We need to talk about Kevin

I liked the book - I can't say I guessed the ending entirely (parts of) but even if I had I would still have wanted to read it unfold.

I kind of agree with SoH re the characterisation but then I put that down to the fact that Eva, like a lot of first person narrators, is an unreliable narrator (a bit like the elderly teacher in Notes on a Scandal). So it is she who views the world and her family as polarised between competing dichotomies (and in part becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy of her own doom because of this) and even though she is very dislikeable I'm always quite fond of dislikeable narrators.

I haven't read any other Lionel Shriver to be able to comment on whether her narrators are cardboard cut-outs for her own agendas (any recommendations welcomed...I think I have one about tennis unread on my book shelves but it obviously hasn't lured me in yet so maybe there's a better one?)

Boring?! Certainly not boring . You could say other things about it...but boring?!

Interesting though how this book creates really strong reactions to those who read it. There have been many threads about it on MN- here and here and here and here (and I'm sure there are more). It's interesting, in all these threads there's always these very strong reactions, I wonder why it is.

I could see the ending coming, it didn't let it less sad though. In general I tend to like Lionel Shriver, I think she's a fair writer who tackles interesting topics. I really liked her 'post birthday world'...

I started reading this a few years ago and only managed the beginning because I found it so boring.
I picked it up again a few month ago and read it in a few days. I didn't foresee the twist ending. I thought it was well written and it made me cry.

I enjoyed the book. I found that my sympathies constantly shifted between Eva and Kevin as the story went on, highlighting the extremely grey area of nature/nurture.

I didn't see the ending coming and was emotionally drained once I'd finished reading it.

Irritating, horrible book - hated it! My mum recommended it to me, said how much she'd enjoyed reading it, so I was very disappointed!

I have read this and do you know what, I can't even remember the ending! In my defence I do read a lot of books.

Unfortunately some children are born "evil". It is human nature.

I thought this was one of the best books I have read and I recommended it highly to all my friends.
Hope they don't think it's drivel

I see. Her other books didn't appeal to me either.
I really didn't read the novel as a universal dislike for children.

I just found it incredibly hard to read. There was nothing in it except relentless cruelty and misery and i found it upsetting.
And I am not normally like that about fiction.
Just gratuitous.

Nope, you don't need to be a mother to write a book about being a mother/family etc. But you need to understand that your self-confessed intense dislike of children colours the way in which you write them.

I have never read anything written by Shriver that isn't dripping with her own opinions and agenda. Which is alright if you like her opinions. Which I don't.

I don't really think that the book is the manifesto of Shriver's feelings towards children.
You don't need to be a mother to write a book about a mother/family/conventions etc, imho.

I liked it and didn't guess the final twist (I almost never do, somehow). I have to disagree with Show - the mother is a classic unreliable narrator. Yes, she sees one child as evil and one as good, but it's set up so that the reader should be questioning her view.

Er, I quite liked it...but I am clearly a dullard . I made the HUGE mistake of reading another of her books, about a woman who has an affair with a snooker player. It was drivel.

Contrived and inaccurate?

Yes, it was a very poor character study. It set up from its inception a dichotomy between nature/nurture, delusion/clear sight, good/bad and the characters were so polarised within this that it lacked any realism whatsoever. So Kevin was born evil and his sister utterly innocent. As inaccurately as I think Kevin was portrayed, his sister is worse, designed to be everything he isn't ie meek, mild, the victim. The mother is clear sighted and perceptive to her son's evil ways, the father deluded and unseeing. They couldn't be any less rigidly characterised if they were in a Christmas panto.

I didn't think it raised many questions but it certainly answered a few. Namely, Lionel Shriver neither likes nor understands children and SOH doesn't like reading books that are so bloody obvious and insistent in thematic content.

She used too many Big Words.

I don't think it was meant to be realistic. I am sure it was meant to be controversial and sell well.

I think Lionel Shriver is a very good writer, but I didn't get on with the book.

I HATED this. I skipped the middle and had about 3 years break from the bits I did read. It just went on and on and on.

If she'd posted on MN that mother would have been flamed!

I hated all the characters and would have been quite happy for Kevin to kill his mother too, if only to stop the book much sooner.

Yes, I guessed the ending from the very beginning. But I really enjoyed reading WNTTAK. There are lots of things to discuss about!