The Mandibles by Lionel Shriver - April book of the month. Read and join the Facebook Live with Lionel Shriver on Wednesday 10 May, 8.30pm

[RachelMumsnet]

The Mandibles is our April book of the month and we’re delighted that award-winning author Lionel Shriver will be joining us on Facebook for a live chat on Wednesday 10 May, 8.30pm

Set in a near future USA where the dollar has become worthless, this is the story of the Mandibles family. Once super-wealthy, they are forced to come to terms with the fact their inheritance has turned to ash and, as the effects of the economic collapse begin to hit, they are faced with the sheer challenge of survival.

In this novel Lionel Shriver once again proves she’s one of the greatest social commentators in literature. She tackles big issues (global economy, race, class) but always with her trademark dry wit - in fact this is arguably her funniest novel to date.

Amendment: Lionel Shriver is now joining us to answer your questions on Facebook LIVE from 8.30pm on Wednesday 10 May

Please see our post further down the thread for more information

Really enjoying the mandibles so far, I'm only a third of the way through but it has me gripped. I love that your books often focus on the relationships within a family and how they react to situations- but these situations differ so much from book to book, I wonder where does your inspiration come from?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, lots to think about, especially how the big decisions made at the top filter down and affect day to day living for those at the bottom in a practical way. I liked Willing a lot, he was shrewd and practical. I hadn't read Lionel Shriver before and was very impressed at the way she can be thought-provoking and incredibly funny at the same time.

I was also really interested in how Lionel dealt with the fate of older people - many of the Mandibles lived to a great old age and the question of how society deals with this is topical for us in the UK as well. I hope to make the Facebook session, but in case I can't I'd like to ask Lionel whether she sees the social and economic issues in her book as specific to the USA, or whether she feels they have a universal application - could this happen anywhere?

I finished the last couple of pages this morning. Like a number of others, I did struggle with the economic discussions in the early stages of the book. That may be why it took me a while to get going. However, I loved the characters and the exploration of what it might look like if a world power like the US collapsed. It was challenging to think what would happen to social structures and 'acceptable' behaviours if something like this happened. I especially liked Willing's determination to protect his family. It was a reminder that there are no 'good' or 'bad' characters.

My question would be: Do you see the economic discussion around Avery and Lowell's dinner table as essential to our understanding of the plot? I found it very confusing, but I am now wondering if that was deliberate - since many people may be confused by the language of economics. Did you have a good understanding of economics before you started writing the novel?

Thank you for my copy.

We need to talk about Kevin is one of my favorite books. Great coup
Mumsnet.

Sorry I can't join the live chat but I don't have facebook. My question is: what other books would you recommend to learn more about what might happen in the near future as a result of the current global economic problems? Fiction or non-fiction. Thank you! Emma

I usually love Lionel Shriver but I really couldn't get on with this book, I found the economics stuff quite dull. Maybe I should have persevered.

Thanks Mumsnet for the book. Here is the review.

onerightword.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/the-mandibles-lionel-shriver.html

I was looking forwafd to the webchat with Lionel Shriver tonights. Unfortunately, it looks like I won't be able to make it. However, here are my questions for the writer. It will be great if she can respond to them:

1. I really loved Enola - the eccentric, unconventional aunt who proves more sensible than any of them at the end.

Considering this writer character with a very stubborn and independent streak, how much of yourself do you see in Enola? :)

1. Who is your favourite character in the story and why?

Hi. I'm not 100% whether I can commit to tonight's fb live as I have a poorly baby (4m imms :( yesterday!) However, I will do my best if she settles.
I have never read anything by Lionel before but have heard lots about We need to talk about Kevin, so was really looking forward to reading this. I have to admit I found the beginning of the book quite difficult to read - lots of economics. But I persevered with it and I am glad that I did.
The bit about money being only paper and its only worth what we're told its worth really got me thinking. This is so obvious, but its something I have never considered before. I liked how Lionel showed how decisions from government affected different people individually. I think the scary thing is that this piece of fiction could become reality in the future - Ed Balls as prime minister!!
My questions to Lionel are:
1 - Is all the economics jargon correct (it went over my head sorry), and if so how long did it take you to research this?
2 - How you manage to inject humour into such a dark subject.

Thanks for the book.

A difficult subject and a really different way of looking at it. I'd like to ask whether Lionel thinks that the Trump administration will have a positive or negative effect on the economy and whether there are any of his attributes in the Latino president in the book.

I loved the book. It's not what I usually read but it certainly gave me food for thought.

I'd like to know if the current political climate prompted the story or if it's something that's been on the back burner for a while?

Loved the book. Do you think that American politics at the moment is beyond satire? Having a real estate magnet running the country, sacking FBI generals like Coney this morning - you couldn't make it up!

Is it true that you write standing up? If so - why?

Who are your favourite authors?

I'd like to ask Lionel whether she is bitter? The Mantibles has - at some level - an air of resentment about it, but that might just be me projecting.

I particularly loved "Prepositions".

I am three quarters of the way through and really enjoying it. I haven't read the thread in case of spoilers!
I found it quite hard to get into and kept getting confused with who was who. A picture of the family tree would have been useful but I suspect that is mainly to do with my sleep-deprived dippy brain.
Reading this book alongside our current news made it particularly scary. It doesn't seem too far a stretch of the imagination at the moment to see it become reality. I loved some of the character development.
Which character do you most identify with?
Who was easiest to write?

Thank you MumsNet for the oppotrunity to read this novel. The book is very interesting, captivating and thought-provoking. Unfortunately I couldn't be able to join the live chat, because I haven't got FB. My questions to Lionel Shriver are:
What inspire her to write this novel?
What are the challenges in writing dystopian fiction?
Thank you!

A really well written book - it is clear once again that the author put in a lot of effort into getting this right.

Hope to join the Facebook live session later. My questions for Lionel ......

• --> Do you have a personal favourite out of the books you've had published? And/or out of books published by other authors?
• --> Your book, ‘We Need To Talk About Kevin’ was adapted into a film. Is there any other of your books being optioned for film or television? And how did you feel about your work in 'other people's hands', and did you feel compelled to intervene with a ‘do’s and don’t’ instructions list for producers?

The sound keeps cutting out - hope we can get a transcript on the MN thread? I have a couple of questions - do you think that money is increasingly causing resentment between the generations? I had a really strong sense of that in the novel and I think that it's something we hear about a lot - babyboomers taking everything and pulling up the ladder behind them! I'm over-simplifying, of course, but in your novel there was such a clear sense of the family money having got "stuck" with Douglas Mandible.

Second question from me - I felt so cheated by the ending of Big Brother (I won't give any spoilers but you'll know what I mean!) - I felt so sad that it didn't work out with the fairytale ending. Although of course that would have been totally unrealistic. My question is - when you write, do you have your ending all worked out beforehand? Or do you wait and see how things develop? And do you think about how your readers will respond?

Finally, at the risk of gushing, I love your writing.

I couldn't get the live webcast to work at allThe screen kept freezing or there was no sound. I was still struggling with it when I saw the message that the web chat had ended!

Mumsnet, will there be a way to see a transcript of Lionel's questions/answers?

Was just on Facebook Live for the questions session with Lionel Shiver. Experienced technical trouble, I'm afraid ... the audio and visuals were not correctly synced, plus the video kept on stalling.

Oh, well, I guess we'll have to just play back the recording 🎥 of the interview (if it is made available).

Oh, I've just seen that the webchat has ended. Gutted it didn't work for me - I was so looking forward to it. Shame we couldn't have just done it on here rather than stupid facebook.

I can't get this to work at all, tried on my iPad and laptop and am now wondering if the actual Q&A is done :/

I wanted to ask about whether Lionel knew much about Ed Balls before choosing him to be the UK's dystopian Prime Minister. (I secretly hope she's familiar with Ed Balls day and Strictly!).

I really hope there will be a way to watch this chat back at another point, or read a transcript. I really enjoyed the book (even not being very economically minded!) and it threw up lots of questions about life and politics in our time. I'd love to read more about the processes behind writing it and the wider context. It's just a shame I couldn't get the tech to work!

I'm really confused. I can't see any video of Lionel on the Facebook page. I posted my question in the comment but there are no other questions or replies.

I couldn't get it to work either, it wouldn't load and then it just disappeared, sorry. Have to admit I prefer the usual webchat set up as I'm not a Facebook person anyway. I enjoyed the book and found it scarily plausible, especially the way that currency can be instantly devalued and how it is something that you just don't think about day to day yet what a horrendous impact it would have on your life. My question for Lionel was actually to do with names - how do you decide what to call your characters and the more books you write, do you find it gets more difficult to ensure character names aren't too similar or too far fetched or maybe, it's not a consideration! I know that when I'm trying to think of something that I don't want reference to, all I can think of is similar ideas much to my annoyance.

We're SO Sorry about the tech glitch. After our Facebook Live disaster we did manage to record a video with Lionel answering a few of your questions which we've now uploaded to the Mumsnet Facebook page here We'll try and upload to this thread tomorrow. We're so sorry she didn't manage to get through more - it was the third time we'd tried! A huge thanks to Lionel who was so cool and collected despite our tech difficulties and promises to come back again to talk about her new book which is coming out next year. Maybe we'll stick to the webchat next time