Lionel Shriver airs grievances by reimagining American society

It began with a sombrero. Clever but cold, this angrily speculative work imagines an American society basically identical to ours except in one crucial respect: A “Mental Parity” movement victorious at every level and in every institution, from nursery schools to the White House, has essentially outlawed intelligence or expressions of it, whether casually or professionally. “Not anymore.” Book Review Mania By Lionel Shriver Harper: 288 pages, $30 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores. The rising popularity of Mental Parity throughout the late aughts is helped along by a bestselling book, “The Calumny of IQ: Why Discrimination Against ‘Dumb People’ Is the Last Great Civil Rights Fight.” You are clearly supposed to think of Robin DiAngelo’s “White Fragility” and Ibram X. Kendi’s “How to Be an Antiracist,” which topped bestseller lists during the tumultuous summer of 2020. In her finest novel, 2003’s “Can We Talk About Kevin,” Shriver explored the widely shared pathologies of American society through the crushingly unique viewpoint of a family whose son, the titular character, is on his way to becoming a school shooter.