Want to feel thankful for Medicare? Read this book.

Lionel Shriver (We Need to Talk About Kevin) has written a funny book about terminal illness. Or at least, funnier than you would expect, considering the subject matter.

The hero of So Much For That is Shepherd Knacker, the epitome of a decent man. His life is turned suddenly upside down when his wife Glynis is diagnosed with a rare cancer, and given a poor prognosis.

We follow him as he tries to navigate the hideous expense and bureaucracy of the American healthcare system, while remaining a good husband, father, friend, son and brother to those around him. The main storyline is predictable, but there are some audacious twists that somehow remain believable.

Shep’s staunchest ally is his best friend Jackson, who, despite dealing with his own serious family health issues, provides comic relief in the form of long rants against the government, the establishment, or anyone else he thinks deserves it.

These passages in fact are the parts of the book that didn’t ring quite true for me. Informative, yes. Particularly for a non-American reader. However, they had the feel of a long ‘letter to the editor’ from Shriver, conveniently put into quotation marks and treated as dialogue.

Many of the characters are angry, flawed, unlikeable. They are also, for the most part, beautifully drawn in great detail, although a few (Glynis’s sisters and Shep’s sister Beryl in particular) are little more than caricatures.

The damning portrayal of the American health system is sobering. It was written before the government reforms of 2010, so we can only hope that things are starting to improve. However, it did make me feel incredibly lucky to be living in Australia where Medicare (although far from perfect) means we all have a safety net if the worst comes to the worst.

Shriver has a knack of getting right inside us, where the thoughts we are ashamed of reside. And she holds them up to the glaring light. The book poses some truly uncomfortable questions: How much is a life worth? How well do we deal with death, living in a society where the subject is more taboo than religion, money or even sex? Do nice guys finish last? And how good a friend will we really be when our loved ones need us most? 

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Maggie Sakko