Last night I finished We Need to Talk About Kevin. I started to get troubled toward the end as Shriver foreshadowed more deaths I had not earlier predicted, and at the end I felt ill. Even more so by the sudden affection, potential apology, and hint at an image of mother and son reunited, sharing a small apartment. Because love is unconditional, and transcends everything, even murder. Or maybe it is loneliness that transcends everything. For a woman who has lost everyone and everything she loves, perhaps it is preferable take a chance living with someone who has proven himself dangerous than it is to live alone.
The idea of unconditional love does not make sense to me. So I suppose I am not much of a lover. Not that my love easily evaporates or that it is easy to get cut from the list. But love certainly must hinge upon some things. Or perhaps it isn't the love that evaporates but the willingness to subject oneself to someone else, for there are people I love that I cannot stand to be around.
In Shriver's interview, tucked at the back of the book, she said among many things that she corrects people's grammar and alienates her loved ones by insisting they use English correctly. She would fit in well with my family, I thought. She also pointed out that flaccid is properly pronounced flak-sid, which was news to me. I felt a swell of admiration for her, closely followed by a sense of mild irritation.
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The other night while we were out walking the dogs, Shawn asked me what I thought of selling our house and moving to the Island after J is finished school. Life on the Island is quieter, property is cheaper. I asked him where we would work. He said we would find out when we got there. This kind of blind faith in the universe to take care of us is new. I'm not sure what I think, but I like thinking about it.
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5 comments:
I am sorry you felt ill and irritated. I suppose my questions have been answered, however. Interesting.
That's odd, I just posted a response to this and it seems to have vanished.
Let me clarify ill and irritated, in case it sounds as though I am saying I did not like this book -- because I really really liked this book.
Ill. Well, I was prepared for the school shooting part of the story. That much was given away in the foreward. But I was unprepared for the deaths of Celia and Franklin, and Celia's death in particular was so ghastly in its description. I can only assume that Shriver wanted us to feel ill. And she was successful in that. But I think the best books always make me feel something uncomfortable, because that is largely the purpose of reading, to transport oneself places mentally that one does not go physically for whatever reason.
Irritated. Well it wasn't the book that made me irritated. Just the interview with Shriver that was published at the end. And I was irritated at a superficial because she told me that I had been mispronouncing flaccid my whole life, and I do not like being wrong about matters English.
And on a deeper level, it occurs to me now that I was irritated by her admission that she alienates her loved ones by correcting their English (then corrected mine) and in making me feel irritated, I realised how irritating it is when people do that. And of course I do it too.
So you see. Ill and irritated, neither of which are bad things at all. They are just my responses to being taken away from comfort. Which is exactly what I crave.
I plan to read more of Shriver's work now because this book was a treasure. (And so are you.)
I am definitely going to read that book now.
I haven't read it yet, but will now that you've mentioned it here.
Flak-sid? I had no idea. Must google it posthaste.
What Island are you referring to? It sounds rather idyllic in a Wuthering Heights sort of way.
It's a very good book, well worth reading. Not happy material... but very very interesting.
Yes, "flak-sid". Isn't that odd? I was worried I was the only one who didn't know this.
The Island we were talking about is Vancouver Island, which is actually quite large and populated on the lee side but sort of rugged and rustic on the windward side. Of course I like the idea of the windward side better, even though I'd prefer the warmer weather. There are also many tiny islands around Vancouver Island, some very quiet and sparsely populated. I think I would like one of these the best.
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