After enjoying Lionel Shriver ‘Property’ I was definitely looking forward to this read.
Lionel certainly didn’t disappoint. I was immediately reminded of how enjoyable Lionel’s unique writing style is. Add to that a plot thread that I absolutely love, some audaciously brilliant satire and poignant relationship issues, and you have a great novel.

Reluctantly I am stopping half way through. This book just isn't for me. I dislike the characters, the subject matter and the writing style. Others obviously loved it, but it's just not for me.

This is the first Lionel Shriver book ive read and I'm hooked. Her dialogue is witty, pertinent, thought provoking and confrontational.
I loved this book. I grew quite attached to the characters as the book developed and really miss them a few days after finishing it. They were quite unique and I will remember them fondly.

What can I say about ‘The Motion of the Body Through Space’ by Lionel Shriver except to say I loved it!
As a woman with fibromyalgia and a husband that runs marathons the novel had lots that I could relate to and for me had loads of laugh out loud moments. The balance between the two sets of belief, to exercise or not to exercise, and to what degree was carefully examined and the conclusion of the book was a perfect ending.

Shriver satirical humour comes through at its best in this novel. The premise is what happens to a long term marriage when one half is suddenly sacked and turns to the current exercise cult to make himself feel good. The interesting descriptions of all the sporting activities were fascinating. I loved the story of how and why Remington was sacked as it had me roaring with laughter. Serenata is still trying to work, despite that drying up and her knees causing her so much pain that she can’t do her exercises and more . I understood why Serenata felt aggrieved that she had to keep working to try to balance the family budget and support her husband new expensive hobby. Shriver added even more humour by the children of Serenata and Remington, namely Valeria and Deacon, the descriptions of these two were wonderful so funny and yet easy to picture them as well. I understood the emotions of Serenata when it came to Remington new hobby and especially to the group he joined being led by Bambi. The description given on more than one occasion of what actually happens during a knee replacement made me wince as it was so well described.
The whole book is the development of family relationships and is wonderful.Shriver knows how to write a great story that all can relate to with superb character descriptions.
Highly recommend this to anyone who wants to laugh and is maybe thinking of joining the exercise cult.

Shriver offers a scathing expose of the cult of extreme exercise and its impact on older people and along the way offers her opinions on modern American life across a range of issues.

The main characters, Serenata and Remington are a married couple in later years who are affected in different ways by a desire not to grow old and infirm, and they provide little more than a hook for the exposition of a complex set of ideas and opinions that are masterfully offered by Shriver at her stylistic best.

The book is an enjoyable journey through a whole range of contemporary American issues, and the broad brush strokes are balanced by acute observation and recounting in damning detail the thrust of particular conversations .
While the characters aren't particularly likeable and I found it difficult to have any sympathy with most of them, I admired their roles in getting across a complex set of arguments that .bind together to offer a powerful picture of contemporary society and its challenges.
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When you have a new novel by Lionel Shriver you cannot expect a simple tale – it inevitably comes with a depth of extra meaning, an exploration of what it means to be a human being – and a human being in our current times. But never, ever expect a fatuous or simplistic analysis of life, Shriver inevitably approaches ideas that she thinks need discussing from the less than popular direction. I confess that I am one of the people who find her alternative views (albeit challenging) reassuring as they seem to skewer thoughts and quiet anxieties that life has been raising in our rapidly changing world. But in a world where the basic fundamentals of life - families, love, relationships, work and community continue, or don’t – and you still have to get by.
Serenata (60) married to Remington (64) has recently moved back to his home town of Hudson following an incident at his long term employer. It seems that his behaviour has not met with the required new standards and issues of “political correctness”. His income and pension are now somewhat compromised. But Remington has (apparently) to find a purpose to the rest of his life. Serenata, an admittedly compulsive exerciser, has increasing trouble with pains from her over-used knees, but is scared to agree to the required knee surgery. She still works as a professional reader or voice over – a job that she has a wide reputation of being is excellent at. All good, that is, until “politics” make her employment as an older “white” woman problematic. It has to be made clear, that neither of the two is perfect, maybe a slightly odd couple, but they have been getting by until life’s standards change.
Remington, bored, starts to exercise and gets dragged deeper and deeper into the “culture” of extreme sport. Shriver uses his tale to explore the whole industry and economics of exercise. But does this through the conflict that develops between Serenata and Rem. She reflects on its costs, structures and evolutions, but more importantly the ethos of competition. Competition that then draws participants of certain types into the almost “cult” of rituals, marketing and ra-ra-ra. You are either “in”, or anti, negative, jealous, destructive (pick your term). Rem. builds a new support structure of others likewise engaged. Unable (and unwilling) to exercise in this way Serenata has to find a way to accommodate her husband’s extreme and dangerous behaviour. Serenata does not object to exercise as such – she exercises herself – but the whole public structure and rigmarole of “competition” and “being better” that the current system requires which she finds both alien and a modern construct. She sees it as another temporary fad playing on anxieties of people, getting older, alone, or with weight or body form issues – an unnecessary and inexplicable excess.
But this novel is also about close relationships as family members both grow and age. Serenata has looked to a close understanding in her marriage, she finds their previous mental closeness essential. Their children are not the key focus of her life. The differences with regard to Rem’s new life cause her real pain, particularly as she thinks her marriage could be ending as her wider life and habits are falling apart. In his new place, he is distant and increasingly obsessed. She also has to review her relationships with her two children. Son Deacon she has seemingly marginalised to prioritise her relationship with Rem. something she will come to recognise and regret. Her daughter looks to her mother as the excuse for her difficulties and now on her second marriage to a born again Christian (and waster) she expects help with her six children while spouting constant bitterness and criticism. She never seems to grow.
Through the two themes you can explore not just the changing world and “values” and cultural expectations, but the realities physical and otherwise of aging. Serenata has to consider her previous attitudes and responsibilities for the way she behaved (or didn’t) around her children. But she will have to live with the result nevertheless. But with the Shriver extra there will be an exploration of how you should approach the end of life – is what you do, or have done actually be of any great importance against the greater whole of the world? And in an aside of astute prediction – whether lives will be overshadowed by the next great natural reckoning that the world (and humans) we are told is due. The latter may not perhaps be the most comforting at this time of “self isolation”. But Shriver never treats her readers as idiots, rather as truly thinking people. This is a thought provoking book that may leave you uneasy in places, not least when you recognise certain behaviours. Nevertheless you are advised to rise to the challenge.

I've not read any of Lionel Shriver before (yeah, I know, what??). So I was keen to give this a chance, and having finished I have left it overnight to ponder my reaction.

I get that it's a satire on the 'church of exercise', the modern-day obsession with fitness regimes, counting steps and partaking in endurance races. What I don't get is whether this satire extends to all the other themes addressed in the book: white privilege and attitudes to racism, religion itself, gender-neutral language, and so on. The central characters are so unlikeable, and so unlikely, that they must be the subject of satire - and as such, so too must their opinions? Or so I thought, until I started to feel that actually this was just a rant from a white, middle-aged writer on everything she feels is wrong with our so-called PC times. And then it lost all interest for me.

Husband and wife Remington and Serenata Alabaster; their children Valeria and Deacon; their cleaner Tomasina March; Remington's personal trainer Bambi Buffer.... OK, their names are so extreme to the point of parody, but this is satire with a hammer, which actually, for me, makes it far less effective than a more subtle handling.

Shriver can write well, and there were two or three laugh out loud moments where she perfectly captures a moment of conversation. But this was not a book I enjoyed at all, unfortunately. And that frustration was compounded by an utterly needless 'Afterword'. Maybe I just missed what others found, so this is just my response. Others give it 5 stars, so there we go.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

Serenata Terpischore has been unable to do her customary 90 minutes exercise per day because advancing arthritis in her knees makes it too painful. Her husband Remington has been sacked from his job and decides to take up marathon running. The initial losses in their lives become compounded as the plot progresses to the extent that their marriage and indeed their lives are threatened. Their feelings about how the world has changed reflect Shriver's well known political views. It is entertaining and enjoyable to read even when decline and doom seem inevitable and an insightful description of ageing and loss.

Serenata’s husband Remington, recently sacked from work and entering retirement, decides he wants to run a marathon, just as problems with her knees mean she has to give up exercise. The pair start drifting apart, especially when Remington employs young personal trainer Bambi to prepare him for a triathlon. Can they repair their marital problems and stay together?

I don’t know what I expected from the Motion of the Body Through Space, but it wasn’t this! Having said that, I throughly enjoyed every moment of it and would recommend it to everyone. I think we can all relate to the situation at the tribunal, where comments can be taken to prove or disprove any opinion, At times Remington was extremely irritating and self-centred, which I guess was the point, and the exploits of the tri club would make a rational person wonder in disbelief, but the story as a whole is really good and flows well.

Another masterpiece from Lionel Shriver.

This book made me laugh-out-loud and ironically, sometimes it made me want to exercise. It made me feel lazy for sitting still and enjoying the book instead of getting my steps up for the day. My watch did tell me to “Move” while I sat and read.

There are deep questions asked about what it is to be a human and why on earth we are so obsessed with exercise, muscle tone, protein shakes and putting ourselves through the misery of marathons and triathlons, when there is art, conversation and literature that we could turn our minds to. And this book is well-written. I have read some of Shriver’s previous work and her observations always accurately skewer the intended party.

None of the characters are particularly likeable, though that’s clearly the intention. I will say that I found the book sagged a little from about 45 percent of the way in until the final 10 percent of the novel when it picked up pace again; rather like a marathon.

Many thanks to NetGalley, The Borough Press and Lionel Shriver for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lionel Shriver’s latest novel is a study of the changing dynamics within a long marriage and how it is impacted by ageing bodies, contemporary obsessions such as the cult of fitness and the trumping of politically correct office politics over experience and common sense.
The wife Serenta is approaching 60 - a lifetime of punishing exercise has left her knees knackered and requiring serious surgery. As she contemplates temporarily becoming an invalid her formerly sedentary husband Remington, older by a few years - decides to give meaning to his early enforced retirement by taking up extreme forms of exercise. This does not go down well with Serenta who feels usurped as the couple’s designated follower of fitness just at the point where she can no longer participate herself. To make matters worse Remington chooses the unbearable and obnoxious Bambi as his personal fitness trainer.
To make matters worse the couple’s children are distant and disappointing – their son is feckless and possibly a drug dealer and their daughter Valeria has joined a group of born again Christians and has nothing but criticism for the way she was brought up and the life she believes her mother leads.
The story shows the stresses placed on a long marriage by changes in status, changes in contemporary culture and the changes brought about by ageing bodies. Shriver appears to be allowing herself to throw a spotlight on ideologies she takes issue with such as the religious intensity of those who worship within the cult of exercise, as well as those who choose to target ‘white privilege’ at the expense of common sense.
While I didn’t find any of the characters particularly likeable, everyone seems largely self-centred and selfish - I did, however, get drawn into the narrative and enjoyed watching how the relationships between different characters evolved.
Were there lessons in how to age well? I’m not sure, but who needs a lesson when there’s a good tale involved and just by avoiding obsession, you can smugly feel superior to almost everyone in the book…

The Motion of the body through space is a tounge in cheek discussion about the cult of exercise!
After being made to take early retirement, Renington decides to run a marathon. This is a man who's never run a day in his life. His wife, Serenata, has exercised fanatically since a child, and feels his timing is cruel, as she's just been told she needs a double knee replacement due to arthritis.
After the marathon, Rem decides, with the help of trainer Bambi, that he's going to do a MettleMan, triathlon.
I found the take on exercise as a cult religion interesting, especially compared to the daughter who was a born again Christian. The writing was decent and flows well.
It's a good, 3* read. But probably not one I'd pick up again.

This social Commentary if a book was spot on and hilarious. The descriptions, the snarky comments and conversations were refreshingly honest. Not a book for everyone but I loved it.

Serenata Terpsichore has enjoyed solitary exercise all her life, but hitting sixty her knees have given way. Infuriatingly, her hitherto sedentary husband Remington Alabaster, recently and reluctantly made redundant, announces his intention to run a marathon. We also meet their adult children, sanctimonious Valeria and opportunistic Deacon.

I love Shrivers exquisite use of language and her dry sardonic wit. The characters however I found very unsympathetic and the plot rather thin. I struggled therefore to engage with it and to sustain reading.

I've loved previous Lionel Shriver books, and her prose continued to be beautiful, but the story left me cold.

First of all, the actual plot is quite small for a full book. Two, too many of the characters were caricatures to serve the plot (especially Remmington's former boss - more nuance would have made this storyline better and less 'Daily Mail, poor reverse racism sufferer'). Three, its messages on fitness felt very preachy and snobbish.

It definitely warmed up at the end. I sympathised with Serenata and Remmington as characters and was rooting for them and their marriage. I also thought it contained interesting, poignant comments on ageing. But all in all, I couldn't recommend to a friend to read.

Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy, all opinions are my own.

My thanks to Netgalley for my copy of The Motion of the Body Through Space, Lionel Shriver's latest offering which is so much better than the title suggests.

A brilliantly satirical novel which I found particularly apt being in the same age bracket as Serenata and Remington with a usually sporty husband who is currently recovering from a joint replacement operation.

This book has such a strong message for society and it's current phases of political correctness (gone mad) that I think it's a shame that in this instance Shriver is so overly verbose as to be missing out on a large section of readers especially as the language is also so American. I found myself either reading and rereading or skipping passages altogether. Of course this could say more about me than it does about Shriver's writing style.

Having finished the book yesterday I found my thoughts drifting off to wonder what the main characters would be up to now, always a good sign of a great story.

Remington Alabaster and Serenata Terpsichore are a semi retired New York couple with grown-up children living a comfortable life, 'nitpicking' if not quite snappy with each other in a competitive way. This domestic harmony - if not bliss - is upset by Remington's decision to run a marathon. He is older than Serenata but, traditionally, she has been the one to do the workouts, cycling and running while wearing out her knee in the process. She sees Remington as doing this to 'compete' with her.

Much of the motion of the body in the rest of the book is about Remington's training, his decision to step up to triathlons and his preoccupation with an athletic club and the aptly named personal trainer, Bambi Buffer, as he also moves more metaphorically away from Serenata. As a couple, they don't deal well with this and it becomes clear that they have also not made a great success of raising their children, Valeria and Deacon; a born-again Christian, and a lazy opportunist.

But that isn't really the substance of the novel. Instead, it's a kind of angry satire directed against the American obsession with fitness, the need to constantly go faster and harder and the determination to punish the body and psyche on the way. Serenata is the perfect mouthpiece, dry, sardonic and focused for delivering this.

This bit works but a little later in the novel there's a section about how Remington lost his job in the city Department of Transport which may partly explain his obsession with achievement in running. Essentially, a young American woman of colour was promoted over his head, ill equipped to understand the nuances of the role she was taking on in a city obsessed with gender choice, positive discrimination and harassment. Remington hasn't coped well with this and is brought up before a tribunal, the outcome of which is he loses his employment and, perhaps, this leads to a need to win in another environment. You can chuckle over the preoccupation with running but, in this section, the writer and her own preoccupations take over. It's all a bit uneasy!

In the end, things reach boiling point and there's a crisis but, at the end, they come through. The born-again Christian becomes a born-again alcoholic and then recovers from that while the son proves to be a good egg after all.

It's a good book. Lionel Shriver has an exquisite writing style, an economical and apt vocabulary and the story rolls along, but the diversion from the route and the comic book portrayal of the subtleties of race and gender kind of detracts from the whole. It's still an interesting read.

It was probably intended but I have to admit, I instantly disliked most of the characters in this book. The way they were portrayed, their interaction and attitude was downright unpleasant. Saying that, some of the personality traits and opinions of the main protagonist, Serenata Terpsichore, were a little too close to my own so that might explain my cringing.
Having said that, the humour was wry and the depiction of the cult-like craze of “MettleMan” type events was spot-on. I certainly feel like I’ve competed in an endurance event myself by getting to the end of it.
I’m left feeling far too unintelligent to appreciate what I’m sure must be a literary work of genius – I’m just too much of a plebeian to “get it”.

I love Lionel Shriver's writing style so was thrilled to be offered the chance to read this. The Motion of the Body Through Space is dry, witty, sad and brilliantly observed. It provides a window into a marriage as a couple adjust to the changes forced on them by ageing. Recently retired Remington who's never done any exercise has suddenly developed an obsession with running, a sport his wife Serenata has excelled at until recently when her knees gave out. Even if Remington makes it to the finish line will their marriage survive? Serenata who's "never been a team player" and has "always kept others at bay" is now questioning her identity and resents her husband's enthusiasm for the sport and his glamorous personal trainer. Her waspish remarks (eg "It doesn't bother you...that your ambition is hopelessly trite?") mask her fear that while he's found a new lease of life she at 60 is over the hill and can see "the decline that spread before her." The relationship with their adult children is also difficult, making this an uncomfortable but thought-provoking read .exploring themes of loneliness, jealousy and betrayal.