Big Brother

A Novel

By: Lionel Shriver

Narrated by: Alice Rosengard

Big Brother is a striking novel about siblings, marriage, and obesity from Lionel Shriver, the acclaimed author the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin.

For Pandora, cooking is a form of love. Alas, her husband, Fletcher, a self-employed high-end cabinetmaker, now spurns the “toxic” dishes that he’d savored through their courtship, and spends hours each day to manic cycling. Then, when Pandora picks up her older brother Edison at the airport, she doesn’t recognize him. In the years since they’ve seen one another, the once slim, hip New York jazz pianist has gained hundreds of pounds. What happened? After Edison has more than overstayed his welcome, Fletcher delivers his wife an ultimatum: It’s him or me.

Rich with Shriver’s distinctive wit and ferocious energy, Big Brother is about fat: an issue both social and excruciatingly personal. It asks just how much sacrifice we'll make to save single members of our families, and whether it's ever possible to save loved ones from themselves.

The story was a bit overweight too!

I decided to read Big brother, when a listener I follow recommended it. I was rather intrigued. A husband hell bent on health, his supportive wife and her brother who has fallen into despair and has gained an enormous amount of weight, and their battle of the bulge. I too battle the ups and downs of the scale, and reading a story about someone else and their journey into "normal" size, sounded wonderful.

The first part of the book was interesting, but it moved slowly. I found myself cringing whenever Edison, Pandora's brother, spoke. His constant usage of "jazz" lingo was repetitive, and after hearing Ms. Rosengard read "man" after nearly every sentence grated on me. Then, to make it worse, Cory, Pandora's step-daughter picked up Edison's habit of jazz lingo.

I can't say I totally disliked this book. There were many parts I enjoyed. However, I noticed I kept looking at the time remaining to see if the book was close to ending. I stopped reading when I had 2 hours remaining. I just wasn't interested anymore.

In my opinion, this book could have been much shorter. Perhaps the abridged version would have been better. I even tried speeding up the narration at one point, but the echo from the increase, made it difficult to understand the narrator.

This book messed me up

It’s a factional story, but deals with very difficult RL issues. I had to keep listening and can’t stop thinking about it now that it’s over.

Can’t ask for more than that in a book!

Truly worthy book

Would you listen to Big Brother again? Why?

This book...wow this book! It is one of few books that gave me a great deal to think about, not just a relationship with food but insecurities, ego, maturity and, most important of all, obligation to family.

The latter is something most adults struggle with (especially people like me from Asian families) but there seem to be precious few books that deal with it: Where does the responsibility end??? Are needs of your family a bottomless black hole that should be allowed to suck you dry?

It is not a book for easy consumption. I found myself cringing and flinching many times, while being unable to stop listening. You will probably hate most of the characters, especially Edison, who I completely despised. But you will also understand his struggles and the events that contributed to his downfall.

(excuse the atrocious grammar; not a native speaker)

Would you be willing to try another one of Alice Rosengard’s performances?

Pandora is a woman in her early 40's, but the narrator sounded to be in her late 60's or possibly early 70's. Not only the narrator sounded wrong for Pandora (despite her soft, agreeable voice), but also she seemed confused at times and unable to connect with her character, thereby resigning to simply rattling off the text. The intonation was off at times.

Example: The first time the husband hints that Pandora has to choose between him and her brother, Pandora (narrator) loudly squeals: "That's cra-aa-a-zy!!". It sounded like a woman reacting with gleeful mock outrage to something naughty her young man whispered to her.

That just plain ruined it for me and it was only downhill from there.

excellent

loved it. incredible narration. tale of hope and frustration and choice, and when enough is never enough.

Interesting exploration of family and fatness

This was an engaging book. Not life-changing but very good. The author has some lines that really hit the mark. And then long stretches of stuff that did not. Didn’t find the characters believable, but sometimes her observations of relationships and life were wonderfully spot on. The narrator was good, but some characters seemed overplayed. Worth a listen.