Rob’s Book Reviews

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

November 8th, 2006 at 12:33 am (Fiction: General, Fiction: Modern)

To the paternally or maternally minded, the question “Is there any point having children?” must seem ludicrous, not to say unnatural, but there are people who ask this question. To echo Lionel Schriver in We Need To Talk About Kevin, if you’re in your mid thirties, successful, and happily married, why complicate things by having offspring – why RUIN things, in fact. Ok, people speak of bringing a little bundle of joy into the world, making new life – but little bundles of joy tend ot pee and puke and vomit quite a lot, never mind the fact they soon grow up, and end up being not so little bundles of hormones, aggression, neuroses and if parents are really unlucky, criminal violence. I have personally seen several colleagues on the verge of burnout due to the problems they’ve had with troublesome teenagers who were true angels until they reached that somehow magical number of years, and indeed who have been so well brought up, with all they could need and want, that their rebellious “wish you were all dead” natures could not possibly be a result of nurture, but indeed seeing as it doesn’t run in the family, how does nature come into it? The nature versus nurture concept is one raised in the book by this incisive writing in the epistolary format with an incisive style and at times remarkable turn of phrase; as she writes a series of letters to her husband, we are given a disturbing look into a pair of lives where the only way to find an answer to the question “is there any point having children” is to actually have one, and while the book sees this question answered to some extent by the end, at least from the narrator’s point of view, the answer is by no means clear. One thing we do learn is that having a difficult child, indeed having a child at all, can be one hell of a ride.

I had not read anything by Shriver before, as I usually stick to certain genres, so I am grateful to my friend Louise for giving me the volume for my birthday. The book certainly raises as many questions as it answers – and in particular the fact that one of the protagonists is also the sole narrator of events, giving us cause to question perhaps how much the truth has been edited for the sake of her pride, respect in the eyes of the reader, or sanity. Still, as much as some will detest this woman, despise her, I found myself enjoying the process of getting to know her, for although she might not have the happiest tale to tell, she tells it honestly (even if she hides some things, the things she does tell are told in technicolor) and even brutally, and has an almost poisonous wit at times. As I am not a mother I can only guess at what mothers will think of her, especially at some very particular moments – do they emphathise with her, sympathise, understand her? Or do they unconsciously do these things while their conscious censor forces them to despise her, to say “No mother could be like that…” Very intriguing – I certainly hope Schriver isn’t drawing on personal experience lest her offspring read the book and become damaged

The writing is well done and thoughtfully constructed, with a style that is polished and economical, falling just this side of the “literary”, although tabloid enthusiasts may struggle. The story itself has a number of, if not twists, at least brutal turns for the unexpected. I am not sure if other Lionel Schriver books are in a similar vein to this one, but based on this evidence of We need to talk about Kevin, I would certainly be willing to give another one a try. Thanks very much Louise for an enjoyable and though-provoking read for my Birthday