At age 60, delaying knee replacement surgery due to her own addiction to exercise, Serenata Terpsichore is annoyed by her husband Remington Alabaster’s new obsession with running. A lifelong misanthrope, what perhaps bothers her more is that he joins a culture increasingly obsessed with extreme fitness. The long-married couple has just moved to Hudson, NY, from Albany, after Remington’s career with the New York Department of Transportation ended rather sooner than he intended.

“So --- maybe you could give me some pointers.” Remington’s suggestion was halting. He did not want any pointers.

“Remember to tie your shoes. There’s no more to it.”

"[T]he banter between this prickly couple is entertaining, and their over-the-top journey will keep you turning the pages."

Serenata feels that Remington hasn’t sufficiently considered her feelings --- she only stopped running a few months ago. As an only child who moved from city to city nearly annually, she spent her after-school hours building strength and stamina: pull-ups on tree limbs, one-legged hops forward and backward around the yard. She kept a secret record of her routines, which were not exactly fun. “It was interesting to discover that it was possible to not especially want to do them and to do them anyway.”

What with Serenata’s past and Remington’s present, Lionel Shriver’s THE MOTION OF THE BODY THROUGH SPACE takes a thorough and caustic look at the fitness craze (and nearly all other elements of modern culture, to be honest). Serenata is particularly annoyed when an obscure activity she has pursued on her own --- say, quilting, or wearing oversized men’s watches --- becomes popular. “There were only so many things to wear, to love, to do. And there were too many people. So sooner or later whatever you claimed for yourself would be adopted by several million of your closest friends.”

Political correctness comes under fire. Serenata’s successful voice-over and audiobook career is suddenly hindered by the industry’s reticence to hire white people reading the accents of people of color. Just the phrase “people of color” sets her off. And we learn that Remington was fired because of an unfortunate desk-pounding incident in response to his younger, female African-American boss after years of frustration with her entitled incompetence.

Much to Serenata’s disappointment, completing a marathon doesn’t satisfy Remington. The stakes increase as he acquires a comely trainer named Bambi Buffer with the intention of completing a triathlon. Bambi leads a group of aspiring “MettleMen” (and one housewife) who routinely end up at Serenata and Remington’s home after workouts, eating their food, drinking their wine and trash talking each other. Despite a serious bicycle crash a few weeks before the triathlon and the fact that Serenata has finally had to get one knee replaced, Remington insists on competing at the MettleMan in Lake Placid. Their adventure there --- Serenata still trying and failing to be the supportive wife, Remington utterly determined to finish --- goes seriously awry, and ends their battle once and for all.

If you fancy erudite squabbling, this book is for you. You won’t fall in love with Serenata; one suspects that she herself would disdain the reader’s affection. But if you can get past that, the banter between this prickly couple is entertaining, and their over-the-top journey will keep you turning the pages.