The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver

Expectation is a funny thing. Expect too much, and you’ll be disappointed. Expect nothing, and be surprised. Not really a life motto I want to adhere to (‘hey, I didn’t get punched in the face today. Tuesday has been good to me’) but as a book reading ethos, actually quite helpful.

Case in point: this book. Penned by the author of one of My Top Three Books of All Time, We Need to Talk About Kevin (Matilda by Roald Dahl and Dirt Music by Tim Winton also make this list), expectations were first date high. And I knew deep down that it was going to take one crazily well-written, engaging and complete humdinger of a book to beat the mind bending heart crusher that was Kevin.

Not surprisingly, Lionel failed with TPBW. If this had been the first of her books that I had consumed, then very possibly I would have liked it more. But like a difficult second album, it just didn’t deliver for me. The premise is interesting; there are two chapters that run parallel documenting the life of children’s book illustrator Irina, and what happens when she does/doesn’t kiss another man.

Basically in one stream of the book she’s in a somewhat happy nine-year relationship with her partner Lawrence; they’re not married, they like the same things but are in a bit of a rut. Oh; also he won’t kiss her on the mouth and only shags her from behind while she faces a wall in their bedroom. Happy times!

In the other, she leaves Lawrence for a professional snooker player, Ramsey – an immature, egotistical Brit whose doodle drives her wild, but ultimately she questions if she shouldn’t have just stayed with Ol’ WallBanger Lawrence.

And that’s what kind of pissed me off. Why does she only have the choice between two douchebags? Why is it believable that an intelligent woman would stay in such a crappy relationship just because of crazy sex? (If actual women did this, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be friends with them). Why is another woman writing a female character like this? And I’ve heard of “original” occupations for your book characters to have, but professional snooker player? That is just a bridge too far really.

Everyone’s had a ‘what if and who if’ moment in their lives, and have questioned if their happy relationship isn’t going a bit stale, so parts are relatable. There is no doubting that Shriver is a fantastic writer – I think in this case she let herself down with her own material.