Has anyone read "WE HAVE TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN"?

[Jacksmama]

I've just finished it and feel cold with horror. And sad, so sad for the mother. And a bit scared, really. How many other kids like that are there? And could you imagine being their mother? Oh dear...

well, i rather think i did, too

still a bit stunned by it

I thought it was badly written and badly edited.

hated it found it really turgid and obvious,even the"suprise"

at shlockorama

NimChimpski: "I think it was psychologically inaccurate, poorly executed, contrived and predictable. The characters were unrealistic stereotypes and the writing too forced."

That sums up what I felt, more eloquently and succinctly than I could have put it!

Go Bocca!!
Seriously, that book gave me the horrors.

Sorry I have to agree with Bocca and Nimchimpsky.

Very predictable. I dragged myself through the first half of the book only because I don't give up on books. I continued to the end as it did pick up marginally and I wanted to see if I had guessed the ending correctly. Sadly, no twist in the end - I guessed right.

Nothing about the characters rang true. Very dull and actually quite depressing too.

I read it - Kevin had an unusual surname didn't he?

And then in one of the US school shooting one of the teachers who was shot had that name and my blood just ran cold.

The surprise was not very surprising and you have to wonder if the author really thought that Kevin's family would think a cross bow a healthy sport for him!

I despise MisLit, and even more when it is totally fictional (although I suspect a lot of so called memoirs are highly sensationalised, each almost competing to be more terrible than the last one).

what's MisLit? Miserable Literature?

Really, on reflection, I hated this book. I cannot, absolutely cannot imagine feeling this way about my son. I cannot imagine telling him "Mommy was happier before you came along you little shit" - my heart hurts at the thought.

I bought it for $2 at the library sale, I think I'll bring it back and say "$2 was overcharging, here, have it back".

It was serialised on Woman's Hour while I was on maternity leave with ds1, very gripping and disturbing. I don't think he's going to turn into Kevin though (I hope not!)

Good god - ixnay on that thought!!!

I'm not sure the book is about mother/parenthood. I think it's about American society. Bear with me...

Dad is v clearly identified with everything American- he's the living embodiment of the American Dream and loves all things American.

Kevin- along with the very American phenomenon of the high school shooting- is the dark side of the American dream, representing the "bad bits" of American society which aren't being acknowledged or dealt with by Dad/America.

Mum is very much identified with the foreign, with the rest of the world and perhaps with anti-American feeling: her background, her job, her scathing dislike of the "typical American". She sees problems with Kevin which Dad does not. But she doesn't do anything about them.

NB Please note that I don't necessarily agree with the views I think this book represents! Just in case they cause offence... It's just my reading of the book.

I also don't think that the author having/not having kids has anything to do with anything. Sorry. If it was written by a man I suspect this wouldn't be an issue.

I have read it, but like others, guessed the end quite near the beginning!