The Bible Of The Childfree Community

Mar 02, 2015 13:35

So, since the bookshop suggested it to me I spent a few days reading "We Need To Talk About Kevin" by Lionel Shriver, a book that could be considered the Bible of the childfree community. In fact, in the afterword she says that one of the reasons she wrote the book was to explain to her partner why she didn't want kids.  Holy fuck is this a dark ( Read more... )

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Comments 8

lurath March 2 2015, 16:27:01 UTC
I thought the book was interesting - particularly with respect to the VERY unreliable narrator. It was pretty clear to me all along that Kevin was a sociopath/psychopath (displays all the classic signs) and I was somewhat irritated throughout that "Mother" didn't come up with that outright... until the end.

As far as the nature vs. nature debate I can see how this book is saying: don't have kids if you don't want them because you could fuck them up (also, don't get bullied into having kids. I hated the husband character throughout, even knowing the mother was an unreliable narrator!). AND you could also just have a monster through no fault of your own.

It happens. I've met kid sociopaths and adult sociopaths whose parents I would consider to be great parents.

One possibility that occurred to me at the end: the mother is also a sociopath.

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bart_calendar March 2 2015, 23:39:14 UTC
Oh, she clearly is.

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bart_calendar March 3 2015, 00:48:37 UTC
Yep!

This is why I think it should be the book we hand to anyone who asks us why we don't want kids or bingos us.

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kat144 March 31 2015, 05:32:21 UTC
But wouldn't that then imply we're saying that we're borderline sociopaths who would turn any kids we had into nutcases? Not sure I want people thinking that about me.

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okami_no_yume March 4 2015, 00:35:18 UTC
I haven't read the book. But I have seen the movie. I knew the storyline and it was....well. I don't think I want to read the book because the movie was fifty different shades of fucked. Up. I remember after watching it, I just kind of stared off into space for a good five minutes pondering what I had just sat through. It made my skin crawl because it's a stark reminder of how child rearing can go horrifically, catastrophically wrong in every way imaginable. You find yourself pitying Kevin somewhat because he started out as the victim of a mother who despised him, and ended up victimizing others in the end. Jesus Tapdancing Fucking Christ.

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vlm123 May 11 2015, 02:20:44 UTC
I always wondered why Kevin wasn't removed by social services or they simply didn't just give him up for adoption.

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legman666 March 9 2015, 02:46:01 UTC
I think THE KID WAS A SOCIOPATH.

"raised by wolves can become"

Wolves would have done a BETTER job than THOSE people!

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vlm123 May 11 2015, 02:11:36 UTC
Bought it, read it, LOVED IT. The movie with Tilda Swinson is OK, but the book has more details and insights and hits harder. My book is stuck in storage back in Maryland, so can't wait to get my hands on it and read it again.

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