A Better Life

Shriver’s jumbled latest (after Mania) blends a wicked satire of bleeding-heart liberals with a disingenuous parable about the dangers of unchecked immigration. In 2023, the New York City government offers a $110 per diem to residents who provide incoming asylum seekers with food and shelter in their own homes (in real life, a similar initiative was proposed but never enacted). Gloria Bonaventura jumps at the chance, having won her massive Brooklyn Queen Anne in a recent divorce and struggling with the cost of upkeep. She agrees to house Honduran migrant Martine Salgado over the strident objections of her do-nothing son, Nico, 26, who tells Martine the U.S. should have tighter borders. He’s suspicious when Martine claims that her three children have been kidnapped in Honduras, and that she needs $30,000 for the ransom. Meanwhile Gloria scrambles to come up with the money. The situation devolves into a nightmare out of a paranoid yuppie thriller after Martine’s brother Domingo joins the household, then invites a group of his “henchmen” to crash with them, and the story reaches a violent climax as the Bonaventuras’ fear clashes with the migrants’ greed. Some of the jokes land, as when Shriver bathes Gloria’s naive liberalism in self-satisfied patriotism (“We should be flattered so many refugees would rather live here”), but even readers who appreciate anti-woke provocations will be left scratching their heads. It’s a mess. Agent: Kim Witherspoon, InkWell Management. (Feb.)