4.5 stars. To say that I liked this book is incorrect. It's not a happy book, it's not a likeable book. Most of the characters are violently flawed, but it is one of the most though provoking books I've read in a while. It's made me think about my relationships - with Deon, my parents, my sister, my friends. And the relationships of others around me. Parts dragged a little - I think Shriver went on a bit too much about the state of the American health system - but I wanted to keep reading. I had to know, although the ending was known, what was going to happen. It might be time for that discussion no one wants to have - what will you and partner do in the face of an incurable disease?

Very thought-provoking, would make a good book club read as a number of issues are explored. The initial premise is , 'What would you do, if you'd saved all your life for an escape to an island paradise, then your spouse is diagnosed with cancer? Would you spend your nest egg on medical care for your spouse?

Written before Obama Care, it's an education for a Brit like myself, to discover how much medical care costs in the States and what the insurance companies will - and will not - pay, and I've always found it difficult to understand why a First World nation doesn't have a basic level of medical provision for all.

Having said that, through a cast of vibrant, gritty and complex characters, Shriver also explores, degenerative genetic disease, care for the elderly and botched cosmetic surgery of the most intimate kind. Together with the ties that bind family and friends, it is Shriver's brutally honest exploration of our responses to terminal illness, that makes this a read to reflect upon long after it's finished.

This isn’t a book for the faint-hearted. It is gory, unflinching, cold-hearted until (almost) the end, and depressing as hell. It centres around two middle-aged American couples: Shep and Glynis; and Jackson and Carol. Shep has spent his life scrimping and saving for his retirement, during which he plans to experience an “Afterlife” by living in a country with good weather and cheap living costs – however this all goes belly up (to put it politely) when Glynis announces that she has cancer. Not just any cancer either, but a rare and virulent form. His best friend Jackson is an extremely angry guy, who makes the amount of ranting I do look pitiful and who is the novel’s strongest voice of discontent (which is saying a lot, as he is among a chorus of significantly irked people). So Much For That follows the two couples, and to a lesser extent their children, throughout a year or so of their lives.

... [Read the rest of my review here: https://whathannahread.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/so-much-for-that-by-lionel-shriver/]

Loved it. Not the most uplifting subject matter but the ending is one of the best I've read in a long time. LOVED it.

I really hate giving up on a book and rarely do it. At about page 100 I thought I would stop, but decided to give it a go. Then there were some better episodes. Now at page 246 I just give up and have skimmed over the ending of the book. Meh.
Shriver's We Need to Talk about Kevin is one of my favorite books, so this one was a surprising disappointment. I found Shep sympathetic, but everyone else at best uninteresting, at worst absolutely annoying. I don't have to like the characters, but I need to see a spark of humanity in them, experience a moment of understanding them at some level. I just did not find it in this book. I felt like Jackson existed only to hold diatribes. I don't mind an opinionated author; I hate it though when it feels like the character only exists as a mouthpiece for the author and I am being lectured. And sorry, but the penis enlargement was just the straw that broke this camel's back, after the cancer and the FD-stricken Flicka. Nope, too many books, too little time to waste another minute on this one.

I cannot recommend this author more highly.

This was a great book with all the intensity of a Lionel Shriver book but it won't haunt me like 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' did. I cringed most of the way through with some of the characters and Ms. Shriver has an incredible knack of being able to write whole chapters from the perspective of her characters but all in the third person. I also cringed at 'The System'... of health care and the wasted funds, but the ending was beautiful and worthy and made it all seem okay in the end. I would definitely recommend this as a good read.

I heartily agree with this review: "Vast stretches of So Much for That feel less like a novel and more like a filibuster. The issues often highjack the story, as if the collective voice of the New York Times editorial board had decided to write fiction." - Jessica Francis Kane from the fantastically fun Tournament of Books.

It took me two attempts to read this book as I found the story hard to grasp at first. Once I realised it was a no-holds barred look at the American healthcare system (or lack of) wrapped up in a story about the hideous reality of cancer, I understood what Shriver's point was. Her quality of writing is a testament to how a harsh subject like this could be 'enjoyable' to read. The book made me uncomfortable and angry; a fantastic read.

What is a life worth? Lionel Shriver's novel raises hard questions about how we treat the terminally ill - with complete honesty or a sugar coating? Is an incredibly invasive treatment worth all the pain and suffering? Do you spend your life's savings or take out a loan for a drug that may (not will) extend your life for a month, maybe two? Also addressed is the effect terminal illness can have on families, not just psychologically but financially--there is an acerbic view of American healthcare and its unaffordability. The characters live in our "backyard" and I got excited every time a saw the words Westchester, Elmsford, and Columbia Presbyterian, but I had to look up words like: sobriquet, cudgeled, and elegiac ... you know when you watch a three hour movie that should have been done in two? That's how I felt about "So Much For That". I'm glad I kept reading ... despite the cynical views, the circumstances, and the self-pity, it can still "end well" and it did. Favorite quote regrading facing terminal illness: "I've never experienced any other moment in my life in which everything suddenly got so simple."