
- Part Three.Okay, I admit Denton Welch isn't for everybody. But Lionel Shriver's scary psychological novel We Need to Talk About Kevin (2003) certainly is. Here's a page-turner from the Devil's Reading List about a child all parents pray they never have. Fifteen-year-old Kevin, three days before the legal age of accountability, has murdered seven of his high school classmates, a cafeteria worker, and a teacher, but is furious if anyone compares his crime to Columbine. "I just wanna go on the record that those two weenies were not pros. Their bombs were duds and they just shot plain old anybody. My crowd was hand-picked." The story is told in letters between Kevin's parents, who are no longer together. The mother, Eva, "exhausted with shame," desperately tries to understand not only her son's violent behavior but her own vague dislike of him. She hadn't really wanted to get pregnant, but gave in to her husband's demands so he could be a father. She hated giving birth and found breast-feeding unfulfilling. But did she deserve this?!
Advertisement
