A Better Life by Lionel Shriver

So after reading We Need To Talk About Kevin recently I saw a new Shriver book in the library and decided to borrow it. I liked the complicated characters in WNTTAK as well as Shriver’s commentary on parenthood and American attitudes towards things like violence and motherhood etc. Going into A Better Life I had no idea what Shriver’s own political beliefs were but based on the blurb that described the book’s main character as “an unreliable narrator” and one of the quotes alluding to Shriver as the “master of twists” I expected there to be some rug pulling with the story. Like I thought maybe we would learn by the end that our main character, Nico had hallucinated much of the actions of the immigrant characters, or I don’t know, some better twist than that. What I really didn’t expect was for the book to end and for the crazy escalation of events that took place over the last 100 pages or so to have been real within the story. I was confused as to what messaging I was supposed to take away from the book. Although the protagonist was a right winger who opposed immigration, he was so pathetic and unlikeable that I couldn’t imagine we were supposed to empathise with him. But after doing some research it seems as though Shriver’s own views on immigration align more with this character than the opposing left wing Gloria (Nico’s mother) who decides to house a Honduran immigrant in her home. Has anyone else read this? What did you think of it? I found it an enjoyable read but as someone who identifies far closer with the ‘woke’ Gloria I genuinely read the book sympathising with her plight and strongly disliking and distrusting our main character Nico. Sure Gloria and her left wing daughters are portrayed as naive and sanctimonious but they’re not really bad people. Their lack of urgency as the situation devolved was frustrating but I still found them far more likeable than Nico and the characters that echo his political views. On Nico’s side were his dad who was portrayed as pervy and callous, with accusations of inappropriate conduct against him from his secretary. Then there’s Vernon, their family friend whose views on immigration and race border on full on white supremacy. And then there’s Nico himself. Nico is a 26 year old shut in who doesn’t work, doesn’t have friends and who spends his time watching right wing YouTube videos, lounging around the house, and masturbating every night(which he believes is more enjoyable than having sex). His life is defined by his insistence on doing nothing and being apart of nothing. He deliberately walks around parts of New York where there are high concentrations of immigrants in order to anger himself and to try intimidate these people. He has little respect for women and continually sexualises Martine, his Honduran house guest, as well as his own mother from time to time. He felt so much like a 2026 spiritual version of Kevin Katchedourian that my gut instinct was just to distrust him from the start. And yet I think maybe we were supposed to sympathise with him and his views on immigrants? Honestly I thought Nico was spiralling deep into some sort of a psychosis in the latter half of the book and this was my main interpretation of what was happening by the time he had recruited his dad to create a vigilante group to rid his mother’s home of the Honduran gang that had settled there. Nico had been criticised all book for his terrible attitude and lack of work ethic by his mother, father, sisters and pretty much every character in the book. So when it got to the last few chapters and his mother was apologising to him, his father was repeatedly telling him “I’m proud of you son” while they were getting to raid the house with assault rifles and ski masks I really thought we had pivoted to some wish fulfilment fantasy for Nico. And yet textually in the book all of these things actually happened. Due to Nico’s mother leaving her home to Martine in her will, Nico is forced to move out get a job and essentially take part in society once again. Nico himself ends up being sort of grateful for the new life he ends up with due to being “swindled” out of his own inheritance which I found really interesting, and it turns out the title “A Better Life” applies to both the lives of the immigrants and Nico even though on paper he has suffered great loss. So in a way, what the immigrants inflicted on Nico ended up encouraging him to kickstart his life in a way he never would have before. I enjoyed this book, I liked the mix of characters and political views as it felt like no one character had the moral high ground or the answers to the issues that are addressed in the book. Still I found it interesting that even though Shriver herself holds more anti immigration beliefs that I wasn’t able to sympathise with any of the characters that also felt this way. I felt bad when Nico and his family were literally being mistreated and threatened, but nothing about Nico’s personality is endearing in the slightest. I’m couldn’t find any discussions about this book online so I’m really interested to hear people’s viewpoints on what they thought of it.