This extraordinarily intense and thought-provoking book takes the form of letters written by the mother of a school shooter to her absent husband. Eva is essentially reliving her entire history with her son in order to come to some kind of understanding as to why he decided to shoot down his classmates in cold blood. And especially, to understand the part she might have played in creating such a monster.
The writing style seems strange, more like a doctoral thesis in English Lit rather than informal letters to a person one knows very well. It put me off a bit at first - who writes letters like that? It wasn't believable. But once I got further into the book and recognized Shriver's expertise with language, I knew it wasn't likely that she would make such an obvious error. I began to wonder if there wasn't a mysterious reason for the strangeness of the letters. That's all I'm going to say about it, except: don't give up on this book because of that.
Speaking of writing style, the immense vocabulary is one of the first things you'll notice. I've read so many books that I rarely encounter an English word I don't know, but in We Need to Talk About Kevin it happened all the time. You'll want to keep a dictionary handy in order to avoid frustration. Reading it on my Kindle was a great way to experience this book, thanks to the instant-access definitions. But there were words that even the Kindle dictionary didn't know, necessitating several detours to the computer. I enjoyed the intellectual stimulation of stretching my vocabulary even after so many decades of reading, so for me that was a plus.
I was thrilled to catch Shriver making a vocabulary error, though, a malapropism (a word I learned in this book): she used "pneumonic" instead of "mnemonic." Although it's probably an error on the the part of whoever transcribed the book for Kindle . . .
I didn't like the narrator at all throughout most of the book, nor did I find her entirely believable. Her self-centeredness seemed too extreme and unyielding to be real. But she and the story were so interesting that it didn't matter. And in the end, I did come to feel some compassion and credulity towards her. As with nearly all aspects of this book - and that is its genius - I go around and around about Kevin's mother. No mother could be so utterly cold and unfeeling towards her own newborn child. Yes, but . . . her feelings read exactly like accounts I've read from real parents of autistic children. Yes, but . . . those parents don't feel that way immediately, only after being subjected to behaviors that feel like dislike and rejection from the child. So maybe . . . she is a sociopath like her son, just a non-violent one. Sociopathy does run in families, after all. Yes, but . . . she does love her daughter. Yes, but . . . maybe hers is just a milder case. Maybe, but . . . if she was capable of any love at all, how could a mother dislike an innocent newborn? No wonder Kevin turned out the way he did. Yes, but . . .
Even though Kevin was an even more extreme character, I found him all too believable. We may question how a very young child could be so truly evil, but I've read accounts of real-life children exactly like him. And like the Columbine shooters Harris and Klebold, Kevin was neither a social outcast (except by choice) nor was he singled out as a victim for bullying.
We know from the beginning what Kevin ended up doing, yet there was still so much suspense in this book that I read it faster than I'd ever have thought possible for such a long book. And there were surprises all the way through to the end.
One thing that puzzled me was Eva's signatures on the letters. They look very crude, like someone trying to write with something not designed for writing, or maybe scratching letters into a wood surface. I'd expect someone like Eva - a highly educated perfectionist whose career is in writing and publishing books - to have beautiful, perfect handwriting. But that anomaly was never explained - did I miss something?
We Need to Talk About Kevin is ultimately a vastly deep and wide-ranging investigation into the questions of what makes a school shooter, and why have school shootings become so "trendy" in the last couple of decades? Although this is fiction, we aren't given any easy answers - or any answers at all; just a great many possibilities and potential contributing factors. The book raises questions rather than giving answers. Just like real life. In the end, it is disturbingly real.
(500 pages)
Quotes from We Need to Talk About Kevin:
"I suppose that's a common conceit, that you've already been so damaged that damage itself, in its totality, makes you safe."
"I have to go further back. So many stories are determined before they start."
"Funny how you dig yourself into a hole by the teaspoon - the smallest of compromises, the little roundings off or slight recastings of one emotion as another that is a tad nicer or more flattering."
"Sheer obstinacy is far more durable than courage, although it's not as pretty."
"You can only subject people to anguish who have a conscience. You can only punish people who have hopes to frustrate or attachments to sever; who worry what you think of them. You can really only punish people who are already a little bit good."
"I realize it's commonplace for parents to say to their child sternly, 'I love you, but I don't always like you.' But what kind of love is that? It seems to me that comes down to "I'm not oblivious to you - that is, you can still hurt my feelings - but I can't stand having you around.' Who wants to be loved like that? Given a choice, I might skip the deep blood tie and settle for being liked. I wonder if I wouldn't have been more moved if my own mother had taken me in her arms and said, "I like you.' I wonder if just enjoying your kid's company isn't more important."
"And there's a freedom in apathy, a wild, dizzying liberation on which you can almost get drunk. You can do anything."
"But the resilience of the spirit is appalling."
"You can call it innocence or you can call it gullibility, but Celia made the most common mistake of the good-hearted: She assumed that everyone else was just like her."
"'discomfort,' a term beloved of the medical profession that seems to be a synonym for agony that isn't yours."
"Surely it makes a travesty of the exercise to forgive the unrepentant."
(Referring to forgiveness) " . . . invoking a God . . . while sweepingly acquitting my shortcomings as a mother . . . made this deliverance . . . seem cheap, and an undercurrent of preening betrayed that conspicuous clemency has become the religious version of driving a flashy car. By contrast, my brother Giles' staunch incapacity to pardon us . . . is a grudge I treasure, if only for its frankness."
"it may grate on me most that this big dumb absolution latterly in vogue is doled out so selectively. Weak characters of an everyday sort - bigots, sexists, and panty fetishists - need not apply. . . . [T]he murderer harvests sheaves of pitying pen pals; an addled drama teacher too desperate to be liked is blackballed for the rest of her life."
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Watch a trailer for "We Need to Talk About Kevin"Merchant Video
Image Unavailable
Image not available for
Color:
Color:
-
-
-
- To view this video download Flash Player
- VIDEO
Follow the author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
Frequently bought together
This item: We Need to Talk About Kevin
$11.60
Get it Aug 11 - 12
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
+
$12.49
Get it as soon as Friday, Aug 8
In Stock
+
Total price: $00
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Choose items to buy together.
Frequently purchased items with fast delivery
Page 1 of 1 Start over
- We Are the Light: A NovelPaperbackFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Friday, Aug 8
- Just a Regular Boy: A NovelPaperback19% offLimited time dealFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Friday, Aug 84% Claimed
- The Outside Boy: A NovelPaperbackFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Friday, Aug 8Only 7 left in stock (more on the way).
- Then We Came to the End: A NovelPaperbackFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Friday, Aug 8
- The Little Stranger (Movie Tie-In)PaperbackFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Friday, Aug 8
- Someone Like Us: A novelHardcoverFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Friday, Aug 8
Popular Highlights in this book
Only a country that feels invulnerable can afford political turmoil as entertainment.Highlighted by 1,448 Kindle readers- In a country that doesn’t discriminate between fame and infamy, the latter presents itself as plainly more achievable.Highlighted by 1,065 Kindle readers
- In the particular dwells the tawdry. In the conceptual dwells the grand, the transcendent, the everlasting.Highlighted by 683 Kindle readers
- In the particular dwells the tawdry. In the conceptual dwells the grand, the transcendent, the everlasting.Highlighted by 380 Kindle readers
Product Videos
Merchant Video
About the author
A truly incredibly work of literature that started as an almost DNF.
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver is a truly incredible work of literature. That being said, it took me about 25% of the book before I had fully decided I didn’t hate it. The story is written fully from the POV of Eva, Kevin’s mother. And, being inside Eva’s mind for 400 pages is, for lack of better words, a complete and utter mindf**k. This is not a quick read (even for a fast reader like myself) nor is it an easy read. And, at times, you may feel like it’s pretentious, boring, overwritten. And, I get it. These thoughts pretty much made up 100% of my feelings in the first quarter of the book. The story is told in epistolary form through letters Eva Khatchadourian writes to her husband Franklin Plaskett. Eva is the mother of Kevin, the boy behind the Gladstone High School massacre that left many of his classmates dead. Time weaves between the present as a shunned mother in her community and the past from Kevin’s conception to the tragic incident. We learn in extreme depths about Eva and Franklin, about their connection, about their childhoods, their careers, their lives. To Eva, Kevin is evil from birth. To Franklin, he is not and Franklin is completely oblivious to the torture Kevin puts Eva through for his entire life. At the end (and throughout), you’ll find yourself either believing Kevin to be purely evil and Eva as victimized or you’ll see Kevin as the victim of an indifferent mother. Or, perhaps it’s not that simple at all? Likely one of the most disturbing books I’ve ever read but in a completely different way than say another of my most disturbing books, House of Leaves. I often struggle with how to rate books. I’m fairly lenient. It takes A LOT for me to rate a book less than a three and even though a three still means “I liked it,” I still feel guilty. So, in hindsight, I read a lot of 4-5 star books because while books affect me differently and I love them for different reasons, I’m rarely completely disappointed. That being said, it’s easy to rate a book 5 stars when it does what this book did. When it stays with you for a long time (or forever) after you finish it. If it changes your way of thinking or even just your depth of thinking. And even more so, when the book starts out as an almost DNF but redeems itself to the point of practical perfection. And, rarely will I say this, but the movie adaptation was by far one of the best I’ve ever seen. Amazing casting and method for a book that takes place inside the mind of one woman.
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews. Please reload the page.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2010
- Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2019
Top reviews from other countries
-
- Susana J GReviewed in the United Kingdom on August 14, 2013
Shocking and wonderful
- IshikaReviewed in India on October 4, 2023
Quality is good
Just the cover is different.IshikaQuality is good
Reviewed in India on October 4, 2023
Images in this review
