(50) This was not a favorite of hers for me. Her newest novel, I think, in this one a middle-age couple make a suicide pact to be enacted when they are 80 years old if still alive. Even if they are in good health at the time, they do not want to be a burden on the National Health System, or their family, nor live in pain or with a lack of dignity and freedom. The wife, Kay, has just finished a grueling stint of many years taking care of her father whom she has come to feel nothing but disgust for. At his death, which she does not grieve, she realizes she would never want to live as he did in his final years.

And from there we see how this pact plays out, or does not - in multiple versions of the story; sometimes repeating paragraphs and dialogues verbatim. Will they or won't they? Who chickens out and why? What happens if they do or don't? What happens if they choose not to make the pact in the first place? The first several permutations are realistic and thought-provoking, but as they book progresses - it becomes a bit more outlandish and futuristic.

The writing is Shriver's typical intelligent, acerbic commentary. Very effortless, wry, spot-on observations of people, behaviors, places. I loved Cyril and his curmudgeonly coronavirus observations. I loved the versions in both the low end and the high end care home. But -- I did not care for the cryogenics and the living to 110 in perfect health - it was too out there and ridiculous for me to really enjoy.

Overall, an above average reading experience, but not much more than that. Cannot hold a candle to her masterpiece 'We need to talk about Kevin,' and I also much more enjoyed the parallel universes depicted in 'The Post-birthday World.' She is still a talent -- I would read anything she wrote. ( )

Lionel Shriver’s “Should We stay or Should We Go” (there’s no “?” in the title) is her most recent book. It starts with such authentic dialogue between a middle-aged, middle class, educated and politically engaged couple on the evening of the burial of the woman’s father that I am caught up in the narrative quickly, as I orient myself.

I’ve not read Shriver before and this is the start of what I hope will be a pleasurable deep dive into her work. So far so good.

Still in the very early pages, I am enjoying her facility with words; the sharpness of her observations and of her characterisations. I find myself amused by the line “… one of the advantages of opening up the kitchen and dining area is its improved capacity for pacing.”

As the conversation turns to the burdensome and repulsively intimate details of dealing with an ever-more-demented and incapacitated father and the personal cost to her and her mother of doing so, I think of my wife and her sister who mainly shouldered the load for “mere” months of their father’s near-terminal stage. In this story, it is ten years of decline followed by four years of paternal helplessness. What a burden wife and daughter shouldered.

And we are ineluctably drawn into the central issue.

The “sandwich generation” with its attendant issues comes on full view. How refreshing to read about ourselves!

I enjoy finding British colloquialisms like “squiffy” and “tipple.” I also enjoy the English-accented narrator; well educated without elitism in her voice.

As the story develops, I savour the thoughts of the now recently octogenarian Cyril, contemplating the thing he enjoys most: lying in bed with his wife, and how exquisitely that pleasure is described.

The story is structured around divergent possibilities - choices taken or not and what happens either way.

The events alternative to the first sequence are generally deeply explored and, especially in the version where elderly parents are sectioned into a brutal aged “care” facility described as providing them with less freedom than obtained by prisoners. That was gruelling and, as I head through my late 60s, quite sobering to contemplate.

Despite the excellence of the writing and the thoughtfulness of the various possible realities - some chillingly real and others highly speculative - I became impatient for it to end.

The lasting impression for me is the wonderful relationship between husband and wife.

Cautiously recommended. ( )

I enjoyed reading this novel but there is something slightly exhausting about reading about two characters on their merry go round of twelve different scenarios. We meet Kay and Cyril in the 50s in 1991 when they pledge to jointly commit suicide on her 80th birthday in March 2020. This is in a bid to avoid getting too frail. How this pans out in each scenario varies from living with dementia and a stroke to being frozen and waking up in a weird and wonderful future and a terrifying chapter when they endure a stay in Close of Day Cottages and where Lionel Shriver may have been stretching the truth. She certainly has fun with this novel, considering how her characters deal with the different scenarios. Some of them sit right, some of them don't. The characters feel like cartoon characters who die but then pick themselves up and start again. I wouldn't recommend this if you are beginning to plan for your old age but it is a good read that will make you think. ( )

So I think everyone should read this book but it is a hard sell because it is horrifying lol It's written by the author of 'We need to talk about Kevin' so you know the writing is great. The premise starts with a couple, Kay and Cyrill, having a discussion about aging and Kay not wanting to become her father whose very long drawn out death affected so many people's lives and overtaxed the health system. Cyrill suggests that they make a pact to die together when they both turn 80. The book goes through 13 different scenarios of how that could play out. Some are very realistic (implications of climate change, NHS, Brexit), some are speculative sci-fi (there's one that is pretty problematic and ignorant). Most are awful. Even as someone with no death or aging anxiety, I found myself discussing end of life plans with my husband. So yeah, read it but don't expect a good time lol lots of worthwhile food for thought guaranteed, however. ( )

I think a lot of people have vague plans for suicide when life becomes miserable. This puts those into perspective, with food for thought. ( )