Lionel Shriver

She's not screaming at the top of her lungs or something.

And so I think I'm fair to her.

I think it's a realistic portrait.

And she believes in her own shtick, you know,

we can step outside her and see that moral vanity but i i don't think most of these people are aware of it it feels like passionate concern for others that's that's the experience and so i give her credit and the two other women um to slightly lesser extent but they they all

They all by themselves, B-U-I.

They all sincerely embrace their beliefs

and can't see their own vanity and can't see, for example, their own condescension.

The entire book is seen through the eyes of Nico, who is 26 when the book starts.

He has earned a degree in engineering from a decent university, but had an epiphany shortly before he graduated that he doesn't want to be an engineer.

And he doesn't want to be anything else either.

He just doesn't want to be a grownup.

There's nothing in it that attracts him.

This is very different from how I felt at that age.

There's always something intimidating about your 20s.

You're supposed to be an adult and you don't really feel like one.

And you're making decisions that are probably going to influence the rest of your life and you don't know which they are.

And I can see just deciding not for me, right?

The idea of just not having any ambition at all is weirdly attractive.

It's restful.