The Mandibles: A Family, 2029–2047 by Shriver Lionel

Author:Shriver, Lionel [Shriver, Lionel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Contemporary, Politics
ISBN: 9780062328243
Amazon: 0062328247
Goodreads: 27064345
Publisher: Harper
Published: 2016-05-05T07:00:00+00:00

• CHAPTER 11 •

BADDER BITTER GUTTER

Florence and her aunt often shared their disgust: the situation in the States was not nearly as bad as the schadenfreude from abroad would suggest. Sensationalist reports on European websites portrayed American cities as Night of the Living Dead, with crazed, rampaging looters tearing down the streets with TVs but no electricity to plug them into, while the elderly roasted their cats in the flames of their burning furniture. Okay, there’d been some looting, especially of grocery and liquor stores. There were some shortages, although it wasn’t as if nine million starving New Yorkers were stuffing each other’s hacked bodies into upright freezers to serve later with fava beans and a nice Chianti, as the international media would have had you believe.

As for the inflation over which German coverage obsessed, Lowell insisted that America’s bore no resemblance to the Teutonic experience after World War I, when restaurant patrons paid for their meals when they walked in, because the bill would be higher once they finished eating. Why, by the end the mark was printed on only one side, because the mint was running out of ink. But had greenbacks changed in the slightest? Didn’t dollars sport American presidents on one side and IN GOD WE TRUST on the other?

These reassurances aside, they all faced a dilemma. Lowell’s unemployment would soon run out. Having been on contract, Esteban never got unemployment in the first place. Kurt should have qualified for welfare, and benefits of every description were jacked up frenetically month upon month; if the Fed was going to print the money madly anyway, what better use for the stuff than bribing the savages to stay home and put their feet up? Yet further hurdles had gone up to new claimants—most of whom were biddable, formerly solvent citizens unlikely to torch City Hall. Only applying because Florence begged him, Kurt simply didn’t think of himself as a lowlife ward of the state, and flubbed the interview as a consequence. (Alas, he had a place to live. Someone in the household was working.) Which left Nollie’s Social Security and Florence’s stressed salary as their sole remaining income.

On the other hand, Lowell and Avery had that lump sum from the sale of their house; their extent obscure, Nollie had those “resources.” But these monies would purchase ever less as time went by. Florence resented it more than she could say—now more than ever, they needed to conserve funds for emergencies—but the most sensible policy at the moment was to spend everything they had as fast as possible.

Seizing on Willing’s idea that tangible goods would become the new currency, Avery took this strategy too eagerly to heart. For Florence, shopping was a chore; for Avery, it was an entertainment. So Florence learned the hard way that you never gave her sister carte blanche to buy out the store.

Returning from the Home Depot on Nineteenth Street, Avery burst through the front door, arms full, eyes dilated, her complexion mottled with hypertensive purple splotches.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.