I just finished reading “We need to talk about Kevin” by Lionel Shriver and it has me questioning a lot about family relationships. The dynamic between Kevin to his father, his mother and Celia, shows that one person can have many layers. Lionel Shriver uses a family tragedy to depict the reality of love and compromise and reinforces that sometimes things don’t work out in the end.
I like the style in which the story is written, just a bunch of letters sent from Eva to Franklin. I have never read a book before that was compromised only of letters. It adds a personal feel to the story and it emphasises the pain that Eva is in that causes her to resort to her ex husband. The letters also allowed for jumps in and out of time, sometimes Eva would talk about her current life and sometimes she would remember what happened on the Thursday. A contrast was created between the normalcy of her life now, versus the confusion and struggle before. It is almost ironic that her life became calm after her son shot up a school.
Shriver also challenges that idea that a mother always loves her child. My mom and I read the book at the same time and so we were able to compare the way we felt. The scene at the prison when Eva told Kevin that she hated him, according to my mom, was something she could never imagine. Of course never having experienced anything like this, my mom feels as though she would love me no matter what. On the other hand, (although I am not a mother) I believe that there can be limits to how much you love someone. Blood only holds so far, I believe it is possible to push a relationship to breaking.
One of the most interesting aspect of the book was the polarising behaviour Kevin has between his mom and his dad. It adds complication to his character by depicting how someone can be so unpredictable. Kevin’s personality in front of his dad is his attempt to be a normal kid, I almost see Kevin’s dad as his outlet to be a kid just like everyone else. Even though he may have disliked going to a museum or playing a sport, I think it was Kevin’s one attempt to keep his life on the “normal track”. I think Kevin’s mom was his opportunity to be how he really felt. He did not need to pretend or put on a show, which I think help create a good relationship between them in the end.
Something that worked for me was the pace of the book. The biggest thing I notice amongst my favourite authors (Khaled Housseini, George Orwell etc) is that they all have a steady pace in their books. The story continued to progress as we learnt more about Kevin’s life and the lead up to that day, but Shriver also gave enough details to keep the reader deeply engaged in the text. Throughout the book I was engaged to the same level, I did not see my interest levels drop off anywhere.
All in all I think it would be one of the best books that I’ve read. The plot itself is heavy, but the concepts it is linked to are very prevalent in most of our lives. Shriver takes an extreme circumstance to help us question day to day beliefs.
