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A review by squid_vicious
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
5.0
This is the kind of book that will knock the wind out of you, ignite passionate conversations and force you to think very hard about things that are not really pleasant. I went through an impressive range of emotions reading this book, and while I can’t say that it was an enjoyable read, it stayed with me, and while I do love it, it’s a complicated kind of love. I love that it made me think so hard, that it shocked me and that it was also surprisingly moving.
Full disclosure: I don’t want children. I was just never interested in them, or in being a mom. There are many personal reasons for this, and I am not going to get into them here, but what I will say is that maternity is a very loaded issue, and people have very strong feelings about it. This book will make you react, no matter what your feelings on motherhood and child rearing are. In fact, if you have an opinion, any opinion, about the nature of love and attachment between parents and their children, this book will make you react strongly.
This is the story of woman, Eva, who didn’t want children, who had them anyway, and for whom the experience culminated in tragedy. She writes letters to her estranged husband about their son, who committed the terrible (but oh too common) crime of mass shooting at his high school (not a spoiler, it’s on the book jacket). She wonders if he turned out that way because she was a bad mother, or if he always had it in him and that no amount of motherly devotion could have changed that.
Nature vs. nurture. Not a new debate, or a new horror trope (see “The Bad Seed”), but Eva’s constant questioning of herself as she watches her son grow into a manipulative and scary young man is much more horrific than the detailing of the gruesome crime he ends up committing. You see Eva constantly being told by everyone that mothers fall in love with their children the moment they are born and that to not worship your child is abnormal and unnatural. To make matters worse, the titular Kevin only seems to misbehave when there is no one around but Eva. When his father is there, he is a perfect, adorable child…
I read a lot of reviews about it, and clearly this is a very divisive book. Some people think Eva is a monster, and others believe that Kevin is simply evil. I find it wonderful that the book never really settles that and remains open for interpretation like this. The ending remains ambiguous. But it is also pretty devastating. Eva is certainly not a perfect mother, but she’s not the worse one (in literature or real life) either. I found myself hating her and sympathizing with her simultaneously. At the end of the day, no parent is perfect, children do what they can with what they have, and sometimes that’s for the best, and sometimes it’s for the worse, but obviously there are no foolproof formula for happiness.
I highly recommend this book, but only if you are ready for a rough ride and are not afraid of feeling challenged and having some pretty disturbing scenes etched in your mind for a long time.
Full disclosure: I don’t want children. I was just never interested in them, or in being a mom. There are many personal reasons for this, and I am not going to get into them here, but what I will say is that maternity is a very loaded issue, and people have very strong feelings about it. This book will make you react, no matter what your feelings on motherhood and child rearing are. In fact, if you have an opinion, any opinion, about the nature of love and attachment between parents and their children, this book will make you react strongly.
This is the story of woman, Eva, who didn’t want children, who had them anyway, and for whom the experience culminated in tragedy. She writes letters to her estranged husband about their son, who committed the terrible (but oh too common) crime of mass shooting at his high school (not a spoiler, it’s on the book jacket). She wonders if he turned out that way because she was a bad mother, or if he always had it in him and that no amount of motherly devotion could have changed that.
Nature vs. nurture. Not a new debate, or a new horror trope (see “The Bad Seed”), but Eva’s constant questioning of herself as she watches her son grow into a manipulative and scary young man is much more horrific than the detailing of the gruesome crime he ends up committing. You see Eva constantly being told by everyone that mothers fall in love with their children the moment they are born and that to not worship your child is abnormal and unnatural. To make matters worse, the titular Kevin only seems to misbehave when there is no one around but Eva. When his father is there, he is a perfect, adorable child…
I read a lot of reviews about it, and clearly this is a very divisive book. Some people think Eva is a monster, and others believe that Kevin is simply evil. I find it wonderful that the book never really settles that and remains open for interpretation like this. The ending remains ambiguous. But it is also pretty devastating. Eva is certainly not a perfect mother, but she’s not the worse one (in literature or real life) either. I found myself hating her and sympathizing with her simultaneously. At the end of the day, no parent is perfect, children do what they can with what they have, and sometimes that’s for the best, and sometimes it’s for the worse, but obviously there are no foolproof formula for happiness.
I highly recommend this book, but only if you are ready for a rough ride and are not afraid of feeling challenged and having some pretty disturbing scenes etched in your mind for a long time.