Lionel Shriver - We Need to Talk About Kevin

reviewed by showhost oct 09
The story is based around letters sent from Eva to her husband Franklin. The letters talk about their early life & love and their decision to have a child. Then how their life changed when their son Kevin was born. How Eva never bonded with Kevin from the start, how they didn't know how to deal with him, he was diffeent from other peoples kids - he was still wearing and dirtying nappies at 6 years old. Franklin always made excuses for Kevins behaviour, Eva always saw the bad in him. When their daughter, Celia, was born 10 years later it was almost to prove to herself that she, Eva, could have a normal child.
The culmination was how on thursday 8th April 1999, Kevin Khatchadourian, just before his 16th birthday, killed 7 of his fellow high school students in a cold, calculating, methodical way.
Eva's letters to her estranged husband are also trying to work out where the blame lies as she visits her son in the detention centre on a weekly basis.

Lionel Shriver waxes lyrical & often boring throughout this book and at times I felt I needed a degree in english language and a dictionary by my side to get through it. I didn't think I would finish this book, I wondered if I would give up part way through but it was like a roller coaster ride; it would pick you up and absorb you in the story, then the long, detailed, boring description of little things, would drop me back down and I would skip a paragraph or two. I had to keep reading it, I couldn't stop and I was glad I didn't.

I was puzzled as to why she would use all the intricate,unnecessary, descriptive prose when she was writing her letters to a husband who was your average, warm blooded, beer swilling, fast food junkie,American as I couldn't see him being able to understand it. In the end I do understand. What a shock the ending was, I never expected it.

Was Kevin born bad or was it the consequences of an unaffectionate mother and an overbearing father? Kevin was still calling Eva mumsey when he was 15 yers old!
'Americans don't take responsibility for their own accountability, they always want to blame somebody else' quote Eva & Kevin, like mother like son?

It is hard to get through the book but all I can say is stick with it, skip a bit if it helps, it's worth it. The novel stays with you, in your head, after you have finished it and the points raised in the back of the book for reading book discussion are very thought provoking.