December 13, 2014
Hmmmm. This book started off with a lot of promise, but was ultimately unsatisfying. Shriver tackles a lot of timely issues, setting the novel (published in 2010) during the time of Terri Shiavo and Hurricane Katrina. I remember the hullabaloo over Shiavo, especially since I was taking an ethics class at that same time as a high school junior. Then, as now, my opinion was pragmatic but not heartless: it was both undignified and wasteful to keep Shiavo alive for so long in that condition. The fact that she kinda put herself into that position, with her eating disorder, was an idea I could never ignore. Jackson, one protagonist of this book, pretty much shared my views, and was not afraid to make them loudly known when it was still a hot button topic.
See, I started off liking the two main protagonists. The novel mainly switched following Jackson and Shep, with a single chapter for Glynis. Shep used to own a modestly successful "handyman" service business, but had sold out to a spoiled trust fund kid who made the business bigger, though not better. Shep, and Jackson, stayed on as managers or something. Why did Shep give away his company so soon?
Because he wanted the money for the Afterlife, his vision of becoming an expatriot in a third world country, where he can live it up on a modest fortune for the rest of his days. Shep's vision and his worldview (hating the rat race, wanting time to relax and take life in, smell a fucking rose) really spoke to me. I don't think he sounds crazy at all. I'd do it if I could, in a heartbeat.
But Shep is a schmuck. His ridiculously selfish sister Beryl reminds me of my oldest brother, to a T. I stopped allowing him to take advantage of me years ago, but unfortunately my father (essentially Shep with less money) has been sucked in many a time. Beryl sucks. I honestly wanted her to die. And in the end, Shep implies that he may allow Beryl to join him in Africa! Fuck that! I live in the same city as my brother and I see him as little as possible.
I think this book would have been a lot better if Glynis had been as vindictive as she sometimes wanted to be. If she'd been torturing herself with a year of cancer treatments to fight the impossible battle with mesothelioma, just to deplete her husband's funds, would have been twisted. I wasn't sure what to make of Glynis, who was such a perfectionist about her metalworking that she barely ever made anything. There's such a tone of bitterness in the first part of the book that the upswing was startling, and made the whole story unbalanced.
Because Glynis is actually delusional enough to think that she can beat her illness. And her doctors let her keep going, even though they ultimately only gave her a few extra (agonizing) months. The insurance is lame, so Shep's funds for Africa (he's decided on the tiny island of Pemba) are dipped into to cover expenses. That, and paying to care for his sick father and lazy sister, has Shep going broke at the end of the year.
What do they do then? Glynis had insisted on suing the manufacturers of metalworking products she'd used years ago containing asbestos, though it is revealed that she knew the risks when she stole the stuff. But Shep has her give a deposition in which she lies, and boom, the funds are restored. What sucks is that, if Glynis had been fully aware of the severity of her illness, they could have just gone to Pemba in the first place and she could have had a happier last few months than she did. And Shep, too.
The way it all turned out nags at me. It's almost like Shriver is saying, see, it really doesn't do you any good being a "Mug." You have to be dishonest to get ahead. Shep and Glynis both could have been saved a lot of grief, and could have escaped a lot of bitterness, if she hadn't gone through with the impossible treatments. I'm highly skeptical of cancer "treatment" myself, and if I ever get a type where the use of poisons is needed to test it, I'd opt out. Cash in my retirement and head to Pemba, or something. The insurance companies are meant to be the villains here, but I think the doctors were worse. For money or pride, they just wouldn't level with Glynis.
I did appreciate that this story told the financial side of health problems. The story reflects that it's supposed to be a secondary issue at a time like this, but Shep doesn't see it that way and neither do I. I get Shep's pragmatism about money. See, in college, I supported myself, which had its good and bad points. On the plus side, I'm extremely independent, but the downside is that I perhaps worry about money a little too much. Having a good paying job has greatly relieved the stress I felt for years, when I was living hand to mouth and sometimes struggling to do that much. So the continued decline of Shep's bank balance made me feel anxious for him.
Shep was a good person and got his happy ending, but it seemed like a huge cop-out. Then there was Jackson, a hugely disappointing character. I liked him, too...at first. I feel like I, too, would find amusement but some sense in his rantings about taxes and the greed of the government and the pointlessness of bureaucracy. Jackson had a good job (even if his boss was a dick), and a hot wife, but two challenging kids. Teenage Flicka, acidic in a way that appealed to both Jackson and Glynis, has a rare physiological disorder unique to people who are Ashkenazi Jews, and doesn't live to see 18. Her extensive medical care is seen to by her mother Carol, though Jackson does his part. There's also Heather, a tubby brat who is given placebos so that she can fit in with her tubby, drugged-up friends. Jackson's family issues and mounting debt (and a gambling problem) should have been enough to drive him over the edge; I even sense that Jackson struggles with some mental illness. But then he does something really fucking stupid, and almost contradictory to what I thought I understood of the character.
I don't get why Jackson never considered a malpractice suit for the botched surgery on his dick. I mean, if the guy who did it wasn't licensed, then Jackson was unbelievably stupid. But if he could have sued, why didn't he at least think of it? He would have been more than justify, and if it didn't fix his dick, at least it'd fix his debts. Jackson unexpectedly turns into a kind of modern day Willie Loman, though his suicide is much more cruel and gruesome. He was a really big piece of shit to do it the way that he did.
In spite of the title, Shep achieves his dream of the Afterlife, taking his father and Jackson's family along with his own. It seemed like the happy ending was hugely forced. Everything automatically gets better in Africa: Glynis and Flicka both enjoy the time they have left, Shep's father's health is restored, Heather thins out, and Zach, Glynis and Shep's geeky son, puts down the laptop and takes up snorkeling. Tra la la. I should have been happy for Shep, after all he'd been through, but I wasn't.
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