We Need to Talk about Kevin

[phoenissadido]

Anyone else read the book? I thought it was terrifying.

 

Also -- I wonder what J'Chelle would think if she read it. In her shoes, I'd start taking a good long look at my youngest 8 or so...

[Defrauding Errday]

That book was unnerving.

[SealFan1963]

Kevin? I searched but couldn't find anything about a book by a Kevin. I'm so curious.

[Patsy]

So infuriated by that book. I found Franklin's behaviour more and more grating as time went on. At first he's just annoying, then he seems like almost a straw man - until you realise that yes, there are people out there who are in denial like that, yes, there are fathers who use their children for power like that, yes, people do change like that...

Apparently readers should be questioning, throughout the book, whether Kevin is mentally abnormal or Eva's behaviour from his birth influenced his character. Am I the only one who responds with "No, there was always something wrong with him, and she wasn't wrong to see it"? I mean, I know she's the narrator, but it seems like she's not misinterpreting much of his behaviour at all -- occasionally she assumes the worst when it's actually just 'pretty bad', but beyond that, I kind of bristle at the implication that their flawed bonding is what made him that way.

ETA that I really LIKED the book and thought it was good, that irritation at Franklin isn't my ONLY reaction to it ;)

[luckylibrarian]

I bought this years ago and never made it past the first twenty pages. It seemed to move slowly. After reading the comments here, I might give it another shot. I like unnerving books.

[phoenissadido]

I agree about Franklin -- as horrified as I was with every successive Kevin incident, a little malicious voice at the back of my head would add, "Let's see you explain that one, daddy dearest." And yeah, parents are in denial, although to be perfectly fair, if someone told me their (at least if he was prepubescent) son was creepy and sadistic, I would assume the parent was a danger to the child, and not vice versa.

Never going to watch the movie, because the book was creepy enough, but did anyone else get sad at the preview when Celia runs up and hugs Kevin in her little tutu? :(

I tell all my friends it's one of the best written books I've ever read, but they should never read it.

[kamcho_papio]

So infuriated by that book. I found Franklin's behaviour more and more grating as time went on. At first he's just annoying, then he seems like almost a straw man - until you realise that yes, there are people out there who are in denial like that, yes, there are fathers who use their children for power like that, yes, people do change like that...

Apparently readers should be questioning, throughout the book, whether Kevin is mentally abnormal or Eva's behaviour from his birth influenced his character. Am I the only one who responds with "No, there was always something wrong with him, and she wasn't wrong to see it"? I mean, I know she's the narrator, but it seems like she's not misinterpreting much of his behaviour at all -- occasionally she assumes the worst when it's actually just 'pretty bad', but beyond that, I kind of bristle at the implication that their flawed bonding is what made him that way.

ETA that I really LIKED the book and thought it was good, that irritation at Franklin isn't my ONLY reaction to it ;)

That was my interpretation of Kevin, too. I'm not going to explain it well, but she seemed almost like a Cassandra, and part of the deeply unnerving aspect was that Eva herself was unnerved by Kevin as soon as he was born.

[pastaswife]

I never see plot twists coming, so that traumatised me :? I actually love the way Lionel Shriver writes though, I just recently read another book she wrote, The Post Birthday World

[pastaswife]

I bought this years ago and never made it past the first twenty pages. It seemed to move slowly. After reading the comments here, I might give it another shot. I like unnerving books.

I struggled at that start too, but after a while I couldn't put it down and churned through the rest

[belowrubies]

I might have to download this on my nook. Is the title "kevin"?

[kamcho_papio]

I might have to download this on my nook. Is the title "kevin"?

No, it's We Need To Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver

http://www.amazon.com/We-Need-Talk-Abou ... 006072448X