WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN (Lionel Shriver) - June 8/11

This is one of the most frustratingly uneven books I've read in a long time. Shriver takes a relatively simple story and places it within the context of an absolutely epic framework, exploring the title character's life from birth right through to that fatal Thursday. As such, the book is filled with long, pointless stretches in which Shriver overdescribes and overexplains everything. It certainly doesn't help that Eva's decision to stay with Kevin the whole time doesn't make a lick of sense. By that same token, however, the characters all become incredibly vivid and developed, and the book's final stretch, detailing the shooting and its aftermath, is nothing short of riveting. I was especially shocked to discover that Kevin had killed the father and the poor, poor sister. It just seems weird that such a trashy premise has been given such a highfalutin treatment. *** out of ****