We Need to Talk About Kevin

For the film adaptation of the book, see We Need to Talk About Kevin (film).

We Need to Talk About Kevin
1st edition
Author(s)	Lionel Shriver
Country	United States
Language	English
Publisher	Counterpoint Press
Publication date	14 April 2003
Media type	Print (Paperback and Hardback)
ISBN	1582432678
OCLC Number	50948454
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 21
LC Classification	PS3569.H742 W4 2003

We Need to Talk About Kevin is a 2003 novel by Lionel Shriver, published by Serpent's Tail, about a fictional school massacre. It is written from the perspective of the killer's mother, Eva Khatchadourian, and documents her attempt to come to terms with her son Kevin and the murders he committed. Although told in the first person as a series of letters from Eva to her husband, the novel's structure also strongly resembles that of a thriller. The novel, Shriver's seventh, won the 2005 Orange Prize, a U.K.-based prize for female authors of any country writing in English. In 2011 the novel was adapted in a movie of the same name.

Character histories

Kevin

Kevin's behavior throughout the book closely resembles that of a sociopath, although reference to this condition is sparse and left mostly up to the reader's imagination. He displays little to no affection or moral responsibility towards his family or community, and commonly distances himself from people to avoid attachment. Kevin seems to regard virtually everyone with contempt and hatred. Eva, his mother, makes frequent attempts to enter Kevin's mind and identify some reason for his detachment and his actions. He engages in many acts of petty sabotage from an early age, from seemingly innocent actions like spraying ink with a squirt gun on a room painstakingly wallpapered by his mother in rare maps, to possibly encouraging a girl to gouge her eczema-affected skin. Rationalisation for his behavior is one of the central themes of the story: when asked the simple question "Why?" after the massacre, he responds that he is giving the public the excitement and scandal that they secretly crave. Only in rare instances does another side of Kevin emerge: in childhood when he becomes very ill, and later, just before he is transferred to an adult prison and is evidently nervous. Near the end of the book when asked for the first time by his mother "Why?," he responds, "I used to think I knew. Now I'm not so sure." In these instances, he displays a simple need for love and comfort.

Franklin

Eva's narration takes the form of letters written after the massacre to her presumably estranged husband, Franklin. In these letters, she details her relationship with her husband well before and leading up to their son's conception, followed by the events of Kevin's life up to the school massacre, and her thoughts concerning their relationship. She also admits to a number of events that she tried to keep secret, such as when she lashed out and broke Kevin's arm in a sudden fit of rage. Franklin comes across as a kind, loving man, but he is also intensely short-sighted and even deluded where his family is concerned. He makes a huge effort to believe that his household conforms to his idealistic view of typical family life, convinced in particular that he has a normal, happy son. Franklin dismisses Eva's concerns about their son and frequently suggests that she is exaggerating or that any problems are her fault. Towards the end of the novel he breaks down under the pressure of maintaining this illusion and asks for a divorce. Kevin overhears this, and in Eva's view, decided to commit his act of mass-murder at that point, in part because he guessed that he would end up in his oblivious father's custody, whereas he actually prefers the mother who sees through him. If he respects one of his parents, it is the strong-willed Eva, with whom he has been engaged in a battle for dominance since his birth; therefore, defeating her will be more satisfying.

Celia

Kevin's sister Celia is conceived largely because of Eva's need to bond with another member of her family. Franklin commonly sides with Kevin, once stating, "there's two of us and one of you." Celia, born when Kevin is eight, is different from her brother in every way. Frightened of virtually everything, she relies on her family, Eva in particular, to keep her safe. Franklin, while devoted to Kevin, does not lavish the same attention on Celia; instead he scorns Eva for fiercely protecting her daughter.

When Celia is six years old, she is involved in a household "accident" in which drain cleaner causes her to lose an eye. This is closely linked to an earlier incident involving Celia's pet short-eared elephant shrew, during which Eva uses Liquid Plumr, a caustic drain cleaner to clear a blockage in the children's sink. Two explanations are possible: that Eva left the cleaner sitting within Celia's reach, or that Kevin somehow attacked Celia with it, destroying her eye and scarring her face. Though never proven, Eva strongly believes that Kevin, who was babysitting at the time, poured the Liquid Plumr onto his sister's face, telling her he was cleaning her eye after she got something in it. Later, Celia's prosthetic eye plays a role in the post-massacre narrative.

Lenny Pugh

Kevin's best friend. Slow-witted and thuggish, he is disliked by virtually everyone he knows, even Kevin, who considers him more like "a pet hamster" than a real friend. When Kevin accuses his drama teacher of sexually molesting him, Lenny is apparently roped in to testify that he was abused, too. This is supported by the fact Kevin took the blame for Lenny throwing bricks over the overpass, intending to use it to blackmail his friend. At the end of the novel, it is revealed that he had started a website which purports to reveal Kevin's secrets.

Major themes

Shriver focuses on the relative importance of innate characteristics and personal experiences in determining character and behaviour, and the book is particularly concerned with the possibility that Eva's ambivalence toward maternity may have influenced Kevin's development. Shriver also identifies American optimism and "high-hopes-crushed" as one of the novel's primary themes, as represented by Franklin, the narrator’s husband, who serves as "the novel’s self-willed optimist about the possibility of a happy family."

Adaptations

Film adaptation

Main article: We Need to Talk About Kevin (film)

In 2005 BBC Films acquired the rights to adapt the book as a film. Director Lynne Ramsay signed on to direct. It was announced in March 2009 that Tilda Swinton had signed on to star in the film as Eva. Filming began on location in Stamford, Connecticut on April 19, 2010. We Need To Talk About Kevin was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9 and 11, 2011. John C. Reilly plays Franklin and Ezra Miller plays Kevin.

The film premiered In Competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where it was met with praise from film critics.

Radio adaptation

From 7 January 2008 the story was serialized on BBC Radio 4 in 10 15-minute episodes and was broadcast daily as the Woman's Hour drama. It starred Madeleine Potter as Eva Katchadourian. Ethan Brooke and Nathan Nolan played Kevin at various ages, while Richard Laing played Franklin Plaskett. It is occasionally repeated on BBC 7.

External links

• Podcast of Lionel Shriver discussing We Need to Talk About Kevin on the BBC's World Book Club.
• Interview with the author from Salon.com
• BBC Radio 4 interview with Shriver on the book
• Information on the book from the publisher, Serpent's Tail
• We Need to Talk About Kevin at the Internet Movie Database

Awards
Preceded by Andrea Levy - Small Island	Orange Prize for Fiction 2005	Succeeded by Zadie Smith - On Beauty