![]() There are somewhat effete Baby Boomer parents, there's the Grand Man (who made the fortune) and his wife with dementia. For instance, the woman's economics professor brother-in-law is sacked and he and her sister, lovers of good wine and holidays in Tuscany, have to come and stay. ![]() ![]() The woman, highly educated, works in a shelter and everyone regardless of their Ivy League degrees, their doctorates or whatever, is liable to be waiting on tables at best. The dollar has dissipated to nothing and some currency called bancors – promoted by Putin, still in power apparently – is reducing the Land of the Free to progressive ruination. They're having to wash their dishes in old grey water and showers are rationed. It is 2029 (a century since the crash that led to the Great Depression, ho ho) and we meet a couple – he's Hispanic but she comes from a super-rich New York family, the Mandibles. In her new novel about money and the near-future, she exhibits ferocity of intelligence and boldness of imagination to create a longish parable about the world turning to rubbish that is also a family saga. Some people think Shriver is a formidable and frightening woman. Lionel Shriver became famous for We Need to Talk About Kevin, the 2003 novel that was hailed as a formidable and frightening book about a young man. ![]() ![]() The Mandibles: A Family 2029-2047 by Lionel Shriver. ![]()
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