We Need To Talk About Kevin

I have decided to write this up before I forget the things I want to say about it.

We Need To Talk About Kevin had been sitting on my bookshelf for years before I finally picked it up and started reading it. It is about 500 pages long, which, I thought, was a bit long for my liking.¹ When I finished the book about a month later, I was overwhelmed, and I wish I had discovered its beauty and immense darkness earlier.

Not that I have read a whole lot of them, but this is one of the best novels I have read.

From back cover of the UK version I have:

Shortly before his sixteenth birthday, Kevin Khatchadourian kills seven of his fellow high-school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher. He is visited in prison by his mother, Eva, who narrates in a series of letters to her estranged husband, Franklin, the story of Kevin’s upbringing.

Upon reading the introduction, people would most probably sum up the book as “a parental nightmare”. However, it would be an unforgivable understatement as the novel is so much more than that.

I started the book very slowly because of the many difficult words – it is a very literary book, despite being in the form of personal letters. It was all done on purpose (I believe) because Eva is self-absorbed, she needs to show off her travels and vocabulary. She always insists that she is right, even when she tries to justify rejecting her son from his birth. She is certainly not likeable, but the successful characterisation made it very hard to not feel sympathy for her.

Kevin ends up murdering innocent people with elaborated plans. Throughout the book, readers follow Eva in retrospect, trying to find out what went wrong. And to some extent, they also need to find out what exactly happened. And whose fault is it? Is he born evil? Or is it Eva’s failed parenting? The book doesn’t give you answers. It brutally presents the facts and let you decide.

The ending of the novel is brilliant. Not to spoil it for anyone who wants to read, it ties everything together and confronts everyone with an undeniable sense of tragedy, lament and loss. It had me crying in a public place.

All I will say is that it is the most compelling and horrifying book I have read in a while. I highly recommend everyone to read this book.

1. I have always preferred short stories or novella, as they tend to be more intense and doesn’t require prolonged attention and memory of characterisation. [↩]