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Dec 20, 2014Chapel_Hill_KenMc rated this title 2 out of 5 stars
Extremely disappointing novel by a competent writer who seems to have forgotten how to make a novel work. Shriver takes on the important topic of health care and sickness in the U.S. today, but delivers a book with leaden exposition, alternating with monologues set up too obviously to deliver her political barbs. The characters never quite come to life, and fail to carry the weight her subject calls for. I will give her snaps for attempting to explode the tendency to portray suffering from terminal cancer as a "battle," which means that if one loses, it must be due to weakness or lack of strategic planning.