We Need to Talk About Kevin

So the real reason I started this blog was to have a forum to discuss this masterpiece by Lionel Shriver.  This story dissects the events leading up to a fictional high school shooting as told from the perspective of the killer's mother.  As with the last Shriver novel I read, So Much For That, this novel is wonderfully written and incredibly provocative, chock-full of insightful comments about various aspects of modern society.  It is a powerful book that stays with you long after you have turned the last page.

The high school shooting at the crux of this book took place in the spring of 1999.  I was a high school student at that time, and I remember the pervasive fear following the Columbine massacre and - closer to home - the Taber shooting.  One day we arrived at school and someone had spray painted in large black letters: Trenchcoat Mafia 12:00.  The school was evacuated and classes were canceled for the day.  A couple years later at university, I recall that it was a common occurrence for someone to make a bomb threat during final exams, causing the building to be evacuated and the exams postponed.  I am no longer as familiar with student life, but I fervently hope that these occurrences are now a thing of the past. 

What I find so intriguing about this book is that I still cannot pin down exactly what I think about Kevin.  He is a remorseless serial killer, an unlovable monster.  But the novel asks the uncomfortable question: how did he get to be this way?  Should I blame Eva for being an admittedly terrible mother who, despite her best efforts to the contrary, resented her son from before he was born?  Blaming Eva is by far the most attractive option.  It allows me the conceit that if I am a good mother who wants and loves my child, that child will never turn into a monster like Kevin.  But Shriver doesn't let the reader off the hook so easily.  Eva's attempts at motherhood may evoke deserving criticism, but Franklin was a very involved father who showered his son with love from the day he was born.  So what if Kevin was simply born a monster and it was inevitable that he would eventually grow up to murder innocents, regardless of the nature of his upbringing?  This option is so terrifying I cannot help but shy away from it.  As someone who wants to be a mother someday, I have to believe - however naively - that I will never be a mother like Eva so therefore I will never end up with a child like Kevin.

The book has now been made into a movie, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this spring.  Although I have not seen the movie (as it has not yet been released), the reviews so far are quite promising.  And I cannot imagine anyone better suited to portray Eva than Tilda Swinton.  Arguably the person who suffered most from Kevin's actions, it is nevertheless strangely difficult to sympathize with Eva as she struggles to understand the reason why.