Shriver’s novels teem with well-chosen observations about ordinary life, the sort that some literary novels skip: whether characters watch what they eat; what exercise routine they favor (a disconcertingly large proportion of them do calisthenics daily); how long they stay when they visit; whether they dominate conversation or ask questions of others. She devises interesting plots too. Her protagonists do things, which is not to say they do outlandish or unbelievable things to facilitate crude plot twists.