22. What separates Lionel Shriver, author of 'We Need to Talk About Kevin', from all the other Lionels in this quiz?
From Quiz A Pride of Lionels
Answer:
Gender
Lionel Shriver is an American journalist and author who was named Margaret Ann when she was born in Gastonia, N.C, in 1957. She re-named herself Lionel when she was 15 because she felt the name was best-suited to a tomboy like her. She was educated at Barnard College, Columbia University (BA, MFA), and she is married to jazz drummer Jeff Williams. She now lives in London.
Shriver was an established writer with six published novels to her credit before she wrote her best-known work, 'We Need to Talk About Kevin', which won the 2005 Orange Prize. 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' examines the role that his relationship with his mother might have played in the title character's decision to murder nine people at his high school. The book created a great deal of controversy.
As a journalist Shriver has written for the "Wall Street Journal", the "Financial Times", the "New York Times", "The Economist", and many other publications. She also contributed to the Radio Ulster program 'Talkback' when she lived in Belfast. A social activist, Shriver began writing a column for The Guardian in 2005. In the column, she has shared her opinions on maternal influence in Western society, the pettiness of British bureaucrats, and the importance of libraries (she plans to will whatever assets remain at her death to the Belfast Library Board). In 2009, she donated the short story 'Long Time, No See' to Oxfam's 'Ox-Tales' project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Her story was published in the 'Fire' collection.
Her novel 'So Much for That' is a scathing castigation of the US health care system, Shriver has said that she is "exasperated with the way that medical matters are run in my country, because if I take a wrong turn on my bike and get run over by a taxi, I could lose everything I have." 'So Much for That', released March 2, 2010, was subsequently named as a finalist for the National Book Award in fiction (it lost to Jaimy Gordon's 'Lord of Misrule').