Shriver splashes...icy water all over and it’s very bracing; as I read, I thought of those scientists who tell us that a daily cold shower can help to boost the human immune system. It feels ever more vital to me...that people try sometimes to read writers with whom they disagree ... If this sounds hard going – another culture wars slog – the mix is leavened with pieces about her addiction to exercise, what it feels like to break up with a friend and a droll skit on all the things she didn’t do during the first lockdown ... I disagree with her when it comes to immigration, Brexit and (to a degree) the bulldozing of statues. But I do like to read her on these subjects, and not only because – ha! – she confirms me in my own rightness.
Predictable ... She assumes single tone: provocateur ... Left to facts alone...Shriver is often exasperating, missing the target or vigorously stabbing at straw men ... Her arguments lack depth ... The compressed, click-chasing nature of the op-ed might explain the flimsiness in some of her arguments ... There are some similarly well-made pieces in Abominations ... But Shriver can’t seem to miss an opportunity for hollow provocation.
This piece, like several others in Abominations, reveals a tender side to Ms. Shriver. In print she is formidable—she is unfailingly formidable—but evidently she has feelings like the rest of us ... Ms. Shriver’s roving curiosity, her libertarian inclinations and her trans-Atlantic orientation (she resides mostly in England and lived for more than a decade in Northern Ireland) make her a rare voice, someone who challenges orthodoxies in the way that many journalists and public intellectuals claim to do but don’t. It is bracing to spend time in the company of such a smart, plain-spoken and unpredictable person.
Lionel Shriver is not a troll. For one thing, she has no sense of humour – at least, none that is evident from her work. For another, she is indeed a boomer – self-described. And for another, she enjoys thinking of herself as a contrarian ... Her introduction conveniently adumbrates some of her unpopular, indeed downright dangerous, opinions ... It’s canny of Shriver to depict the novelist as a grubby outlaw, respecting no bourgeois pieties. It reminds us of the genre’s semi-reputable roots in hoax, impersonation and journalism, and makes a claim for fiction’s power to speak across boundaries. But it’s also one of her standard moves. Actually, in many ways, it’s her only move ... Shriver is not really very much fun to read – her invariant hectoring tone palls after twenty pages or so. But as an example of what has happened to liberalism in the early decades of the twenty-first century, she bears thinking about.
Bounces from merely thought-provoking to certifiably mind-blowing ... Shriver not only defies labels, she despises them. What this collection illustrates above all else is that Shriver is a razor-sharp observer of contemporary life who brings an acutely personal viewpoint to global issues in ways that feel both intimate and universal.
Lionel Shriver brings her bristling sharp wit and open heart and mind to this explosive array of work ... Shriver is angry, too. Cancel culture is beyond the point, in her opinion, and some of her other leanings may take away the breath of more progressive readers. Nevertheless, from the essays being reprinted from long ago to the ones that ring clear with today’s dire messages, Shriver gives us history ... A fascinating reading experience. It gave me such interesting fodder for thoughts that I often run from, as well as a unique perspective on a novelist I have loved for years. Lionel Shriver is well worth reading. Even if you find your ire rising at some of her words, you can be assured that they are worth pondering.
Hit-or-miss ... While her prose is reliably strong, some of the stances she takes in service of being a self-proclaimed iconoclast can be a slog to get through, especially when they near condescension ... Shriver’s fans, though, will make room on their shelves for it.
