What I'm Reading (Old Favorites):

Shriver, Lionel We Need to Talk about Kevin, Counterpoint, New York, c2003. We just sent a copy of this book out on interlibrary loan and it reminded me of how much I liked this powerful, gripping novel. We Need to Talk about Kevin is told in the voice of Eva Khatchadourian, in a series of letters to her husband. She recounts the message spray-painted on the family's house, the hostile reactions of the neighbors when she goes shopping, her visits to their son Kevin in a what is clearly a detention facility, and her recollections of family life when Kevin and his sister Celia were growing up. As Eva recalls her growing sense that Kevin was seriously troubled and her inability to convince her husband that there was a problem, it becomes clear that something terrible has happened. Masterfully, Shriver saves the details of just what it is that Kevin has done until the final chapter. I am not going to reveal the ending here, but it will blow you away. Shriver has a gift for character. The voice of his narrator, Eva, is clear and true. When I found out what had happened, I felt that the emotions Eva had expressed were exactly what a mother in that situation would feel. Read this book!