Lionel Shriver is never one to shy away from controversy, and her latest book, Mania, is sure to divide opinion as much as her outspoken views frequently do. While I do not agree with a lot of what Shriver says, I have enjoyed all the books of hers that I have read.
The book begins as the Mental Parity movement is gaining traction and words like 'stupid' and 'idiot' are banned. Before long however, this has escalated with schools and colleges no longer allowed to undertake exams or issue grades. It soon follows that anyone showing their intelligence is castigated and punished. With everyone now equally intelligent, there are no qualifications needed for jobs, and so experts and experience become a thing of the past. You now take your chances going into hospital, has your doctor any medical experience at all? Or even getting into a car; has your car been made by an engineer or has the person coming towards you learnt to drive. Life becomes very different, but hey, everyone is equal.
The protagonist Pearson Converse has always been quite headstrong, and she rails against the rise of the Mental Parity movement, often putting herself and her family in jeopardy. Her best friend however, Emory Ruth, initially goes with the flow, eventually becoming a recognised mouthpiece of the movement. Mania is as much about Pearson and Emory’s relationship as it is about Mental Parity. It was interesting to see how the two changed and reacted to each other as their views went in very different directions. I thoroughly enjoyed Pearson’s ‘revenge’.
I didn’t realise until part way through that Mania is actually Pearson’s account of what happened. Consequently, unwilling hide her intelligence, she does not shy away from using more sophisticated language. To be honest, I found this a little distracting as I wasn’t familiar with some terms and words and so had to keep looking them up. This took me out of the story at times. Once I realised it was a device though I appreciated it more.
The book is divided into timeframes, most of them charting the rise of MP over several years, followed by what was to follow, which I found even more shocking. A section of the book covers Pearson’s childhood as a Jehovah’s Witness and how she met and became friends with Emory, and I found this section very interesting and illuminating.
There is no way of hiding the frightening fact that it doesn’t take too much imagination to believe that something like MP could actually happen. The political spectrum is very scary at the moment with people’s hard-won rights being diminished constantly. And maybe it’s me, but so many of these about turns seem to be to the detriment of women.
All in all, a very enjoyable novel, but also quite frightening.
The book begins as the Mental Parity movement is gaining traction and words like 'stupid' and 'idiot' are banned. Before long however, this has escalated with schools and colleges no longer allowed to undertake exams or issue grades. It soon follows that anyone showing their intelligence is castigated and punished. With everyone now equally intelligent, there are no qualifications needed for jobs, and so experts and experience become a thing of the past. You now take your chances going into hospital, has your doctor any medical experience at all? Or even getting into a car; has your car been made by an engineer or has the person coming towards you learnt to drive. Life becomes very different, but hey, everyone is equal.
The protagonist Pearson Converse has always been quite headstrong, and she rails against the rise of the Mental Parity movement, often putting herself and her family in jeopardy. Her best friend however, Emory Ruth, initially goes with the flow, eventually becoming a recognised mouthpiece of the movement. Mania is as much about Pearson and Emory’s relationship as it is about Mental Parity. It was interesting to see how the two changed and reacted to each other as their views went in very different directions. I thoroughly enjoyed Pearson’s ‘revenge’.
I didn’t realise until part way through that Mania is actually Pearson’s account of what happened. Consequently, unwilling hide her intelligence, she does not shy away from using more sophisticated language. To be honest, I found this a little distracting as I wasn’t familiar with some terms and words and so had to keep looking them up. This took me out of the story at times. Once I realised it was a device though I appreciated it more.
The book is divided into timeframes, most of them charting the rise of MP over several years, followed by what was to follow, which I found even more shocking. A section of the book covers Pearson’s childhood as a Jehovah’s Witness and how she met and became friends with Emory, and I found this section very interesting and illuminating.
There is no way of hiding the frightening fact that it doesn’t take too much imagination to believe that something like MP could actually happen. The political spectrum is very scary at the moment with people’s hard-won rights being diminished constantly. And maybe it’s me, but so many of these about turns seem to be to the detriment of women.
All in all, a very enjoyable novel, but also quite frightening.