What's sad about that is I am a big fan of Lionel Shriver - I thought We Need to Talk About Kevin: A Novel (P.S.) and The Post-Birthday World were both great; well-written with an element of mystery that made them both "can't put down" reads.
The premise of A Perfectly Good Family: A Novel (P.S.) is simple: following the death of their parents, three children have to decide whether to sell their childhood home. In order to keep it, two would have to buy the third out.
Of the many problems with this novel, the biggest is that all of the characters are unlikeable, selfish and spoiled. This wouldn't be as huge an issue if not for the central idea of the book, which is, whose side do you take during an inheritance dispute? Since there is no one to root for, the end result is the reader wishing the house dissolved into flames and took everyone along with it.
All of that said, I am still eager to read Shriver's next novel, out this spring, and to just file this one away.
