We Need to Talk About Kevin

What a book, what a book. The prose is amazing. To think that somebody can sit down and write like that! Every perfectly articulated thought about the anxiety of motherhood. A lot of Eva's thoughts were very relatable to me. That fear about the loss of identity (you just become Mother), the changing of your body so-much-so that not even that is yours anymore, taking the next step because you should just... do that? But why? To try and find purpose in your life but instead of taking responsibility for it, foist it onto the next person? Existence is a lot to ask of someone!

My heavy handed analysis is that the father (who infuriated me to no end - but it's probably very hard to admit there's something wrong with your child, especially if your partner is so openly repulsed by them) is the American Dream, deluded by the image of family, and Eva, coming from a background where genocide is just part of family history, sees the reality of it. I don't think Shriver writers that neatly, though. She also paints Eva as a hoity-toity better-than-you Liberal, so we could take the stance that her cynicism and superior attitude led her to being a bad mother, and therefore resulted in Kevin's psychopathy. I don't think I lean firmly on either side.

Two moments I found really interesting were when Kevin was sick, and so totally vulnerable that he behaved like a 'normal' child, and when Eva starts to reveal her deeper thoughts about Celia not really amounting to much. I feel like both of those oppositional scenes were placed for us to question the Kevin vs. Eva question. Deep down Kevin wanted to be loved, and deep down Eva was incapable of selfless loving because she was too cynical.

Very interesting read with lots to think about.