So Much for That by Lionel Shriver
Published 2010 · 634 pages · 40,250 words · about 3 hours at an average pace · Literary Fiction
How hard is So Much for That to read?
So Much for That scores 47 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 42 out of 100
- Shriver writes in direct, conversational prose that doesn't shy from medical and financial terminology. The vocabulary is accessible, serving her polemic about healthcare with clarity rather than literary complexity.
- Sentence structure: 45 out of 100
- Sentences are efficient and often sharp, carrying Shriver's anger about the American healthcare system through direct statement. The prose favors clarity over elaboration.
- Abstraction: 50 out of 100
- The novel explores the American healthcare system, the meaning of money and security, and what we owe each other. These abstractions are embedded in Shep's specific situation—watching his savings drain as his wife dies.
- Information density: 55 out of 100
- Medical costs, insurance battles, and the granular details of terminal illness pack the novel. Shriver creates density through the relentless accumulation of financial and medical reality.
- Narrative indirection: 45 out of 100
- The story moves forward directly, following Shep's attempt to pay for his wife's care. Shriver's approach is polemical rather than indirect—she wants readers to confront healthcare realities.
- Symbolic density: 45 out of 100
- The 'Afterlife'—Shep's dream of retirement abroad—becomes symbolic of American promises that remain forever out of reach. Money itself becomes symbolic of care, love, and survival.
- Ironic distance: 55 out of 100
- Shriver maintains bitter irony about the American healthcare system and the cruelty hidden within its bureaucracy. The irony is didactic—she wants readers to be angry about what she shows them.
- Resolution withholding: 45 out of 100
- The novel reaches its conclusion, but the systemic problems it exposes remain unresolved. Shriver provides catharsis while insisting that the larger injustice continues.
- Structural complexity: 45 out of 100
- The novel follows Shep's experience chronologically, with interludes exploring his friend's parallel struggles. The structure is straightforward, serving the story's emotional and political impact.
How So Much for That is regarded
So Much for That holds a literary regard score of 60 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.