So I finally finished listening to We Need To Talk about Kevin.

[apocalypsos]

The good:

-- Regardless of how I feel about the character herself, I can totally picture Tilda Swinton as Eva, and it's part of the few reasons I like the character. (Overall, I really dislike her, but still.) I feel like if I had encountered her first as Tilda in the movie I would like her as a character more.

-- The plot itself is intriguing, and I'll give the author credit -- she researched her ASS off in regards to school shooters and their behaviors and habits. The details of the attack itself are really well-thought-out, too.

-- I'll give the author a lot more credit for capturing that general reaction most people who know school shooters have to them before they become school shooters, which is being at least slightly uneasy around to being really freaked out by their presence. You can't really say, "I always thought he'd shoot up a school one day," because really, even with the creepiest of kids, who even THINKS that?

The bad:

-- As soon as the author dropped "the bomb" about Franklin and Celia dying, I was like, "Oh ... *long pause* ... oh. I see." I'll admit I'm usually the one who doesn't get The Big Twist in any given media until it actually happens -- it's usually a really bad sign of the quality of said media if I can figure it out before I see or read it -- so I feel weird because I didn't see it coming, but then again I did see it coming, if that even makes sense. I was far more interested in Franklin's reaction to Kevin's shooting spree than I was in Eva's admittedly anguished yet smug and snappish "I told you so except for how I didn't and now I'm angry about that" reaction to the whole thing, so of course I should have known the only sliver of reaction I'd get to see from Franklin the highly-practiced paternal apologist was in Eva's conjecture of the events of that morning.

I also wasn't that thrilled with Eva in retrospect repeatedly saying that Kevin killed nine people, even in reference to what other people must think or say about his shooting spree, regardless of the fact that whether or not she might be in denial that he went so far as to kill his own father and sister -- which is completely understandable -- other people wouldn't be saddled with that. So I kept gritting my teeth when she'd be like, "People must say all sorts of things about Kevin because he killed nine people," and I'd be thinking, "No, they're probably thinking those things because he killed ELEVEN people. Sheesh."

-- I felt sympathy for Eva because of how her life turned out. That said, I felt that sympathy because you should feel sympathy for someone whose life ends up that fucked up, not because I actually felt sympathy for her. If that even makes sense.

-- The school shooting was a little TOO not-flawed, if that even makes sense. Even in the most successful school shootings, shit goes wrong and plans go awry. Columbine was hugely successful in regards to body count -- and yes, it does feel ridiculously creepy to phrase it that way -- and Klebold and Harris fucked up a LOT. The only deviations from the plan Kevin has to deal with are the cafeteria worker -- and how nice that he never even gets a name -- and that one kid showing up a tad late. That's it. It just felt off to me as someone who's read up on mass murders and school shootings because school shootings rarely if ever go THAT close to plan.

(On a side note, the way Eva described everyone arriving of the shooting irritated me, especially the ballet dancer. "How can I show and not tell that the gay ballet dancer is arriving? I know! He'll mince into the gym and then pirouette across the entire room in the tights and leotard he always wears because he is a GAY BALLET DANCER.")

*

I don't know. In general, I liked it ... taken down to its composite pieces, I didn't. It's like pizza. I really like pizza, but I loathe tomatoes unless they're cooked exactly right and I hate most cheeses.

Comments

[tygrrlyli.livejournal.com]

I loved how the author so well put across that Kevin just did not attach to his mom, and Eva just did not attach to her son.
Most moms attach to their kids. She tried, she couldn't.
Most kids attach to their main caretaker. He didn't try, couldn't be bothered.

I dunno I just very much enjoyed that aspect. Thought it was well done.

Anyway, I'm glad I'm not the only person in the universe who has read this book. Yay.

[random-serious.livejournal.com]

This book shook me up, and the story and if it makes sense, the vibe/mood of it occupied my mind a lot even weeks after I read it... But yeah, I get about what you are saying about the pizza, because that is exactly how it was for me too.

In my case, though, I deeply felt sympathy for Eva, and even liked her. I mean, yes, she is hard and smug and demanding; but I spent the entire book practically salivating for her to get a better life and for her to get to leave Kevin (whom I regarded monstrous, and I regarded the circumstances of Eva and Franklin deciding to start a family very oppressive and murky)/ or to tell Franklin, or to be able to show him that Eva had been right all along, about Kevin. I wanted Kevin to have his 'comeuppance', but in a form of Eva getting a better life, which of course, I knew was both ridiculous and impossible, thanks to what Kevin did and how he was; and yes, I wanted Franklin to know that Eva had been right all along. I know, horrible, but since the book started with the reader knowing that Kevin did what he did, I just kept hoping that Eva at least got something to live for: a better life with Celia, and preferably after divocing Franklin, who I thought was a massive ass all along. (and yes, I took me a while to glue on the whole thing). I found some compassion for Kevin, at the end, despite what he did, thanks to how a brilliant a writer Shriver is.

I liked Eva, and got why she became who she was, and I absolutely hated Franklin. The whole book read, for me, as a battle within a marriage/ battle of the sexes. And yes, the book read as the patriarchal system finally getting down a woman who had successfully fought it; the book read, to me, as a description of a punishment that the system doles out for women/ wishes to dole out for women who try to live on their own terms. I know, the book was about Kevin, and what he did, but aside of that, aside Kevin's story I felt like I was seeing a marital battle folding. And yes, I know Kevin's action weren't punishment, but on a, such I say, meta-level, the whole book read, to me, like a horror story about how women get trampled.

I very much liked how Eva discussed her fears and apprehension and worries regarding parenthood. And I liked that the descriptions of the power struggles in her relationship with both Franklin and Kevin were so nuanced. I know, Eva wasn't an exactly unbiased narrator, but I felt that Shriver wrote and expressed something important/ often ignored in discourse about marriages/ relationships.

Bottom line: I would have liked to have read this book without Kevin, and the horrible things he did, but as this book was, I found it disturbing if skilled piece of work that resembles a lot of really good media: I watch/ read it once and then I cannot face doing it again.

Bottom line II: I largely ignored the story about Kevin's horrid actions, because I found him and his actions so terrible; and focused on the Eva/ Franklin dynamics/ relationship because I found that more interesting than what kind of monster Kevin was.