the post birthday world by lionel shriver

Take a white ball, black ball, and red ball (well, Irina is half-Russian) and impact with your cue. There are a lot of snooker references in this book, which won't spoil it for the non-fan, so here's another, although it applies more to billiards. She recognises a door has closed to another life, but favours stability, and even wants to actually marry Lawrence after ten years of being together. OR, Irina gives a birthday kiss to Ramsey, goes home, welcomes her husband with open arms, and things progress from there. She spends more and more time with Ramsey, and less and less time civilly speaking to Lawrence. Getting home the following day, Irina hates herself for all-but betraying her partner, but at the same time begins to see their kiss-less sex life as far too dull a routine. Later, back at his, the giving of a birthday gift becomes a bit out of the usual, with much kissing over the practice baize.

Irina and Ramsey make an evening of it, just the two of them, with sushi and sake prominent. Until the year when Lawrence's work at a political think-tank takes him abroad for the anniversary.

It's never a brilliant night out - the conversation very much surrounding Lawrence's fanship of Ramsey's snooker career, and Irina's being sacked by Jude as the illustrator of her children's books is not much of a long-lasting conversation subject, but it surprisingly becomes a routine. Due to their divorce, the annual occasion when Ramsey and Jude go for a meal for his birthday with their friends Irina and Lawrence has turned into an evening for just Ramsey and the other couple. The resulting splits in her life story are detailed in this very intriguing blockbuster. Summary: Irina might kiss her friend Ramsey, or might not.

The post birthday world by lionel shriver