Big Brother: Brilliant family fiction from the award-winning author of We Need To Talk About Kevin

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And this is written about a subject Shriver knows only too well; it is widely documented that Shriver's brother Greg was morbidly obese although she refutes that Big Brother is biographical. However, Shriver deftly throws in a heart-wrenching twist towards the end of the book that literally puts everything into perspective for you the reader, but for the narrator as well.

Shriver is great at analyzing human behavior and looking at motives and actions we might want to ignore. Opinions, as I have heard said, are like a certain part of the human anatomy used for less than pleasant purposes- everyone has one.Pandora is shocked to discover that in the four years that she has not seen Edison he has in fact expanded to nearly 400 pounds. But as his visit gradually extends from weeks into months, a dismayed Pandora watches him eat his way through almost everything in sight. I cannot imagine those questions being asked more forcefully, passionately, intelligently or kindly than they are in this book.

I recognized an ancient Christmas present that had slid to the back of the pantry: pecans and hazelnuts candied in a thick brown goo. Shriver’s protagonist- and younger sister to ‘Big Brother’, *Edison*, is named *Pandora* ( is that not a cool name?

Therefore, I also appreciated, yet not quite entirely, once I allowed myself to think outside the box, that Pandora actually never did this. However, there were 2 twists at the end, neither of which did I see coming and which left me rather gob-smacked! For the past several days I have recommended this book to family and friends, even though it contains a totally unrealistic description of how much heavy people eat, and how they eat it, and a dangerous selection of fad crash diet. Shriver managed to pull off a more enjoyable novel without abandoning the serious element of her writing. This is, I think, the fourth novel dealing with morbid obesity that I’ve read in the past year or two.

even if it meant that her husband and stepchildren didn't understand or support her in what she was doing.After Edison has more than overstayed his welcome, Fletcher delivers his wife an ultimatum: It’s him or me. She has a great couple of pages describing the difference between the feelings of the “scrawnies”, the average-weight people, and the obese. Brace yourselves for some disgustingly visceral episodes – but who would have thought that a novel about a diet could be so moving, and so suspenseful? and his younger sister who tries to help him loose weight by taking matters into her own hands - creating a controlled weight loss environment.