Big Brother - Rambling Readers

Published Feb. 11, 2013 by HarperCollins.

ISBN:: 978-0-06-145857-6
OCLC Number:: 813286796

(1 review)

For Pandora, cooking is a form of love. 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. Then, when Pandora picks up her older brother Edison at the airport, she doesn’t recognize him. In the years since they’ve seen one another, the once slim, hip New York jazz pianist has gained hundreds of pounds. What happened? After Edison has more than overstayed his welcome, Fletcher delivers his wife an ultimatum: It’s him or me.

Rich with Shriver’s distinctive wit and ferocious energy, Big Brother is about fat: an issue both social and excruciatingly personal. It asks just how much sacrifice we'll make to save single members of our families, and whether it's ever possible to save loved ones from themselves.

1 edition

Sean Randall reviewed Big Brother by Lionel Shriver

Review of 'Big Brother' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

“But what’s so great about being a perfectionist? You’re never happy. You do all this work, and then the stuff you’ve made just pisses you off.”

I actually enjoyed this a great deal, even though I picked it up assuming Orwell had contributed to the title and was a bit confused when it turned out to be a big brother both in a familial and literal sense rather than a work dealing with the government or spying or something like that.

it was interesting, particularly on the theme of siblings (of which I have 2 and my partner has 1, but there our similarities end). To me, my siblings are happenstance and hold no more tie to me than any strangers I might come into contact with through life generally. I'd give blood were we matches, bone marrow or a lung if they were dying, but I'd do that for …

“But what’s so great about being a perfectionist? You’re never happy. You do all this work, and then the stuff you’ve made just pisses you off.”

I actually enjoyed this a great deal, even though I picked it up assuming Orwell had contributed to the title and was a bit confused when it turned out to be a big brother both in a familial and literal sense rather than a work dealing with the government or spying or something like that.

it was interesting, particularly on the theme of siblings (of which I have 2 and my partner has 1, but there our similarities end). To me, my siblings are happenstance and hold no more tie to me than any strangers I might come into contact with through life generally. I'd give blood were we matches, bone marrow or a lung if they were dying, but I'd do that for anyone (unless they were a mass murderer or something unspeakable). To her, the connection of a brother goes far and beyond that; there's this ineffable, and yes sometimes enviable tie. Such is shown in this work, and that's what really sank it home for me.