From Lionel Shriver, the acclaimed author of the National Book Award finalist So Much for That and the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin, comes a striking new novel about family, money, and global economic crisis.The year is 2029, and nothing is as it should be. The very essence of American life, the dollar, is under attack. In a coordinated move by the rest of the world’s … move by the rest of the world’s governments, the dollar loses all its value. The American President declares that the States will default on all its loans–prices skyrocket, currency becomes essentially worthless, and we watch one family struggle to survive through it all.
The Mandibles can count on their inheritance no longer, and each member must come to terms with this in their own way-from the elegant ex-pat author Nollie, in her middle age, returning to the U.S. from Paris after many years abroad, to her precocious teenage nephew Willing, who is the only one to actually understand the crisis, to the brilliant Georgetown economics professor Lowell, who watches his whole vision of the world disintegrate before his eyes.
As ever, in her new novel, Shriver draws larger than life characters who illuminate this complicated, ever-changing world. One of our sharpest observers of human nature, Shriver challenges us to think long and hard about the society we live in and what, ultimately, we hold most dear.
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Miranda Purves reviews Lionel Shriver’s new book The Mandibles: “We watch as three generations of one privileged, old-money family, the Mandibles, now sans inheritance, are forced back together for survival in a New York City that looks close to ours, but, with terrifying realism, gets worse—much, much worse.”
http://www.elle.com/culture/books/a37148/lionel-shriver-the-mandibles/
Excellent portrayal of an economic pandemic.
A little on the nose if you’re looking for escapism, but a gripping treatment of applied economics.
How will the coming dollar collapse change your life? Read THE MANDIBLES
I first heard about THE MANDIBLES while listening to an audiobook by the financial guru James Rickards. I had heard of Shriver’s other books but had not read them.
So, with Rickards’s views in mind on how the debt bubble and the Federal Reserve’s bloated balance sheet might unwind, I strapped in for a bumpy ride.
THE MANDIBLES did not disappoint. It’s a book whose time has come.
As a writer of political dystopian thrillers (KAMAS TRILOGY and others), I thought I had a fair notion of how an economic dystopia might look and feel. But Shriver’s fertile imagination, thorough research—and strong grasp of Rickardsian economics—have created a dystopian vision far more richly imagined than any I could conjure.
In sum, THE MANDIBLES is a tour de force of dystopian imagination. In my view, it is also eerily prescient. The broad outlines of what happens in Shriver’s future America are not at all far-fetched. Some details may be exaggerated or whimsical, but that’s because the story is a satire, a farce. To quote a popular phrase, take the book seriously but not literally.
So if you are steeped in conventional wisdom, think gold is a barbarous relic, and steadfastly buy stocks on the dips, you probably won’t care much for THE MANDIBLES. If you are pretty sure you know what the U.S. economy/society will look like in five years, this is also probably not the book for you.
Even those of a contrarian bent or those who are open-minded to dissenting views, will find THE MANDIBLES a shocking eye-opener.
Having issued these warnings, I would add that THE MANDIBLES is not all doom and gloom and does not preach or lecture. Shriver is a masterful storyteller who writes with dry wit, uses irony well, and knows how to craft intelligent character-based plots. Some of her characters in this novel personify the conventional, while others are idiosyncratic. It’s intriguing to see how each adapts when the sh*t hits the fan.
Shriver published THE MANDIBLES in 2017, well after the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2008, but long before the COVID-19 lockdowns, the federal government’s gargantuan stimulus spending, and the Federal Reserve’s desperate creation of trillions in debt to bail out every too-big-to-fail institution that found itself in trouble. One might describe the book’s premise as this: what happens to you and me when the largest debt bubble in human history pops?
The novel’s cast of protagonists represents three generations of a once-wealthy family whose members are counting on an inheritance that vanishes into thin air. The characters must then navigate the economic and social upheaval that follow when the dollar ceases being the world’s reserve currency, the U.S. Treasury defaults on its debts, and the federal government reacts to unforeseen events with sky-high taxes, currency controls and other repressive measures.
What made THE MANDIBLES especially fascinating to me was that Shriver dramatized how the economic and societal breakdown affected each generation and each character through each stage of a decades-long descent into national ruin.
Though Shriver appears to be a political liberal, judging from her interviews and writings, I would also credit her with being an unusually brave one to have challenged expert opinion, political correctness, social groupthink and every species of sacred cow all across the political spectrum. In THE MANDIBLES, there is something to offend everyone. Shriver also takes the risk of offending collectivist-minded readers by making her two most durable characters paragons of personal exceptionalism. Individuals turn the tide in this family story by making sound choices under duress.
I have read the nitpicking criticisms of Shriver’s 1-star and 2-star reviewers and find their flak misses the target. THE MANDIBLES is speculative fiction meant to open the reader’s mind to unforeseen possibilities. It’s not about slavishly projecting current trends forward.
I will concede that THE MANDIBLES does have its flaws, but these are of a kind to be expected from a satire and a novel of ideas.
For while this is a character-based story with a clear plot arc, the characters take a bit longer to develop because of greater authorial distance required in satire and the relative shortage of inner monologue when dealing with a large cast of characters. Nearly every one the novel’s principals starts out appearing shallow and unlikeable in his or her own way and becomes more sympathetic as he or she faces challenge and suffering. Give these people a hundred pages or so before you give up on them.
The book does have its share of info dumps, on-the-nose dialog and show-don’t-tell violations, but the author’s adroit use of acid humor makes these lapses easy to excuse.
THE MANDIBLES is a tour de force of dystopian imagination that will be read decades from now as a sagacious warning of the collapse that lay ahead and a parable of how ordinary people might manage to survive it.
I found it fascinating. I would not usually read something so centered on finance and politics, it it really held my attention. I really enjoyed the characters and the set up. This near future is a bit too plausible for comfort. I even bought two more copies of this book to give to family members.
It could be describing one of the reasons for my Dystopian world in When The World Runs Dry
Funny but terrifyingly plausible dystopian eco masterpiece.
I loved this book because it hits so close to home given today’s world’s affairs (this is being written in January 2017). The ghost of populism and its nefarious consequences is built up to its most ridiculous consequences and offers a cautionary tale of what could happen.
The world is fed up with the US bullying ways so it decides to stop recognizing the dollar standard, figuring the US is so indebted its currency is basically worthless. As a result the US reneges on its treasury bills basically resetting the clock for anyone holding dollars. The US forces currency controls as it refuses to recognize a new world currency, and US citizens are reviled the world over so most US expats are forced to repatriate.
This drama is played out through the eyes of a once very wealthy family which had been basically banking on an inheritance that would let them all enjoy what they believe is their well deserved high life. Unfortunately the money never arrives, or better said when it does it isn’t worth the paper it is printed on. To make matters worse healthcare is so much better that people live for a quite a while so the inheritors in waiting not only don’t receive the money but are forced to care for the previous generation.
I’d recommend this book to anyone trying to figure out what populism could do to the US and what would be the consequences if the world were to stop allowing the US simply to print money to get out of trouble.