#3: The Post-Birthday World – Lionel Shriver

I finished this book about a week ago (and at 517 pages, that was quite an effort) but it has taken a little while to digest and work out how I felt about it.
The basic premise of the book is a Sliding Doors-type scenario - children's book illustrator Irina McGovern effectively decides her future on the basis of whether she takes one particular action... betraying her long-term partner Lawrence by kissing professional snooker player Ramsey Action, or not. There is one version of Chapter One, but two versions of every chapter following, alternating between the two realities Irina could possibly have found herself experiencing. This, as well as Shriver's extraordinarily detailed rendering of both characters and everyday events, accounts for the sheer size of the book. It is an interesting structural device, but sometimes the juxtaposition of Irina's chosen paths seems rather too neat, and at one point the plot collapses into the type of "self-reflexivity" that my postmodernity lecturers at uni would have wet themselves over, but which to me is totally twee – with Irina writing and illustrating a children's book showing two alternative realities flowing from a crucial decision made by the main character. Yes, we know how clever you are, Lionel Shriver – we don't need you to paint us a picture.
Although I did enjoy this book, it did seem to drag at times, and in fact I set it aside for a while and read something else before coming back to it. I think my struggle with it, aside from the pace, stems from the fact that to me both alternatives seemed pretty grim in their own ways. In one version, Irina's relationship with Lawrence seems completely passionless, and although its familiarity and routine was meant to be sufficiently attractive to Irina to hold her steadfast in this partnership, I couldn't see the attraction myself. And while Shriver goes on and on about the passion and particularly the sex in Irina's relationship with Ramsey, it seemed to be a totally combative situation without much outside the bedroom going for it. So when later Irina and Ramsey profess their eternal love for each other, it has a hollow ring to it.
The 'moral' of the story, if I have read it correctly, seems to be that no matter what choices you make in life, they are the right ones, and in fact you end up pretty much in the same situation anyway. While the narrative arc of this book seems to illustrate that very tidily, I'm not so sure life follows such a perfect pattern. Not a bad read if you like a good human drama though.
PS. Here is an interview with Lionel Shriver when the book was released... she found the inspiration for the book in her own choice between two futures.