Should We Stay or Should We Go

A fascinating thought experiment of a novel that packs both an emotional and an intellectual punch. It reads as both humorous and hideous in its satire, but the reader remains committed and intrigued through to the end. The premise behind Should We Stay or Should We Go relates to the questions of ageing and overpopulation. The couple make a de facto suicide pact at the time of turning fifty to die at the age of eighty. What follows after this initial disclosure is Shriver fast-forwarding by thirty years and then imagining twelve different scenarios, or "alternative lives". Here one character may renege, or either/both may emerge in an unforeseen future that could be as dystopian as it might be utopian. Should We Stay or Should We Go is a case study in postmodernism, with the author having fun repeating text and manipulating her protagonists endlessly. The fundamental question of death remains omnipresent: why be in denial, and how best to distinguish healthspan and lifespan? Although the unexpected can always clearly happen, perhaps Shriver's point is that it is important to have a plan and then stick to it.

By Lionel Shriver