Should we stay or should we go by Lionel Shriver

Published: 2021, Harper Collins

Genre: Fiction

Themes: Old age, potential infirmity, options

My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤

Is it possible for a writer to be too technically good? Too clever to be engaging?

As with all of Lionel Shriver's work, the writing in this book is immaculate, and the concept a good one, but her exploration of potential outcomes of old age was rather exhausting and, dare I say it, I'm afraid I got a little bored after the first few scenarios.

In middle age, Kay and Cyril Wilkinson witness the long and undignified decline of Kay's father as he slowly loses his physical and mental capacity to Alzheimer's Disease. By the time he dies after ten years of suffering, Kay can't even cry as this 'dying by degrees cheats everyone. I feel as though he has been dead for years'.

At the start of the book the couple are both healthy medical professionals in their fifties, but Cyril's experience as a GP with many elderly patients has caused him to conclude that very few people sustain a good quality of life beyond eighty, as that is the time when chronic conditions kick in, and the average body starts to fail. He suggests that they make an agreement to take matters into their own hands and end their lives on Kay's eightieth birthday.

They both agree that the arrangement will be the best option for them and Cyril places an ominous black box containing the lethal drugs in the back of the fridge. They then continue to live their lives fairly normally, but are constantly counting down to Kay's last birthday. The date arrives within the first few chapters of the book, and just as I'm starting to wonder what Ms Shriver is going to do with all the other pages, the story begins to repeat itself, several times, each time with a different ending.

I am at the foothills of old age myself (63) and most of the possible outcomes explored in the book are not very attractive and some are downright scary. The experience of reading the book was starting to make me wonder what the future holds for me and how many productive years can I realistically expect? I had to forcibly stop myself thinking like that as I would end up spoiling my 'golden years'. As I keep telling my dear sons, I intend to get to my centenary and hopefully attend at least one of their eightieth birthday parties a couple of years afterwards.

Most of the possible scenarios were fairly predictable but then things began to get a little daft and the story took off in a flight of fantasy. It was about this point that I started thinking that the book could have been a bit shorter and put us all out of our misery. On the back cover there is a quote from the Scotsman Newspaper that states: 'Few novelists now raise a laugh. Shriver does so time and again.' Those pages must have got stuck together because I'm afraid I missed that.

It's probably best to read this book in your twenties and thirties when old age is far too far off to bother you.

Violeta by Isabel Allende

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The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper

Publisher: Head of Zeus, 2021 Genre: Fiction Themes: Ancient Pompeii, slaves, brothel My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤ If, like me, you spent most of your history lessons looking out the window and didn't really absorb very much about the ancient Roman Empire, nil desperandum, as you will still manage perfectly well with this book. Set in first century Pompeii, the story follows the life of Amara, a young Greek woman who has been shipped to Pompeii as a slave and then bought by the owner of The Wolf Den brothel. As the daughter of a doctor, she was bought up in relatively comfortable circumstances, but a series of terrible events turned her life upside down and she is now trapped in an endless cycle of fear and degradation with almost no hope of escape. Amara is one of a group of slaves working in the Wolf Den, and they do what they can to protect one another from serious harm, but Amara knows that if she wants anything better for herself, she must make the brothel ow...

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