The Motion of the Body Through Space

I’ve read some Lionel Shriver before  – short stories, I believe. And as I recall, I wasn’t taken enough to want to grab a novel, and the subject of her most well-known work, We Need to Talk About Kevin, didn’t pull me in. In fact, it was the opposite.

But then I read this profile of Shriver from the New Yorker, and I thought….she is me. I mean, smarter and more talented, and no kids, but wow. Around the same age, similar take on gender issues, both personally and politically, similar attitudes towards…life with other human beings. Huh. Maybe I should check her out.

So, when one bar of the prison was loosened enough to allow me back into a public library a couple of weeks ago, her latest popped out at me from the “new releases” shelf.

The Motion of the Body Through Space is advertised as a satire, of sorts, of contemporary fitness crazes, but it’s not a Tom Wolfe or Chris Buckley or T.C. Boyle type of satire. Not that kind. It’s actually more the story of an aging woman and her marriage framed by a jaundiced look at the triathlon subculture. And I liked it quite a bit.

First, I’ll say that in reading the first few dozen pages of this book, never, as we like to put it these days, have I felt so seen. Or at least not since reading Harriet the Spy (repeatedly) when I was 12. Seranata Terpsichore (rhymes with hickory) is sixty years old. Check. Somewhat misanthropic, irritated at the herds. Check.

There are differences, of course, but even so, the experience of  encountering another 60-year old woman on the pages of a contemporary novel, and one whose life was certainly fraught in some ways (or else there would be novel, of course), but not focused on filling emotional vacuums or running from serial killers – was refreshing, to say the least.

So, basic plot: Seranta, an accomplished voice-over artist and dedicated fitness buff, but in private and on her own terms, is married to Remington, fairly recently let go from his traffic planning job because of impolitic and strained relations with his much younger female boss. Remington, before this mostly indifferent to fitness, decides to take it up with a vengeance, first attempting a marathon and then getting wrapped up in a triathlon and all that entails, which is, from Seranata’s perspective, irritating because in a way, it’s honing in on her life territory, but also perpetually enraging in its money-sucking, cult-like aspects and, in her view, its utter pointlessness.

There’s a decent plot here, and as events unfold, there’s a good bit of suspense – enough to keep you turning pages, both in terms of her husband’s situation and their marriage, as well as Seranata’s own..evolution. That is, will she continue to be a stand-offish critic of all of this nonsense, or will it lead to any self-reflection on her part, as she deals with her own shattered knees?

Shriver’s observations on the fitness subculture as well as other political matters are a pleasure to read. Shriver is a free-thinker and speaker, with no hesitation or apology, and that, in these days, is always refreshing. It’s the kind of book in which, at least once a page, you set it down and either nod in sanguine agreement or shake your head in astonished recognition. She said that, and she’s right. 

And she digs into human relationships, especially between spouses, with empathy and realism.

Couple of problems.

I found the couple’s children (both young adults, of course) unrealistically painted, especially the daughter. Yes, children are not clones of their parents and go their own way, but these two seemed completely unrelated to their parents. The daughter, especially, has gotten some sort of evangelical Christian religion – which could happen, of course- but Shriver’s lack of familiarity with current iterations of such makes the characterization not much more than a caricature, complete with a young woman, born and raised in New York state, often sounding like she’s from Mississippi.

And the book is talky, in this sense: Using characters, conversations and situations as an opportunity to just have said characters mouth points of view.

Which is fine, and something you see in fiction all the time. And the points of view were entertainingly and sharply presented.

As it is, The Motion of the Body Through Space is, in the end, an effective and entertaining meditation, mostly on aging. And as such, is much appreciated.