The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047

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We Need to Talk About Kevin is a 2003 novel by Lionel Shriver, published by Serpent's Tail, about a fictional school massacre. It is written from the first person perspective of the teenage killer's mother, Eva Khatchadourian, and documents her attempt to come to terms with her psychopathic son Kevin and the murders he committed, as told in a series of letters from Eva to her husband. When you’re not ready to be a mother but you gotta raise a child, how to manage to do it? Especially it could be so compelling when you are forced to raise a child who is suffering mental illness keep pushing your buttons till you lose your control! You believe parents always, at some point and for most things, need to be held accountable for their child's behaviour; Now Eva writes letters to her husband confessing how she loses her control to break her son’s arm and surprisingly Kevin never gives anything away even though he turned her life into hell and Eva visits her son in the prison as well. Her 2013 book, Big Brother: A Novel, was inspired by the morbid obesity of one of her brothers. [15]

I think the relationship between mother and son (a son trying desperately to get a reaction from a mother who not only was ambivalent about his birth, but doesn't like him as a child either) is overshadowed by the horrific detals of the larger story. The nuances of the relationship -- and the truths about how far a child will go to gain his parents' attention -- are lost in the carnage. Whether or not you are a parent (I am not), you cannot help but feel that you've been given a rare insight into someone's worst nightmare, because you have -- whatever angle you are viewing from -- and there is nowhere to go to depersonalize or escape it. Lionel Shriver Doesn't Care if You Hate Her Sombrero", an interview conducted by Katherine Mangu-Ward, editor-in-chief of Reason magazine, February 2017. The Mandibles: A Family, 2029–2047, About the Book, Harper Collins, London. Undated. Retrieved May 9, 2016.I think the writing was superb and despite it being a hard book to read (the incident with the maps was particularly brutal), it was worth it. I think this dealt with the issue of school killings much more effectively than Jodi Picoult's Nineteen Minutes. The character of Kevin did come alive for me and he was believable. I didn't even think that counseling might be an option because Franklin 100% believed that his son was fine and probably would have opposed Eva if she had suggested it. Just like she never thinks about them divorcing, she also never considers giving her son help. a b c d e Levy, Ariel (May 25, 2020). "Lionel Shriver Is Looking for Trouble". The New Yorker . Retrieved June 28, 2020. Shriver, Lionel (June 7, 2016). "Lionel Shriver's teenage diary: bad spelling and unreturned affections". The Guardian . Retrieved April 4, 2019.

I’ve ruminated over this question for days, but I feel it’s best to leave it unanswered. Because whatever the truth may be, it’s bound to be hideous.Maybe it's because I enjoy the big words that were used in the letters and found it believable that she would write this way.