We Need To Talk About Kevin -- Book Review

Hello everybody! I recently finished a thought-provoking novel titled We Need To Talk About Kevin. I have wanted to write a review about this book for the past few days, and so now I am. I hope that you may read this book too and see if you share my opinions. If you've already read it, please share your thoughts in the comment section.

Title: We Need To Talk About KevinGenre: Literary fiction/psychological
Author: Lionel Shriver
Length: Long
Summary: This is primarily story about Eva Khatchadourian and her son Kevin, who is the sole culprit of a school shooting which killed many students and two faculty members. Told through a series of letters from Eva to her husband Franklin, the story discusses what spurned Kevin murder, and if Eva's lackluster parenting caused him to turn out this way. The story goes from before Kevin was born and up to the shooting. Some focus is given to Eva's relationship with her husband, and how it deteriorated with the progression of the novel. However, this is not a romantic book.

PLOT

At first I was disappointed when I realized that this novel would be told through a massive string of one-sided letters. (Franklin never writes her back, for reasons explained in the book) I thought of this particular method of story-telling too limited -- even more so than the traditional first person. However, Shriver does a very good job of executing the plot in this way, providing each chapter (or letter, rather) with a decidedly good cliff-hanger that keeps the reader wanting more. Each letter contains interesting stories, comments, and character interactions that keep the novel moving successfully.

The plot is not without its errors, however. The novel is entirely ponderous; it takes slow, heavy steps towards its all too short climax. Each scene is relatively interesting, but often I considered the question "is this part truly necessary?" The scenes that truly brought me on the edge of my seat were incredibly powerful and completely worth reading, but they were stuffed in between scenes that didn't seem to add to the story other to give it a complete sense of drudgery. This drudgery does add to the book's tone though, which is a bonus that saved me from putting it down more often.

At points I do feel that Eva gives away too much information. Actually, one of the book's weaker points is towards the end, when Eva discusses the climax where she wasn't even present with such detail it shatters the reader's suspension of belief completely. Eva says she knows these things from previous sources, but this fact is written in such a offhanded way that you feel like this is a tacked on excuse for just giving too much information to be believable. Don't get me wrong, the climax is lovely and powerful, but it doesn't quite fit. The massive build up for just thirteen pages of questionable climactic material makes me feel a little cheated.


CHARACTERS
The characters are Kevin's weakest point, which is a complete shame because the characters are what ultimately make a book good. Eva is the protagonist, and she grows more unlikable as the story progresses. You can have a functional book without a likable protagonist, so long as you can relate to the character in some way. Eva almost seems inhuman: her incurable pathos and her determined dislike for nearly everything in the world around her is unbelievable. She contradicts what actually matters to her throughout the story. The one things she seems to appreciate is travel, but she often admits that she doesn't like it until she's in a foreign country and there's no going back. She is what literature calls an "unreliable narrator", and of course this can be a very effective story telling tool, but only used, well, effectively. Later in the story, Eva is diagnosed with post-natal depression, but that doesn't explain the depression that lasted for forty years before that.

Franklin, the husband and the recipient of the letters, is one of the more fake characters ever written. It is said that the two characters love each other, but no proof is ever given to make this a fact. When Kevin is born, Franklin goes from ambiguous lover to the role of nonsensical father. Although Eva is admittedly a terrible mother, Franklin never hesitated to take Kevin's side. Whenever it was suspected that Kevin had done something horrid (from something like tampering with a kid's bicycle and cause said child to crash and nearly die, to just making a giant mess and not cleaning it up) Franklin never considers it a possibility that Kevin did something wrong. It became Kevin and Franklin vs Eva (as she like to put it) and it is not a believable relationship in the least. Franklin at most is a fuel to help Eva rant about the little terror that is Kevin, but I suppose that the book is about Kevin in the first place.

Kevin is ultimately the best character in the book. He is a monsterous person down to his withered core, but he is a successful character. His morals and drive remain ambiguous, but he stays a constant in between the two other leading characters. That is, until the end of the book. In the entire story, we are lead to believe that Kevin was irredeemable. Yet, in the face of a new fear, he undergoes a turnaround that is almost a 360 by Kevin standards. It's frustrating. Shriver's inability to create characters that can tell a cohesive story is Kevin's greatest weakness.

PROSE/WRITING QUALITY

The writing quality of Kevin is the book's best feature. It has a wonderful flow to it. You are compelled to keep reading even through the book's more mundane sections. Eva's character makes it difficult to continue reading sometimes, but actually, sometimes it's her unique (if not natural) mind that makes you want to read. Sometimes the author puts things in such a way that the reader is forced to pause and think, "wow, that's totally how I feel", or "that's the perfect way to put it". Sometimes you don't agree with Eva at all, but you still find it interesting how intense her psychological insight is. Whether right or wrong, this novel is a thought-provoker.

There are moments when the novel gives too much information to a detail, while not giving bigger, more interesting moments their time in the limelight. It seems that the author has difficulty focusing on what aspects of the novel to elucidate. Eva's stream of consciousness technique is a bit of excuse for it, but whether the narrator is reliable or not, the author simply must consider the important aspects of a novel and realize them.


THEME/FOCUS of THE NOVEL

I am still trying to discern Kevin's true purpose. At first I thought it was a psychological probe into the minds of psychopaths or sociopaths. Not even half way in, I realized that there wasn't enough focus on this subject to be the true purpose of the book. Kevin touches on several different themes, but doesn't adhere to a single one. It feels like the author is trying to make a definite point, but she never quite manages. Therefore, I can only ascertain that the theme and the focus of this book is rather fuddy duddy, to put simply. I was rather disappointed that I couldn't walk away with a genuine feeling for this book. Rather, I simply received a mishmash of different ideas. Thought-provoking, intelligent, and scary thoughts to be sure, but all vague and not truly realized. It would have been more satisfying for the author to submit to a single theme than pursue them all at once. But maybe the point of this book is that there is no real meaning, no true answer to the things people do and why they do them. An interesting observation, but it doesn't make for satisfying reading.

OVERALL

We Need To Talk About Kevin is an above-average book, and is filled with clear and vibrant moments of pure literary genius. Its problem lies in its execution. Its inability to retain consistency in its characters and its narrative focus hamper this novel extremely. Still, those bright moments make this book worth reading. The climax is exciting and has an excellent plot twist, but the last two pages will have you reeling with confusion over who Eva and Kevin really are.

It is a chilling and captivating read, but also a heavy undertaking. Don't expect to read this book in one or two sittings.

3.5/5

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Well, there you go! See you guys next time.
Esther