"We Need to Talk About Kevin" is about marriage and especially parenthood, and may qualify as being the most disturbing and terrifying examination of those institutions ever written. Well, at least to someone like me...
There are people who think that movies such as "The Exorcist" are more frightening than movies like "Jaws." I'm not one of them. Mostly because I don't believe in demons and ghosts, so I see those stories of the supernatural as pure fiction. Some of them can jolt me with a good scare, but I sober up immediately afterward and then forget about it. But I DO believe in sharks, I have seen them with my own eyes, and the final 20 minutes of "Jaws" will forever live in my nightmares precisely because sharks ARE real. And as unlikely as it may be, it is also very possible that one day I may find myself on a boat and notice a large dorsal fin emerging from the surface of the water making it's way ever closer. I draw this distinction because "Kevin" is that kind of scary. What makes it so very unsettling and utterly unforgettable is it's plausibility.
Eva is nearly 40, happily married, and has a fulfilling and successful career. She's never really wanted children, but she and Franklin find themselves talking more and more often about having a family. He finally decides that he really does want kids and she decides to go along with it, despite some serious lingering doubts. Almost from the moment that Kevin is born there seem to be problems. He develops a dark side to his personality that he is able to disguise to his father and other key figures, but seems to delight in exposing to his mother. Her insistence that Kevin is being intentionally difficult and manipulative causes serious rifts in their once strong marriage, with Franklin seeing her as overreacting and cold. Eva tries to dismiss her fears and tries to cling to her husband's assessment until their second child, Celia, is blinded in one eye by a strange accident that happens when she is alone with Kevin.
Things get stranger and more frightening from there and ultimately Eva's worst nightmares are confirmed when Kevin commits an unspeakably violent crime.
Shriver goes back and forth between telling this story of Eva's life before the crime and showing what her life is like in the present day, where she goes regularly to visit Kevin in juvenile prison and where, in her day to day life, she is treated like a pariah. The story examines the idea of evil and it's causes. Is it nature or nurture? How responsible can a parent be for the actions of their teenage child? The dialog between jail-bound Kevin and his broken, distraught mother are perhaps as frightening as Kevin's crime. At least they would be to his mother, when he reveals in small, incremental bits of insight portioned out over months or even years, how very influential she really was in shaping his philosophy of the world.
"Kevin" is not an easy read, although Shriver does an amazing job of making something so unpalatable and horrible truly provocative, in the best sense of the word. I got utterly caught up in the story and didn't want to put it down. For those who enjoy a challenging and thought-provoking look at some deep societal and philosophical questions, I would highly recommend it.
There are people who think that movies such as "The Exorcist" are more frightening than movies like "Jaws." I'm not one of them. Mostly because I don't believe in demons and ghosts, so I see those stories of the supernatural as pure fiction. Some of them can jolt me with a good scare, but I sober up immediately afterward and then forget about it. But I DO believe in sharks, I have seen them with my own eyes, and the final 20 minutes of "Jaws" will forever live in my nightmares precisely because sharks ARE real. And as unlikely as it may be, it is also very possible that one day I may find myself on a boat and notice a large dorsal fin emerging from the surface of the water making it's way ever closer. I draw this distinction because "Kevin" is that kind of scary. What makes it so very unsettling and utterly unforgettable is it's plausibility.
Eva is nearly 40, happily married, and has a fulfilling and successful career. She's never really wanted children, but she and Franklin find themselves talking more and more often about having a family. He finally decides that he really does want kids and she decides to go along with it, despite some serious lingering doubts. Almost from the moment that Kevin is born there seem to be problems. He develops a dark side to his personality that he is able to disguise to his father and other key figures, but seems to delight in exposing to his mother. Her insistence that Kevin is being intentionally difficult and manipulative causes serious rifts in their once strong marriage, with Franklin seeing her as overreacting and cold. Eva tries to dismiss her fears and tries to cling to her husband's assessment until their second child, Celia, is blinded in one eye by a strange accident that happens when she is alone with Kevin.
Things get stranger and more frightening from there and ultimately Eva's worst nightmares are confirmed when Kevin commits an unspeakably violent crime.
Shriver goes back and forth between telling this story of Eva's life before the crime and showing what her life is like in the present day, where she goes regularly to visit Kevin in juvenile prison and where, in her day to day life, she is treated like a pariah. The story examines the idea of evil and it's causes. Is it nature or nurture? How responsible can a parent be for the actions of their teenage child? The dialog between jail-bound Kevin and his broken, distraught mother are perhaps as frightening as Kevin's crime. At least they would be to his mother, when he reveals in small, incremental bits of insight portioned out over months or even years, how very influential she really was in shaping his philosophy of the world.
"Kevin" is not an easy read, although Shriver does an amazing job of making something so unpalatable and horrible truly provocative, in the best sense of the word. I got utterly caught up in the story and didn't want to put it down. For those who enjoy a challenging and thought-provoking look at some deep societal and philosophical questions, I would highly recommend it.
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