Book Club Choice #1: We Need To Talk About Kevin

The first choice of the F-Word book club/reading group is Lionel Shriver’s ‘We Need To Talk About Kevin’. This book was nominated by Aideen Johnston, who described it as being “Not only [is it] a very interesting critique on motherhood, it’s so well-written that everyone, feminist or not, should have the opportunity to read it. One of my favourite books of all time.”

It was also nominated by Milly, who described it as being “slightly creepy but fascinating, and deals with the aftermath of a school “shooting”. It’s written from the perspective of Kevin’s mother and basically deals with his entire childhood and his mother’s guilt -she can’t decide whether it’s nature or nurture or something entirely different that made him kill his enemies at school. It’s very interesting to read (even if it’s not used for book club, read it anyway, it’s unsettling but in a good way) and again looks at feminism- questions about working mothers, having children and even getting married are raised, which make it especially relevant to this site.”

Thanks to Aideen and Milly for nominating this book, and please do continue to nominate books for the reading group, you can do so here and please include with your nominations a paragraph on the book and why you think it should be chosen. If you have already nominated but your choice wasn’t picked this time, don’t assume it won’t be.

Please post any comments about ‘We Need To Talk About Kevin’ here.

Happy reading.