We Need To Talk About Kevin (2003)

An enthralling, eloquent introspection of a mother whose son has been the perpetrator of a school shooting. A psychological thriller that dares to look inside the mind of a mother who does not like her child, and who is not even sure she wants children. Difficult to read at times because of it's gritty realism, a book that will keep you thinking about it long after the last page. Absolutely stunning and highly recommended. ( )

I love this book - every sentence required my full attention. I love the unapologetic depth afforded each character, and the tautness of the narrative (over 400 pages). Never didactic or lachrymose or shielded.

This is the kind of book I always want to be reading - the kind of book I'm afraid will be lost as the future of storytelling succumbs to video games and movies (not adapted from novels). ( )

I love this book - every sentence required my full attention. I love the unapologetic depth afforded each character, and the tautness of the narrative (over 400 pages). Never didactic or lachrymose or shielded.

This is the kind of book I always want to be reading - the kind of book I'm afraid will be lost as the future of storytelling succumbs to video games and movies (not adapted from novels). ( )

4 1/2 stars. ( )

I came to this book late; it won the 2005 Orange Prize but I had never heard of it until I came across it as a suggested companion to The Dinner by Herman Koch.

The narrator is Eva Khatchadourian, the mother of a teenage boy who massacred nine people at his high school. The book, an examination of the nature versus nurture debate, has an epistolary structure; in a series of letters to her absent husband, Franklin Plaskett, Eva examines her son’s life and wonders whether there were signs of his sociopathy since his birth or whether her “empathic deficiency” contributed to Kevin’s actions.

In many ways the book is a character study of both Eva and Kevin. Prior to motherhood, Eva was a spirited, independent-minded, adventurous, ambitious, and successful woman who focused on her career; she founded a company, A Wing and a Prayer, which specializes in guidebooks for budget travelers. She has little maternal instinct and becomes a mother reluctantly. The name of her company best illustrates how she approaches motherhood because she is ill-prepared for her son. From the beginning she is unable to bond with him and her behaviour always seems some sort of rejection of her firstborn. As she describes life with Kevin, she vacillates from self-pity (“for becoming hopelessly trapped in someone else’s story”) to regret (which makes her “determined to accept due responsibility for every wayward thought, every petulance, every selfish moment”). She admits to having flaws like being narcissistic, and she can’t come up with an argument when Kevin offers his sketch of his mother as “spoiled . . . imperious . . . ignorant . . . boasting . . . self-righteous – condescending – and superior.”

Kevin is seen predominantly from his mother’s point of view. She describes him as “sour, secretive, and sarcastic . . . [and] laconic, supercilious, [and] unforthcoming.” He seems pathologically lethargic and develops no interests and has only disdain for “the enthusiasms of others that he liked to despoil.” Eva does admit that Kevin behaves very differently with his father, but she believes his “Partridge-family buoyancy” is fake. Interestingly, Franklin seems totally oblivious to his son’s destructive and malicious nature, and Eva knows her husband thinks “Kevin’s surly, remote pose with [her] was fake, while with [Franklin] he could relax and be his sprightly, chipper self.” Is Franklin wearing rose-coloured glasses or is Eva totally jaded?

The characterization of all three major characters presents some problems. Eva claims to have sensed from the beginning that there was something wrong with Kevin, but she did very little to help him. She becomes apathetic when her husband refuses to acknowledge that there is anything wrong with their child. Even when Kevin’s behaviour escalates to the point of being physically and mentally and emotionally injurious to others, she does not confront him or actively seek a way to change his behaviour. This apathy is such a contrast to her earlier self when she forced herself to do things she didn’t want to do: “My whole life I have been making myself do things.” Franklin’s total blindness to his son’s problems stretches credibility. Kevin behaves consistently until the end when his fear of incarceration in an adult prison and his gift to his mother seem out of step with his character. The final scene between mother and son gives the impression that the author capitulated to a demand to end on a more positive note.

I appreciated the erudite style of the book and the balance with which the author tried to explore a disturbing subject which, unfortunately, needs to be studied in our society. ( )