The New Republic
by Lionel Shriver
- Percentage of approved critics who have given this book a positive review.
Critic Rating
40%
Critic Reviews: 16
-
- User rating from iDreamBooks & iTunes
Reader Rating
24%
Reader Ratings: 77
Write a review
Synopsis
SEEING IS BELIEVING Commuters, multitaskers, avid readers, and computer users all agree that HarperLuxe is the new format in larger print, set in 14-point typeThe acclaimed author of the National Book Award finalist So Much for That probes the mystery of charisma-what makes certain people so magnetic, and how frustrating it is to feel overshadowed by a life-of-the-party who isn't even there Fat and ostracized as a kid, Edgar Kellogg has always yearned to... more
About Lionel Shriver
- All Critics: 16
- Positive: 7
- Negative: 9
-
National Post | 6 Apr 2012
For readers pining for Shriver’s voice between more major works, this is a fine treat. For a casual reader, it’s a worthy amusement.
Full ReviewThe New Republic -
AV Club | 16 Apr 2012
Flat, overlong, consistently unfunny, and far less original than the author seems to know, The New Republic is most interesting for an ongoing theme that Shriver barely seems to know what to do with, except obsess over it.
Full ReviewThe New Republic -
Time Out New York | 18 Apr 2012
She has an uncanny knack for getting into the heads of the incestuous group of Western journalists Kellogg falls in with, who can barely comprehend any ambition after their next big scoop.
Full ReviewThe New Republic -
Slate | 31 Mar 2012
here’s a laziness at work in both cases, a kind of shrugging refusal to make something better.
Full ReviewThe New Republic -
Nomad Reader | 27 Mar 2012
Lionel Shriver's sardonic wit takes center stage in this inventive and funny novel of terrorism, journalism and international life.
Full ReviewThe New Republic -
New Zealand Listener | 16 Apr 2012
There’s not a metaphor left unexplained, a parallel not drawn, coloured in and highlighted, just in case the reader can’t figure them out for themselves.
Full ReviewThe New Republic -
Entertainment Weekly | 28 Mar 2012
She is also sensitive to what can be truly frightening about the big world, even for intrepid media types well armed with professional bravado and sturdy expense accounts.
Full ReviewThe New Republic -
Los Angeles Times | 25 Mar 2012
Yet it is a little bit baggy; it feels very much like a book written in an author's becoming, when she was still operating in the shadows.
Full ReviewThe New Republic -
Star Tribune | 17 Mar 2012
As with any social satire, there's plenty here that's timely; but ultimately what is good about this book is good, regardless of the arbitrary nature of the publishing industry.
Full ReviewThe New Republic -
NY Observer | 20 Mar 2012
Ms. Shriver strives to shake up her readers’ sensibilities regarding both terrorism and human nature by overstepping the bounds of what she is able to convey, and ends up covering a story that is irresistible only to her.
Full ReviewThe New Republic -
NPR | 5 Apr 2012
...the novel drags in its midsection: It's lacking the essential venom in the blood that courses through a satiric masterpiece like Scoop as well as Shriver's more recent works.
Full ReviewThe New Republic -
The New York Times | 26 Mar 2012
One of the problems is that Ms. Shriver is not the least bit funny...Her willfully breezy depiction of terrorism is something worse.
Full ReviewThe New Republic -
The Star | 31 Mar 2012
It doesn’t sustain itself. I — like the members of the Barba press contingent — found myself wishing Barrington Saddler would show up and liven things up.
Full ReviewThe New Republic -
The Guardian | 8 Jun 2012
It's a shame that this novel falls so flat. Shriver, particularly in the mode of Eva in Kevin, is capable of extraordinarily good writing – but that praise should not appear on the cover of this book.
Full ReviewThe New Republic -
Los Angeles Times | 25 Mar 2012
Shriver is an incisive social satirist with a clear grip on the ironies of our contemporary age.
Full ReviewThe New Republic