A character analysis most definitely should focus on one of the three main characters kevin. We need to talk about kevin lionel shriver paperback. We need to talk about kevin author wonders why anyone. A suspenseful and gripping psychological thriller, lynne ramsays we need to talk about kevin explores the factious relationship between a mother and her son. Like shrivers charged and incisive laternovels, including so much for that and the postbirthday world, we need to talk about kevin isa piercing, unforgettable, and penetrating exploration of violence, familyties, and responsibility, a book that the boston globe describes assometimes searing. We need to talk about kevin lionel shriver ruthless.
This will be in effect while our locations are closed due to covid19. If you are already a parent, this book will make you count your blessings but if you have yet to become one, bewarethis book will scare the hell out of you and could quite possibly reduce your eggsperm supply just by reading it. We need to talk about kevin is a searing and complex look at the reasons couples decide to have children, the parentchild relationship, marriage, and the limits of love and loyalty. It felt like with every sentence that i was advancing through a mass of skewers that were poking my brain and heart. I just finished reading we need to talk about kevin.
I also think the movie depicts him as somewhat of a person whos pure evil in the book it comes across as someone who has zero empathy. We need to talk about kevin is one of the darkest books i have read in awhile. Kevin s mother struggles to love her strange child, despite the increasingly dangerous things he says and does as he grows up. Scottish director lynne ramsays terrific new film we need to talk about kevin tells the terrifying tale of a woman named eva khatchadourian tilda swinton whose teenage son kevin has just murdered his classmates and teachers in a columbinelike massacre. Its been some time since i read that book, but from what i remember, my interpretation was that while kevin wanted to make eva unhappy, he didnt want her out of his life. A novel by shriver, lionel and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at. The book created a lot of controversy, and achieved success through word of mouth. Everybody has a nasty streak video director lynne ramsay and actor ezra miller discuss their film adaptation of. We need to talk about kevin is a disquieting, provocative, and brilliantly written novel about a mother, desperately attempting to understand why her son, 15yearold kevin, brutally, with premeditation, murdered seven of his fellow classmates, a cafeteria worker and his english teacher in a columbinestyle school massacre. She won the 2005 orange prize for her eighth published novel, we need to talk about kevin, a thriller and close study of maternal ambivalence, and the role it might have played in the title characters decision to murder nine people at his high school. Much as parents are expected to love their children unconditionally, sometimes the kids dont turn out wellor, more shamefully, their parents dont really like them.
We need to talk about kevin by lionel shriver harper perennial, paperback, 9780062119049, november 2011, 432pp. We need to talk about kevin is a disturbing novel with many disturbing characters. Focusing on innate characteristics and personal experiences which shape ones being, the book explores themes concerning nature versus nurture and how it may have affected the. However, you can still place holds on ebooks and other eresources using your free library card. A long process of development and financing began in 2005, with filming commencing in april 2010. We need to talk about kevin is a 2003 novel by lionel shriver, published by serpents tail, about a fictional school massacre. We need to talk about kevin feels like a daring art installation, filled with the obvious color red as a metaphor. I just finished reading we need to talk about kevin anyone want to talk about it. We need to talk about kevin psychoanalysis scenes youtube. The format is a series of letters written by eva khatchadourian to her absent husband, franklin, which are a sort of analytical reminiscence about their lives before the arrival of their. But in a larger sense, we need to talk about kevin uses this extreme case to breach a dirty little secret about family life. Of course, the movie is a work of fiction, so is the book but in real life people just arent as black and white as kevin is.
But it should have been more than a metaphor it should have been about life and. It focuses on, and is entirely focused through, eva tilda swinton, the killers mother, and her attempts to come to terms with what her son, kevin. Goodreads members who liked we need to talk about kevin also l. Eva is selfish, vain, and may be too much in love with the idea of being a victim she constantly brings up her armenian heritage, much to her sons dismay, and she genuinely believes that she is. We need to talk about kevin is an original, powerful, resonant, witty, fascinating and deeply intelligent work sunday business post a study of despair, a book of ideas and a deconstruction of modern american morality david baddiel the times this superb, manylayered novel intelligently weighs the culpability of parental nurture.
We need to talk about kevin, by lionel shriver the. After her son kevin commits a horrific act, troubled mother eva reflects on her complicated relationship with her disturbed son as he grew from a toddler into a teenager. The we are, ostensibly, his mother eva the narrator of. We need to talk about kevin is a 2011 psychological thriller drama film directed by lynne ramsay. Nonmaternal, ambivalent mothers are one of the last taboos and eva is a prime example. The film moves without any pattern between past, present and who knows when. However, i could not stop we need to talk about kevin is a cautionary tale about motherhood and should be read before one decides to take the big step. At bottom, we need to talk about kevin works so well because it asks a host of questions without providing anything resembling a definitive answer.
We cling to guidelines like the length of tilda swinton s hair to figure out where we are. We need to talk about kevin offers no at explanations for why so many white, welltodo adolescentswhether in pearl, paducah, springfield, or littletonhave gone nihilistically off the rails while growing up in the most prosperous country in history. Find all the books, read about the author, and more. We need to talk about kevin questions and answers discover the community of teachers, mentors and students just like you that can answer any question you might have on we need to talk. But kevin is just getting started, and his final act will be beyond anything anyone imagined. Kevin, eva and franklins firstborn has killed eleven people while he was in high school and now serving time at a boys correctional facility. In april 1999, drew barrymore had never been kissed, cher told everyone to believe, and two kids shot up a high school in columbine, colorado. The book is titled, we need to talk about kevin but we never do, not really. We need to talk about kevin is not a treatise on crime prevention but a meditation on motherhood, and a terribly honest at that wall street journal just as eva wrestles with her own conscience, we as readers must grapple with our simultaneous revulsion and attraction to such crimes. Reading guide for we need to talk about kevin by lionel. We need to talk about kevin by lionel shriver book vs. We need to talk about kevin by lionel shriver, paperback. We need to talk about kevin paperback december 27, 2011. The novel is set specifically in new york state, but that doesnt matter.
We need to talk about kevin is the 8th novel by lionel shriver. The actual analysis was presented in class, these are just the scenes we. We need to talk about kevin 2011 directed by lynne. Based on a novel by lionel shriver, we need to talk about kevin explores what life is like for a mother, eva katchadourian tilda swinton, whose son, kevin ezra miller, has just maimed and killed his classmates at a local high school. Instead, lionel shriver tells a compelling, absorbing, and resonant story with an. We need to talk about kevin is about the aftermath of a columbinestyle shooting at a school in a small american town. A selection of scenes from the film we need to talk about kevin being presented for a uni class. These book discussion questions are highly detailed and will ruin plot points, if you have not read the book. Find books like we need to talk about kevin from the worlds largest community of readers.
The world she lives in now is a shell, with coworkers, neighbors, and strangers vandalizing her home and hissing hateful. Like shrivers charged and incisive later novels, including so much for that and the postbirthday world, we need to talk about kevin is a piercing, unforgettable, and penetrating exploration of violence, family ties, and responsibility, a book that the boston globe describes as sometimes searing. Lynne ramsays coolly calculated drama, based on the novel by lionel shriverabout a suburban woman who recalls, in flashbacks, the events leading up to her teenage sons killing spree. It is written from the first person perspective of the teenage killers mother, eva khatchadourian, and documents her attempt to come to terms with her son kevin and the murders he committed, as told in a series of letters from eva to her husband. However much he was hostile towards her, she was still the only one in the world who saw him as he was, the only one for whom he didnt put on a mask. We need to talk about kevin was painful to readlisten to. We need to talk about kevin by lionel shriver overdrive. I also found in how eva, the mothers character was drawn it was only sufficient to prop the drama rather than really explore and delve into the horror which led to kevin s actions. We need to talk about kevin by lionel shriver 400pp, counterpoint press. I experienced so many emotions while reading this book, and not just shades of emotions. In his enigmatic novel we need to talk about kevin, lionel shriver allows us to explore another side of drama a nononsense account which places narration as an important currency. The movie, based on a 2003 novel by lionel shriver, follows eva tilda swinton, the mother of kevin ezra miller, who committed a.
The story, which is likely to be one of every parents nightmare scenarios, is told. We need to talk about kevin 2011 cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. The screenplay, written by ramsay and rory stewart kinnear, was based on the 2003 novel of the same name by lionel shriver. To prevent large numbers of holds building up for physical library materials, we have disabled all user accounts. We need to talk about kevin expands to more theaters this week.