Mania

A Novel

De: Lionel Shriver

Narrado por: Abby Craden

""A fantasy that hews uncomfortably close to today’s reality, where facts and the truth are selectively recognized at increasingly subjective whims . . . . The specifics of Mania are the stuff of bleeding satire, but the novel’s guiding concept cuts close to the bone with no anesthesia. Shriver isn’t one to tip-toe around her subjects. She still knows how to poke the bear. In this case, the bear is us.” — Boston Globe

Set in a parallel yet all too familiar near past, a brilliant subversive novel about a lifelong friendship threatened by culture wars, from the New York Times bestselling author.

In an alternative 2011, the Mental Parity movement takes hold. Americans now embrace the sacred, universal truth that there is no such thing as variable human intelligence. Because everyone is equally smart, discrimination against purportedly dumb people is ""the last great civil rights fight."" Tests, grades, and employment qualifications are all discarded. Children are expelled for saying the S-word (“stupid”) and encouraged to report parents who use it at home.

A college English instructor, the constitutionally rebellious Pearson Converse rejected her restrictive Jehovah’s Witness upbringing as a teenager, and so has an aversion to dogma of any kind. Made impotent in the university classroom, she’s also enraged by the crushing of her exceptionally bright children’s spirits in primary school. Fortunately, she enjoys the confidence of a best friend, a media commentator with whom she can speak frankly about her socially unacceptable contempt for the MP movement. Or at least she thinks she can . . . until one day the political chasm between the two women becomes uncrossable, and a lifelong relationship implodes.

With echoes of Philip Roth’s The Human Stain, told in Lionel Shriver’s inimitable and iconoclastic voice, Mania is a sharp, acerbic, and ruthlessly funny book about the road to a delusional, self-destructive egalitarianism that our society is already on.

©2024 Lionel Shriver (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers

Clever premise, tortured execution.

Oddly it was a bad review of the book that piqued my curiosity. The reviewer, writing in the New York Times, expressed an admiration for Shriver's work generally but felt that the symbolisms and metaphors in Mania stretched both patience and credulity. I loved the premise though: intelligence has been outlawed. There are numerous clever sentences in the book, but the puns, plays in words, and satirical revisions of recent history are often too obvious or too much of a stretch. The narrator is unlikable, but not "likable in her unlikability." The voice actress hired for the audio does a great job, but by the end I was treating finishing the book as an assignment rather than a pleasure. Before I go on to read something actually intelligent, I'm going to treat myself to something innocuously stupid - a Graphic Novel maybe.

Fiction for non-fiction lovers

Going back and forth between listening to this book and listening to news and podcasts about the real world, I often confused one for the other. I love her clear avoidance of politics because the message is louder for it. I’m just buzzing right now… and a bit frightened.

Thoroughly enjoyed this

Shriver envisions a world created by Ellsworth Monkton Toohey and it’s every bit as incompetent and frightening as one could imagine.

A must read

Mania is a fantastic book that is relevant to current events. Like academia, this book pushes ideas and theories to the extreme, but that’s what makes it so important in today’s world. It's also sharp and witty, with a huge dollop of humor.

the best book I read in 2024

so cathartic for anybody who has been frustrated and hurt and confused and outraged by woke ideology

The road to hell is paved with good intentions

A parable of our times wherein the power hungry will advance any cause as long as it satisfies the authoritarian impulse and the masses will eagerly participate if it makes them feel good.

Are We There Yet?

Ms. Shriver piles nonsense upon nonsense to provide a terrifying yet mesmerizing mirror to the "real" world. This book is every bit as frightening as "1984" but a lot funnier. Funny, yes, but it is very nervous laughter.

This is 2024

Loved this book, feels like we already live in it. Don’t agree with all of shriver’s assertions but very witty and extremely clever.

Surprisingly thought-provoking

I had assumed that it would be hard to write an engaging book about such a simple premise. Though sometimes I felt the prose was stilted and too hyper-intellectual to drive home a point, it was engaging. I enjoyed seeing two exaggerated sides of an issue not far from our present culture

Dystopian comedy?

If you're fed up with the language and thought police you'll probably enjoy this. I absolutely relate to the protagonist and I read this on the heels of attending a dinner party where I upset some folks by calling an elementary school's practice of not using standard pronouns "idiotic". (Everyone is "they".) I'm old and retired so I am not too concerned with being cancelled,.. from what???...writing audible reviews. :) I found Shriver's book refreshing in a depressing way. Sadly you can actually imagine this future if people continue to mindlessly follow along.