We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

 

One of the last books left on my Then Versus Now Challenge was We Need to Talk About Kevin. I first read this book in 2013, and it left me absolutely reeling.  I was sucked in from page one and couldn't put it down until I finished. The story was so tense that it was like passing by a bad car wreck; I couldn't stop looking at it. The ending was especially shocking, and it still sticks in my mind as being the most stunned I have ever been by a book. Going into my reread, I was curious to see if knowing the ending ahead of time would change how I felt about the story. Would I still feel that same sense of dread and suspense already knowing how the novel concludes?  This novel is composed of a series of letters written by Eva Khatchadourian to her estranged husband, Franklin. The letters reflect on events from their past and mostly trace the evolution of their son Kevin, from when they were deciding on whether to become parents right up until Kevin becomes a teenager and commits a heinous criminal act. Parts of these letters also tell about Eva's current life, especially her trips to visit Kevin, who is currently in prison. From the first chapter, the reader is told that Kevin will go on to commit mass murder at his school. This revelation leaves the reader to analyze the behavior his mother describes in her letters and determine if Kevin was simply born bad or if Eva's parenting was to blame. The fist thing I noticed about this book was the language. The voice that Shriver gives Eva is intelligent, thought provoking, and brutally honest. It's often too honest, in fact. Eva is not an easy character to like, but her thoughts and feelings, harsh as they are, make her feel real. It's not often that I actually pause in my reading and think to myself, "hey, this writing is excellent," and I did that after reading just the first few paragraphs. The prose isn't hard to understand, but you do have to focus while reading to get into the flow of Shriver's writing. This is the kind of book you have to turn off the TV and clear your mind to enjoy. At its core, this book is about motherhood. I loved that Eva's uncertainties about being a mother weren't glossed over, but fully examined. While deciding whether or not to have a baby she considers many different ideas, both for and against the prospect, and some of them are purely selfish (like not having time to travel or work on her business). She isn't sure she wants to sacrifice herself to motherhood, which I felt was an incredibly honest feeling to have. Women do give up a lot to have kids and it was almost vindicating to see that acknowledged. A lot of her thoughts mirrored thoughts I have had when thinking about whether I want to have children or not, so I was able to connect with the story straightaway. This honesty continues throughout the novel. For example, she eventually decides to become pregnant mostly out of a longing for something different to happen to her and she confesses to feeling no big surge of maternal affection when Kevin is eventually born. The character of Kevin is written in a disturbingly creepy way. As I mentioned above, Shriver leaves it up to the reader to decide whether nature or nurture is to blame for Kevin's actions. I fall into the former camp; I believe that Kevin was born with some kind of psychiatric problem. When he was a baby he cried constantly, to the point of driving off every baby sitter and nanny the family tried to hire. When he grew to be a toddler, he refused to be potty trained or talk (even though he was capable). As an adolescent and teen, he commits several cruel acts that show him to be an individual who was born with a devilish kind of intelligence but without any empathy for others. There is a distinct air of darkness around him, starting immediately from his babyhood. While reading, I couldn't wait to hear more about Kevin, and if the story deviated from talking about him for a while, I was anxious to get back. He was just such a horrible, evil kid that I was feeling just as frustrated and horrified by him as Eva was. My whole experience of reading this novel was deliciously tense, because while enjoying the honest writing and interesting characters, I knew in the back of my mind that everything was building towards Kevin's horrendous criminal act. I knew he was going to commit a school shooting, I knew I was going to read about children being murdered and Shriver continually dropped nuggets of information about the victims and the crime along the way so I wouldn't forget what was coming. It was torturous and fascinating all at the same time. It's quite a sensation to actually feel apprehensive about turning a page in a book. At the end of the novel, when I finally knew everything that went on during Kevin's spree, I literally felt like a lead weight had dropped on my chest. It was the most horrified I have ever been by a novel. On my second read, only one small criticism surfaced in my mind that I didn't notice before. Some of the language Shriver uses has not aged well at all. There is use of various slurs throughout, by all the main characters. Granted, this novel is set largely in the 80s and 90s, when we called everything "gay" and referred to people with intellectual disabilities using the r-word, so the language matches the times. Reading it now however, was pretty cringeworthy. It's kind of a shame too, because it undercuts all of the things that are great about this book. On the whole though, the good outweighs the bad for me.  We Need to Talk About Kevin is a wonderful book about a terrible event, and I highly recommend it. I've never read anything like it before and I doubt I will again. The blend of brutal honesty, suspense and sadness is both fascinating and disturbing. This was a great achievement for Lionel Shriver and I am very interested to see if I feel the same way about more of her novels. I never ended up reading anything else from her after I first read this book in 2013. Thanks to my Then Versus Now Challenge, I will be starting Big Brother next, and I can start figuring out whether I have a favorite author in Shriver, or just a favorite book.

Challenge Tally

Then vs. Now: 24/27

Total Books Read in 2020: 80