First of all, you should all read this novel.
I finished reading the novel, Lionel Shriver's "We Need to Talk about Kevin", a couple of nights ago. For those of you who have not heard of it, it tells the story of Eva, a woman with successful career and a happy marriage. After having a son, Kevin, Eva's life begins to fall apart, ending in a massacre by the fifteen-year-old Kevin. Shriver explores the reason that led to this from the point of view of Eva, in the form of letter addressed to her husband Franklin.
The novel is explicit with the Event instead of trying to hide it. But even though perfectly aware of what will happen I found the novel extremely intriguing and frightening. Nothing, however, prepared me for the ending. That made me physically sick; at three a.m. I sat on my bed and try not to think that might very well happen any day for real. That the answer to the question presented in the backcover -can one be born evil- is 'yes'. The novel quite nicely made my dreams of having a family one day come tumbling down. I'm not angry because of that, though. Although I now have to start from the scratch, the result -my motivations to have a child- will be so much stronger after acknowledging the possibility of this. We'll see if I start building it again. Not at the moment.
But as said, read the novel. I cannot see it wouldn't be worth it. Translations can be found e.g. in Finnish ('Poikani Kevin') and in Swedish ('Vi måste prata om Kevin').
