#CBR9 Review #03: We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
We
Need to Talk About Kevin is comprised of a series
of letters that a woman named Eva is writing to her husband, some time after
their son commit mass-murder at his high-school. So obviously, while the
subject was pertinent at the time of writing the book (early 2000s), it
continues to be so today, what with more and more tragedies occurring almost
every day. The main focus of Eva’s letters follows the path of her life wherein
she decided she wanted to be a mother, and her response to the event of having
her son, as well as her relationship with him and the apparent personalities
she saw in her son. Being from Eva’s perspective, we see her struggle with
issues of guilt as she never really forms a strong attachment to her son, as
well as some instances of perhaps shifting the blame elsewhere in that no one
else quite noticed her son’s behaviors and true being except her. Other
subjects that come to surface, albeit briefly, are the issues of the accessibility
of weapons, as well as the prescribing of attachment disorders to children
(which of course, can definitely influence people as they grow in life), though
these are not truly the main focus of the novel. It is a deep psychological
look at the aftermath of tragedy and trying to make some sort of sense of
things, when perhaps maybe some of these incidents don’t entirely make sense at
the end of the day.
In the first couple of chapters I had a bit
of an uphill battle in getting used to the writing style presented by the
author, and the voice of Eva came off as a bit pretentious at the beginning
(which definitely comes into play as the whole thing goes on). In fact, about
the first 2/3 of the novel are quite slowly paced, and it was a bit of a struggle
for me to get into (I actually took a bit of a break about half way through and
read something else in-between, as things seemed to be dragging a bit, but also
being focused on such heavy subject matter I needed a quick breather). By the
end, however, I was engrossed, and asking some of the same questions as Eva as
she struggled with her parenting and wondering what to do both before and after
her son’s act. It is an interesting look at how sometimes we may struggle to
bond with and love people that we know we should, or how some people never see
the true self of certain people.
Overall, despite some struggles at the
beginning, We Need to Talk About Kevin was a great read. It was definitely quite intense at
times, which made things a bit difficult to read, especially given the number
of school shootings and tragedies in the news today. But ultimately, not quite
like anything else I’ve read before, and sure to remain in my mind for quite a
while.
[Be sure to visit the Cannonball Read main site!]
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