A Perfectly Good Family

I read We Need To Talk About Kevin a couple of years ago. It knocked the wind out of me. It was disturbing but compelling. I recently read Lionel Shriver's The Post-Birthday World looking for the intense connection I felt with the Kevin novel. Didn't find it there although the device of mirror novels was interesting. I picked up this novel once again hoping to rekindle the intensity of the earlier novel. As in all the Lionel Shriver novels I've read, the characters are flawed if not outright despicable. In this case three siblings gather at the family home in Raleigh after the deaths of both parents and the predictable feuding over the estate ensues. The characters are sharply- and I think over-drawn. There's a demonic older brother, a duplicitous middle sister and a gentle but boring younger brother. The intense sibling rivalry, though hyper-exaggerated, somehow rings true. Shriver has a sense of humour that supports the story and renders it a little less toxic than it might have been. Wondering how it would all shake out kept me reading and I wasn't disappointed. The ending reconciled all the ambivalence and sent a strong message (at least to me) that there is good in everyone - one just has to dig a bit to find it.