Property: Stories Between Two Novellas
Written by Lionel Shriver
Narrated by Lionel Shriver
4/5
()
About this audiobook
A striking new collection of ten short stories and two novellas that explores the idea of property in every meaning of the word, from the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of the National Book Award finalist So Much for That and the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin.
Intermingling settings in America and Britain, Lionel Shriver’s first collection explores property in both senses of the word: real estate and stuff. These pieces illustrate how our possessions act as proxies for ourselves, and how tussles over ownership articulate the power dynamics of our relationships. In Lionel Shriver’s world, we may possess people and objects and places, but in turn they possess us.
In the stunning novella ""The Standing Chandelier,"" a woman with a history of attracting other women’s antagonism creates a deeply personal wedding present for her best friend and his fiancée—only to discover that the jealous fiancée wants to cut her out of their lives. In ""Domestic Terrorism,"" a thirty-something son refuses to leave home, resulting in a standoff that renders him a millennial cause célèbre. In ""The ChapStick,"" a middle-aged man subjugated by service to his elderly father discovers that the last place you should finally assert yourself is airport security. In ""Vermin,"" an artistic Brooklyn couple’s purchase of a ramshackle house destroys their once-passionate relationship. In ""The Subletter,"" two women, both foreign conflict junkies, fight over a claim to a territory that doesn’t belong to either.
Exhibiting a satisfying thematic unity unusual for a collection, this masterful work showcases the biting insight that has made Shriver one of the most acclaimed writers of our time.
Lionel Shriver
Although Lionel Shriver has published many novels, a collection of essays, and a column in the Spectator since 2017, and her journalism has been featured in publications including the Guardian, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, she in no way wishes for the inclusion of this information to imply that she is more “intelligent” or “accomplished” than anyone else. The outdated meritocracy of intellectual achievement has made her a bestselling author multiple times and accorded her awards, including the Orange Prize, but she accepts that all of these accidental accolades are basically meaningless. She lives in Portugal and Brooklyn, New York.
More audiobooks from Lionel Shriver
We Need to Talk About Kevin movie tie-in: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Abominations: Selected Essays from a Career of Courting Self-Destruction Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ordinary Decent Criminals: A Novel Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The New Republic: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Perfectly Good Family Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Post-Birthday World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5So Much for That Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Big Brother: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Property
Related audiobooks
The Distinguished Guest: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Motion of the Body Through Space: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5So Much for That Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everyone's Pretty Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Game Control Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mutations: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Post-Birthday World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Clasp: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Should We Stay or Should We Go: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All Grown Up Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Perfectly Good Family Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Big Brother: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thalia Book Club: Sloane Crosley, Look Alive Out There Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEarthly Possessions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Double Fault Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Other People's Love Affairs: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Female of the Species Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Past: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Instructions for a Funeral: Stories Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5In the Age of Love and Chocolate: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5St. Ivo Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cheer Up, Mr. Widdicombe: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Friendship Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Winterton Blue: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Closing Time: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Carry Yourself Back to Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Charming Billy: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black and White Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Did You Ever Have A Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Literary Fiction For You
The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Demon Copperhead: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: A Hunger Games Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Parable of the Sower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tom Lake: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stardust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Song of Achilles: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Poisonwood Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yellowface: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Measure: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Picture of Dorian Gray: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Name of the Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Their Eyes Were Watching God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dutch House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of The Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House in the Cerulean Sea Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hang the Moon: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Property
50 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I just love almost everything she writes. I like the way you can feel like you’re inside the characters head, and I find the language intelligent and witty
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bookended by two novellas, Property was a fairly tenuous link between all the stories, but as ever Shriver's writing was tight, wry and smart. Nothing escapes her notice as a writer, and with this collection she stays up there in my list of favourite writers.My only disappointment was that the first novella is The Standing Chandelier, which I read as a standalone novel for my RLBC a few months ago. I hate doing rereads as time's too short, but I also hate partially reading books so I read it again despite myself and enjoyed it all over again. The final novella was surprisingly based in Belfast (although I don't know why I was surprised as Shriver lived there for 12 years back in the Nineties), and as well as being an enjoyable (but slightly stressful) account of an unexpected flat share with a difficult flatmate, it was an interesting portrayal of Belfast seen through an outsider's eyes, an American who, like Shriver, had been living there for a decade. I'm not sure the Northern Ireland Tourist Board will be quoting from this novella in its advertising any time soon, but I think Shriver captured the city and its people pretty well, warts and all (and she certainly doesn't hold back on the criticism). She also doesn't shy away from looking her fellow Americans straight in the eye, calling out American sympathy for the IRA and Nationalism (the novella is set just after the Good Friday Agreement). I was curious about this, so I read up on a few interesting pieces online in which she talks about how her eyes were very much opened by her time in Belfast, changing her home politics away from liberalism as she was angry that murderers were being viewed through rose-tinted glasses.Anyway, this is simply a review and not a political manifesto. The stories in between these two novellas were also very clever and amusing - I may be warming to the short story genre after all. 4 stars - dropping half a star for cheating me with a repeat of that separately published novella, but I remain in the Shriver fandom.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I like Lionel Shrivers writing a lot. Especially because she is typically making a point with everything she writes. In this collection of stories, the points are diverse and strong. Also typically, I do not agree with her libertarian point, but I find it refreshing to read the argument in a literary way. Libertarians making their point in a straight-forward argumentative article typically bore me. Of course, making a political point in fiction is a bit of a cheap trick, because you can make your characters behave stupid or illogical as you wish. But if the psychology of the story is good and the message not too thickly spread on top, it can be really powerful.Most of these stories really made me think, some of them actually changed my opinion, be it a little bit.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I just discovered Lionel Shriver a year ago and this is my 4th book by her and the first that is short stories and novellas. She is a great writer. Her prose is intricate and full of great metaphors etc. In fact her descriptions are so good and consistent that you sometimes wish for more simplicity. She reaches to very subtle depths and is consistently in the head of her characters. The stories surround how property and all of its implications impact us. In most cases her stories involve the main character and some adversary. Her characters are constantly analyzing, plotting, thinking, overthinking and just being complex humans. Shriver who is a libertarian is not bashful with her opinions about being PC correct, entitled young people, and stingy parents etc. Her books are long but well worth it. I do plan to eventually read all of her books. She has climbed into my list of favorite authors. A must read
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5After the excellent opening "The Standing Chandelier", I began to find these a little hit and miss ("Domestic Terrorism" being a particularly big miss). I gave up at page 132.