we need to talk about kevin

[starj]

Just finished we need to talk about kevin for the second time,and again find the whole book fascinating, disturbing and amazing. Anyone else feel the same?

no I thought it was crap

Couldn't do it. Hated the way it was written. May have a good message / storyline in there somewhere but no way I could be arsed to stick around and find out.

hmmmmm mediocre - I said from the start that I did not warm to the auther AT ALL and therefor felt I could not get a grip on the characters. nothing about Kevin was likeable. His sister was 2 dimensional. A lot of what happened frankly unbelievable ie the dads continued support of kevin and blindness to his sons true self . The eye incident
You know maybe you are right Twiglett!

sorry about all sps!

Oh I loved it. I did not see the ending coming at all.

It really made me think about the nature of love for your children, and I went through a hundred different scenarios of what might happen when Kevin was released. Could they ever be happy as mother and son? Would he ever have a relationship with a woman? would she ever get over her guilt and start living again? and on and on, I thought it was great.

any suggettions for next read, then? Started Zadie Smith again last night b ut don't know if i can do it at the moment

he was just unlovable

I want to re read a book is that allowed?

Have you read anything by Mo Hayder? I find her books disturbing and thought provoking, and if you like a book that stays with you for a bit after you have finished then I can recommend all of hers, but particuarly Pig Island.

predictable I thought (saw the ending coming half-way through)

very poor characterisation

patently written by someone who had never experienced parenthood

and all the furore fgs .. it wasn't that good

made me analyse every small detail about how i'd raised dd though

keep thinking "must read it" but got my best friends girl instead, just find the premise a bit... uncomfortable iykwim

did it? I wonder why?
I felt the precept was flawed too

I loved it - couldn't put it down, didn't see the end coming at all and was absolutely gobsmacked for the last few pages..! Thought it was incredibly powerful but couldn't understand (or was worried that maybe I did a bit) why the Mum kept his room for him. Scared me...

I read 'Kevin' last year at my zillionth attempt. It was other mumsnetters who encouraged me to give it yet another go. It's a disturbing book but ultimately I didn't relate to it or any of the characters.

Thanks kezzag, will give it a go. I'll read most thinngs apart from scary books (the historian was about my limit)and those "oh my childhood was so awful"books

ohhh, really disapointed you lot didn't like this (mostly!)
I found it really powerful & thought-provoking - although quite uncomfortable. Agree that the daughter was one-dimensional, but felt that the 'blame game' around Kevin was really interesting and subtly drawn. I also don't think I really warmed to the mother, but I was really drawn into how I would react in the scenario/what created that emotional framework - I found myself changing opinion through the book ito the extent to which Kevin/his mother/his father were 'to blame' for the way relationship ended up. Though it was interesting on the 'can women ever have it all'/what makes us feel guilty debate.
Didn't see the ending coming (but I am outstandingly bad at that), and it was genuinely shocking. Also found the concept that he might be apologising at the end caught me out too.
Although have heard her interviewed a couple of times, and she is a bit of an arse, imho...

Just keep thinking about the planing he'd put into Thursday. Was it nature or nurture?

Mmmm well Pig Island is made to look scary on the cover but it really isnt, so dont be put off.

agree starg, i prob sound v callous and please accept my apologies if i offend/upset anyone here, but after the jamie bulger murder i find books about this kind of subject wrong.

just read that last post and i wouyld like to stress that i have only read reviews and the blurb of "kevin" but the nature of the book put me off iykwim

I enjoyed (though many have not) The Time Travellers wife by someone who I cannot be bothered to get up and have a look for, odd odd book, but that's what I like!

Quick hijack, Kezza G did you ever hear how Dotty was doing?

lissielou - don't you think that the more our violent our society becomes, the more need we have to explore what causes that voilence/what happens to such children (not sure that Kevin actually did that, but ykwim)
KezzaG - tell me more about PIg Island?

I thought WNTTAK interesting in the way the couple (was it Eva and ?, I cant even remember now) lost the ability to communicate because they disagreed so much over Kevin. I kept thinking that my dh and I would never drift so far apart, and we would be able to talk to each other, so it made me think about how things can break down very quickly if there is a large issue that is always unresolved. It annoyed me that Eva never seemed to sit down and thrash out a compromise, so I couldnt relate to either of them as parents or as husband and wife, but I still enjoyed seeing how their relationship worked.

I'd be hard pushed to say I 'liked' it but I am very pleased that I read it. I found it a challenging, disturbing and uncomfortable read, and it made me question many of my assumptions.