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."