We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lionel Shriver)

Some people just shouldn’t have children.

I say this after spending many years teaching kids who were, mostly, delightful. But of the two-hundred or so students I taught each year, every once in a while, a not-so-delightful kid appeared in my class. I’m not talking about the kid who brought a rat to my class in an attempt to derail my lesson plan. And I’m not talking about the kid who ate, with his hands, the cake I bought so my honors class could celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday. These boys (yep, both boys) were amateurs and acted out as a function of their immaturity. The not-so-delightful students I’m thinking of were ones I was certain, at the time, were future felons. Even at the tender age of fourteen, they exuded pure evil. Several names and associated offenses come to mind when I reminisce about that reality but I won’t list them here. And I hope their parents, the same people I pleaded with to pay careful attention to the behaviors I observed in class yet didn’t, appreciate that.

Kevin, the protagonist named in this book’s title, could have easily been one of the students I’m thinking about with one notable exception: his mother, Eva, was never in denial about the very different child he was nor the monster he was destined to become. She knew, as perhaps only a mother could, Kevin’s malicious, immoral and sociopathic psyche better than anyone. Even Eva’s beloved husband, Franklin,—seemingly estranged from her throughout the novel—rejected the idea that Kevin was socially unacceptable and exhibited gruesome behaviors despite the obvious.

Eva’s inherent ill feelings towards Kevin cause her to question, throughout the book, her decision to have children until Celia, her savior child and Kevin’s younger sister, is born; thus vindicating her role as a mother. Unfortunately, Kevin is a force greater than what Eva initially understands. His remorseless path of destruction is infinite and ultimately resonates in Eva’s relentless introspection about her decision to become a parent and how that decision resulted in the raising of an adolescent murderer.

Presented creatively in a series of letters to her husband, Eva tells a haunting story. In the end, those who have children will be left wondering if such horror could occur in their own families. Those who don’t (due to personal choice) may realize an affirmation regarding that decision.