After fully meeting the Wilkinsons, it is hard not to wish them exactly the sort of fate that they’ve devised for themselves. If a writer is going to hang a story on the question of a suicide pact’s fulfillment, it is probably best if the characters involved are ones whom we fondly desire to see survive. It’s not ripped from the headlines, perhaps, but neatly clipped from them, its manner quippy, satirical and arch, its characters capable of op-ed-style rants on the questions at hand, and on many others too. We are reading a novel of issues, a thesis novel concerning euthanasia and medical rationing. a delight to read-even as it leaves you wondering if maybe now is the right time to get hold of a lethal cocktail. The fugue-like pleasures of the novel, as key passages and images recur in ever-shifting patterns with ever-differing outcomes, are intense. More to the point, she never lets her politics interfere with the sheer zest of her imagination. Shriver may be a contrarian-but she has a sense of humor about it. Twelve different stories unfold-and you need all 12. Indeed, by paying as much attention to what Kay or Cyril don’t do in some scenarios, she digs into corners of their characters that no single account of 'what happened' could ever reveal. She also creates a composite portrait of a married couple and their three children that, for all its contradictions, hangs together with glorious plausibility. But their exchange is actually a canny setup for a wildly inventive and sometimes hilarious novel on a sober subject. As go over the pros and cons, they sound less like characters than authorial mouthpieces. Have patience with the first chapter of Lionel Shriver’s new novel.

Lionel shriver should we stay review