote, primitive country …is no whimsical daydream, but a desperate need that is at the very core of Shep's identity.… A "must listen."
Publishers Weekly


Shriver's strong, clear writing is marred by several complex subplots and lengthy rants…. [B]ut Shriver's fans and others willing to follow the author's turns will find themselves thinking about the novel long after they've finished it. —Christine Perkins, Bellingham P.L., WA
Library Journal


[W]hile this sometimes feels like an op-ed writ large, Shriver's skill at characterization is so solid that Jackson never becomes a plot device.… An overly schematic but powerful study of both marriage and medical care.
Kirkus Reviews