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 Chilling yet heart-warming; an honest mother speaks August 25, 2008
Mr. J. Griffiths (Norwich, UK)
A church I used to visit in London had a curious crib each Christmas. Alongside the usual representations of shepherds, livestock and the Holy family the priest would solemnly place a knife. When asked about this, he would reply, "There is a dark side to Christmas too. Herod killed because Jesus came. That knife reminds us of the pain of all those parents who lost their young ones because of Christmas."
We Need To Talk About Kevin tells the story of a modern-day Slaughter of the Innocents. This novel, which won the 2005 Orange prize for fiction, contains the letters of Eva to her estranged husband Franklin. Their only son, Kevin, has become famous in gruesome fashion, by hunting down seven of his classmates (along with a teacher and canteen worker for good measure) with a crossbow after locking them into the school gym. The writing is masterly, brooding and claustrophobic, as Eva tries to answer the question that every parent must sometimes ask themselves - "Where did we go wrong?" - only multiplied by a factor of a hundred.
Kevin is the child, student, son, brother from hell. Life appears completely meaningless to him from the point of birth, indeed, from well before birth. He refuses to take his mother's milk, he wears diapers until he is six (out of spite, Eva believes) and alienates nannies so fast that the agency can't keep up. His sister gets bleach in her eye and loses the sight in it (no accident, says Eva, but she has no proof): he then eats a pack of lychees as her operation is being discussed. Kevin is nasty, but worse than that, he is nasty and bright. Each misdemeanor is judged to perfection, ensuring he gets away with it. And in any case, how do you punish a boy who does not care about anything?
Perhaps most insidious of all is the way Kevin divides and rules. His father is a perennial optimist and believes completely in him, offering the unconditional love that we more often expect from the mother. Eva cannot convince Franklin that they have a monster on their hands: perhaps if they could have agreed on this, Kevin might have changed or been changed.
What is the Christian to make of all this? The classic line from the Church has been that everyone without exception is made in the image of God, and thus despite our fallen nature, however warped we may have become, in our heart of hearts each one of us is good. Those saints who have managed to unwarp (or should that be unwrap?) themselves with God's help show us our true nature as human beings. Yet what do we say to a woman who has longed to find good in her son for seventeen years but has found none?
There are moments of hope in this book, despite the bleak and tragic story-line. Eva herself somehow redeems the horror of what her son has done by her exquisitely honest account of attempting to mother him. In the closing pages her own sacrificial love becomes almost Christlike in its intensity. This is a book that challenges us to make real a God that we say loves Hitler as his own child. It is not a book you will ever forget.
 Lionel Dare August 19, 2008
A reader (London)
Lionel Shriver's epistolary novel "We Need To Talk About Kevin" recounts the childhood of Kevin Katchadourian through the eyes of his mother, Eva. Kevin commits mass murder at the age of 16, and through letters to her husband, Franklin, Eva attempts to find clues in his upbringing.
This is a complex, intelligent novel that asks more questions than it answers. The author never shies from controversial artistic choices. Kevin appears to be born a sociopath rather than made so through emotional neglect or abuse. Eva admits not bonding with her son. And, while some readers may end up frustrated by the conflicting perceptions in the book, I found it raised thought-provoking questions; the author cites enough examples of US high-school mass murders where the motives remain murky to back up her argument that there isn't always a simplistic answer to why teenagers can commit such atrocities.
On the negative side, I felt that Eva was not a sympathetic character, though there never appears to be any clear indication that she has passed on sociopathic tendencies to her son. And the fact that Kevin appears to be born bad rather than gets corrupted distracts us from the need to recognize that damaging family environments are the main cause of maladjustment - but that is the precisely the sentimental PC position that Eva would hate.
 Verbose and dull August 5, 2008
Zoe A.
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I realise I fall into the smaller category of people who didn't enjoy this book and I'll tell you why.
The book bored me - the language used was pretentious and far too lengthy.
The reason the book didn't get only one star from me is because I can appriciate there were moments in the book that I enjoyed, however, they was a great lack of them.
I was told before hand there was a twist - there wasn't. I think I realise what is intended to be the twist, but it wasn't anything surprising at all.
I hated the main character and I could not sympathise with her at all. She didn't deserve what she got, but her negitivity about every little thing became mind numbing and he dislike from Kevin the day he was born put me right off her.
If you can't stand verbose tedious writing, don't bother with this.
This Will Really Set You Thinking ! August 3, 2008
A. Rose (Wet & Windy Yorkshire, UK)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I can't praise this book enough, it's one of the best I've read. I must admit that I found the first few chapters, or rather letters from Eva to Franklin, a bit difficult to get into in that she examines and re-analyses so many fairly normal situations and decisions that most people make in everyday life. Once Eva and Franklin have made the decision to have a child and the child, Kevin, is born, (and I got used to her unusual writing style) the book really takes off. I won't go over the storyline again as so many other reviewers have done it better than I can but it seems that the whole point of Eva's over analysing of herself, motherhood and her son is to work out if she was at fault or was in any way to blame for how Kevin turned out with the horrific things he did, or, are some kids just born bad. I totally agree with some other reviewers that this is only written from Eva's perspective so there's no debate or dispute from Franklin, or indeed Kevin, to contradict any of what Eva has said in her letters. It's a must for any reading group as the perspective will be different for everyone - a great one to talk about, very thought provoking and well worth reading.
Dark, intelligent, provocative. August 2, 2008
Mr. J. T. P. Goode (Cornwall, UK.)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It has been a long time since I've picked up a book that has really provoked and that has communicated, in an intelligent and contemporary way, many of the ugly awkwardnesses, stresses and strains, adopted attitudes and contradictory behaviorisms of being alive at the beginning of the 21st century.
There is no easy 'genre' for this book, no tidy shelf-mark under which to file it, nor obvious plot stereotypes/devices, no resolved ending and certainly no hero.
It tells the story of a mother Eva, in her own words, detailing her life, her marriage to her husband Franklin, giving birth to their baby boy Kevin and her subsequent emotional distance from him, going on to describe the ensuing struggles she faces as a parent as Kevin proves himself a growing dark malevolent force, a seeming disenchanted nihilist with a penchant for shattering the rose-tinted illusory bubbles of those around him with escalating crimes of hideous atrocity, culminating in a brutal mass-murdering episode at his school shortly before his sixteenth birthday.
Eva's difficulties throughout are further hammered home by the incapacity of her husband to accept the true nature of their son, by the slow breakdown of trust in their marriage, and her loyalties throughout are tried to the point of breaking.
There is no black and white here in this novel, no preaching on issues, no moral high-ground, just a shattering of stereo-types.
For all of Kevin's uglinesses he also possesses a crystalline purity of intelligence and form that is almost curiously admirable.
Correspondingly, one's sympathy with the narrator Eva is stretched very thin as her many flaws and defects rise to the surface. Indeed her take on events can be construed as somewhat suspect and, in places, her sanity very questionable indeed.
It is a complex book, dealing with contemporary and exceedingly difficult issues, raising questions regarding culture, education, parenthood, family, justice, nature/nurture, love and loyalty, with no apparent answers. Indeed there are no clear lines other than the tight plot construction, and emotions and events are muddy throughout, inherently flawed, often ugly and distasteful, paradoxical and contradictory, sometimes inspiring insight, sometimes interspersed with glimmers of joy and hope, but frequently veiled in uncertainty, just as in life itself.
There are many small details regarding emotion and contemporary living that sparkle with an alive freshness in this book, little facets that I have never imagined nor seen/heard expressed in words elsewhere; little threads of connectivity that delight with their honesty and bravery; little shards of dusty truth that sparkle with the light of exposure.
Indeed in whole the book represents a story woven with threads that few writers would (dare to?) pick up, both in term of the language used, (sometimes a tad dense and over-wordy - a dictionary to hand might be useful sometimes, although the gist is mostly not hard to discern), the plot, (which in content is difficult to digest, frequently prodding raw exposed nerve endings and touching dark primitive regions of the psyche), and the emotional landscapes explored, (which are often challenging to say the least).
Ultimately you are left to make up your own mind about the issues raised, and you might find, as I have, and as the narrator/author seems to have, that no clear-cut stances can be formed.
Controversy is in the foreground and it is a book I will be churning over in my mind for many a week to come. Indeed, it has initiated massive internal dialogues and debates and I am pleased to note by looking at these Amazon reviews that I am not the only one similarly affected!
I have just finished reading this book, engrossed in it in a three-day 'whirlwind' to the exclusion of the rest of my duties.
I cannot recommend it highly enough.
It is stimulating and deserves debate, bringing to the fore issues that most of us would prefer not to address.
But be prepared to have your stomach churned and the strings of your sanity tweaked past their limits!
Perhaps we ALL need to talk about Kevin!
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