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The Mandibles

Lionel Shriver

637 pages

A biting, terrifyingly plausible glimpse into the collapse of American affluence, served with a side of pitch-black humor.

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What it feels like

Reading this novel feels like watching a slow-motion train crash from the comfort of a first-class lounge that is rapidly running out of oxygen. The atmosphere is thick with a creeping, highly specific dread—the terror of ATM limits, empty grocery shelves, and the sudden worthlessness of a retirement fund. The prose is dense, cerebral, and mercilessly sharp, demanding a reader who enjoys chewing on macroeconomic theory as much as bitter family drama. It is a deeply anxious, claustrophobic experience, yet elevated by a pitch-black, satirical wit that makes the bleakness digestible. This is a book for those who love near-future dystopias that feel uncomfortably close to the present, delighting readers who appreciate unsentimental, biting explorations of how quickly the veneer of civilized society can peel away when the money runs out.

Mood
  • anxious
  • claustrophobic
  • bleak
  • darkly comic
Tone
  • cynical
  • satirical
  • biting
  • intellectual
  • unsentimental
Pace
steady
Themes
illusion of security · generational resentment · economic fragility · survival versus comfort · collapse of social contracts
The writing
Sharp, verbose, and unapologetically intellectual, the sentences are packed with macroeconomic theory and laced with a biting, merciless wit.
The arc
The journey descends from complacent entitlement through mounting, claustrophobic panic, ultimately landing in a grim but pragmatic acceptance of a radically altered reality.
Who it's for
Readers who relish cerebral, near-future dystopias and enjoy watching deeply flawed, affluent characters navigate the terrifying collapse of their comfortable world.
Content notes
  • economic ruin
  • dementia
  • starvation
  • gun violence
  • elder neglect

About the book

It is 2029. The Mandibles have been counting on a sizable fortune filtering down when their 97-year-old patriarch dies. Yet America's soaring national debt has grown so enormous that it can never be repaid. Under siege from an upstart international currency, the dollar is in meltdown. A bloodless world war will wipe out the savings of millions of American families. Their inheritance turned to ash, each family member must contend with disappointment, but also -- as the effects of the downturn start to hit -- the challenge of sheer survival. Recently affluent Avery is petulant that she can't buy olive oil, while her sister Florence is forced to absorb strays into her increasingly cramped household. As their father Carter fumes at having to care for his demented stepmother now that a nursing home is too expensive, his sister Nollie, an expat author, returns from abroad at 73 to a country that's unrecognizable. Perhaps only Florence's oddball teenage son Willing, an economics autodidact, can save this formerly august American family from the streets. This is not science fiction. This is a frightening, fascinating, scabrously funny glimpse into the decline that may await the United States all too soon, from the pen of perhaps the most consistently perceptive and topical author of our times.

Description from Open Library.

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