Comments for ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
Comment on A Better Life (2026) by Lionel Shriver by kaggsysbookishramblings
I've been wary of Shriver for some time, Lisa, and your review makes me even more so. Sounds just like she wants to be provocative, but this is too complex an issue for this kind of book.
In reply to <a href="https://anzlitlovers.com/2026/04/30/a-better-life-2026-by-lionel-shriver/#comment-353189">Lisa Hill</a>. I agree. It's a big problem and probably one that can't be solved easily, if at all.
Comment on A Better Life (2026) by Lionel Shriver by Lisa Hill
In reply to <a href="https://anzlitlovers.com/2026/04/30/a-better-life-2026-by-lionel-shriver/#comment-353190">kimbofo</a>. LOL A brush with fame! Yes, I think you're right. She seems to latch onto contentious issues and then write something thoroughly provocative, as if she's daring people to disagree with her.
Comment on A Better Life (2026) by Lionel Shriver by kimbofo
It doesn't surprise me that Shriver would write something like this. She loudly advocated for Brexit in 2016 even though she wasn't eligible to vote. From other things she's said over the years, she's anti-immigration, outspoken about "woke" culture and definitely right-leaning. I sometimes think she's provocative for the sake of it though. As an aside, I used to see her regularly when I was cycle commuter in London as she would be going one way and I'd be going the other, and we met in the same pinchpoint on Southwark Bridge.
Comment on A Better Life (2026) by Lionel Shriver by Lisa Hill
In reply to <a href="https://anzlitlovers.com/2026/04/30/a-better-life-2026-by-lionel-shriver/#comment-353188">TravellinPenguin</a>. That sounds terrifying, I'm glad you've found a safe haven:) We do hear disconcerting stories here and there, like the assaults on women in Germany after Angela Merkel gave asylum to a million Syrians, which at the time I thought was wonderful and should have been a model for other European nations to follow. But they were apparently mostly young men, and it was said that they had grown up with different values and beliefs about women depending on how they dressed, and since there were so many of them, expectations they had about finding a girlfriend weren't very realistic. But we don't hear anything now about whether they have integrated into their new society, or if there are still problems with this cohort. Mostly these kinds of stories are dismissed as being from the Hard Right, Le Pen type politics, or Islamophobia, and here in Australia we don't know whether the violence we see on TV in France, for example, is tabloid exaggeration or an authentic picture. What <em>we</em> mostly hear is that we need migrants to support the economy, in jobs like fruit-picking and aged care. In the US, people like to have them as cheap servants. I think that's why nobody ever really does anything to solve the problems in the places they flee from. After all, nobody really wants to leave family and friends, and risk their lives with people smugglers. If the United Nations was any use at all, there would be a concerted effort to help those South American countries become safe and secure and prosperous so that their people would want to stay where they are. Or maybe that's naïve. I think it is a very complex issue but Shriver's book is so extreme that I don't think it helps to clarify anything.