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Loading... We Need To Talk About Kevinby Lionel Shriver
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. I thought that We Need to Talk About Kevin was a really great read. The book had a lot to say, and at the same time it was just genuinely interesting to read. I thought that it spoke really well to a lot of issues about family, and violence, but I wish that it could have delved even more deeply into the psychology of the situations portrayed. (  ) thisstage | Nov 5, 2009 |  The events and characters described in this book seem implausible and grotesque. It is hard to believe anyone could ever be so awful as this mother and son are depicted, as spineless and oblivious as the father, or as compliant as the daughter. I cannot say I liked the book, and nevertheless I still give it a passing thought every now and then - the characters were drawn so well, you can't help regretting the choices they made - if only these few things had gone differently...A study in unnecessary tragedy. And yet, I'd read another Lionel Shriver book. It was tragic and a little horrible. But it was never boring. ( ) annie1378 | Sep 22, 2009 | Excellent, disturbing book. Did the mother make Kevin a killer or was Kevin born a killer. The ending, however was weak. ( ) lhossler | Aug 7, 2009 | I actually tive this 4 stars but don't want it showing up on my 4-star list. It is a very dark novel about a REALLY dysfunctional father/son/mother told through the mothers letters. THe son turns into a killer with a crossbow, even killing dad and sister. Mother tries to figure why. The question is what is her role in this... (  ) hammockqueen | Aug 4, 2009 | Dark, depressing and deeply disturbing - but you can't get it out of your head. The book is filled with themes that resonant profoundly and uncomfortably with any mother. The book explores the themes of motherhood and the maternal/child bond not from the idea of what fullfilment, joy and happiness these bring to us, but rather from what these relationships take from us, what levels they sink us to and what compromises we make for them. Well written, fast paced and fascinating, well-developed characters make this a great read! (  ) emers0207 | Jul 31, 2009 | 
 The epistolary method Shriver uses, letters to Eva's absent husband, strains belief, yet ultimately that's not what trips us up. It's Eva's relentless negativity that becomes boring and repetitive in the first half of the book, the endless recounting of her loss of svelteness, her loss of freedom.  Maybe there are books to be written about teenage killers and about motherhood, but this discordant and misguided novel isn't one of them.  A little less, however, might have done a lot more for this book. A guilt-stricken Eva Khatchadourian digs into her own history, her son's and the nation's in her search for the responsible party, and her fierceness and honesty sustain the narrative; this is an impressive novel, once you get to the end.
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 006112429X, Paperback)The gripping international bestseller about motherhood gone awry Eva never really wanted to be a mother—and certainly not the mother of the unlovable boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much-adored teacher who tried to befriend him, all two days before his sixteenth birthday. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, and Kevin's horrific rampage in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her estranged husband, Franklyn. Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:16 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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