Nikki Erlick

“The measure of your life lies within.”

Everyone around the world receives a box with the above note in it, with a length of string. It is determined that the length of the string is the length of time remaining in your life! Everyone 22 years old and up gets one. The boxes AND the strings are indestructible.

And if your string is short, well…

The ‘short stringers’ start facing discrimination. Who wants to hire and train someone who won’t live much longer? Who wants to insure them show more or give them healthcare? And who wants to elect a short stringer to be president?

My 4-star rating is for the concept and idea of the strings and the resulting life decisions and political climate that follows. That plot was SO interesting! The overall storylines were more of a 3-star rating, and the ending was a 1 star. It ended how I had feared it might, and that made me very grumpy... show less

Nikki Erlick delivers-- so much so that I kept asking family and friends how they may react should our own mysterious box appear one morning outside our door.

I enjoyed the story and how it progressed through the many different points of view. Moreover, Erlick's ability to tackle the narrative plot questions I had as a reader ("Well, what about ... or how would this affect that") made this story captivating and thought-provoking. I see why it's a top pick for book clubs as it does compel show more discussion from beginning to end.

This book made me laugh, cry, and reflect on what I consider the measure of life. show less

Best for:
Those who love a meaty philosophical explorations about the meaning of life and the decisions we make.

In a nutshell:
One morning, everyone age 22 and older in the entire world receives a box that says ‘The measure of your life lies within.’ Society quickly learns the strings inside correlate with how long each person will live.

Worth quoting:
“Since the strings arrived, so many of our conversations are about such big, heavy ideas, literally life and death. And I miss talking show more about the little things, especially in a city filled with so many wonderful little things.”

“Living long is not the same is living well.”

Why I chose it:
My sister-in-law recommended it and I’m so thankful because I found it to be so thought-provoking and so, so good.

Review:
You wake up one morning and find a box on your doorstep. Inside is a string. You quickly learn that everyone other adult in the world has received the same thing, and soon you all discover that the strings are, in fact, truthful. If your string is short, you will die before someone with a longer string.

This book looks at how eight adults handle the receipt of these strings. Do they look at them? What if their partner has a shorter or longer string? What if the string is so short that they know they will die within the year? What if it’s longer but not long enough - like they’ll die in their mid-40s and they’re currently in their early 30s?

Through the eyes of these individuals we learn about all sorts of things that one could predict might happen. Some people with short strings become distraught; other don’t trust the people with the short strings because those people appear to have nothing to lose. Couples break up. Parents fight to get custody from exes who have shorter strings. Insurance companies consider canceling coverage. Politicians and CEOs look for ways to exploit this knowledge for power.

I absolutely loved this book. I think despite following eight characters, each one was developed well enough for the reader to care (or perhaps not care) about them, and to generally understand their feelings about their particular situations. I appreciated the issues that were raised by the author as background national and international issues, but also the interpersonal concerns. The strings impacted everyone, whether they chose to look at them or not.

I could go on and on about this book, but if it sounds even remotely interesting to you, I recommend you check it out.

This is a 350 page book that I read in one day. I only put it down because I was on holiday and had other things I wanted to do.

What’s next for this book:
Recommend to everyone show less

I found the premise of this book so intriguing: a box arrives, containing the date of your death. Would you open it? It lead to a fascinating discussion at my book club. All in all, the premise carried this book for me and I enjoyed reading it a great deal.

However, there were some things that I didn't like. There are eight main characters, and that may have been too many as there was not as much character development as I like. We only ever saw the characters in terms of dealing with the show more length of their own or a loved one's short string. And no "long-stringers" are developed, making it seem as if they are not affected by knowing when they will die.

I was surprised at the almost total lack of religion in the story. The strings accurately predict life span; nothing can be done to change it. That deterministic message would surely be seized upon by religious leaders as proof of God's existence, or as the work of the devil. And there is no discussion of where the strings came from. I can't believe humans would not question who sent the strings, why, and how they know everyone's life spans. Why wasn't surveillance set up when they knew people were about to receive boxes?

What I liked was the way younger generations seemed to normalize the strings, often ignoring them, like people have normalized so many technologies that once seemed life altering and scary. I liked the way the author described a new form of discrimination against short-stringers: a new distinction to drive a wedge between people, with the usual consequences.

As I was reading, the questions that immediately came to mind were would I open my box? If I did, would I tell people? Reading this book was like a thought experiment. But the more important question raised, on reflection, is an examination of what it means to have a good life. show less