[bksvol-discuss] Re: Wishlist possibly filled: We need to talk about Kevin
- From: "Mayrie ReNae" <mayrierenae@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2009 07:20:51 -0700
Hi Kellie,
I'll paste the synopsis and Publishers Weekly review of "We Need To
Talk About Kevin" here. Let me know if you want to proofread, and I'll hold
it for you.
See below.
Mayrie
Synopsis
The gripping international bestseller about motherhood gone awry
Eva never really wanted to be a mother-and certainly not the mother of the
unlovable boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a
cafeteria worker, and a much-adored teacher who tried to befriend him, all
two days before his sixteenth birthday. Now, two years later, it is time for
her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, and Kevin's
horrific rampage in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her
estranged husband, Franklyn. Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion
of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her
own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails.
Publishers Weekly
A number of fictional attempts have been made to portray what might lead a
teenager to kill a number of schoolmates or teachers, Columbine style, but
Shriver's is the most triumphantly accomplished by far. A gifted journalist
as well as the author of seven novels, she brings to her story a keen
understanding of the intricacies of marital and parental relationships as
well as a narrative pace that is both compelling and thoughtful. Eva
Khatchadourian is a smart, skeptical New Yorker whose impulsive marriage to
Franklin, a much more conventional person, bears fruit, to her surprise and
confessed disquiet, in baby Kevin. From the start Eva is ambivalent about
him, never sure if she really wanted a child, and he is balefully hostile
toward her; only good-old-boy Franklin, hoping for the best, manages to
overlook his son's faults as he grows older, a largely silent, cynical,
often malevolent child. The later birth of a sister who is his opposite in
every way, deeply affectionate and fragile, does nothing to help, and Eva
always suspects his role in an accident that befalls little Celia. The
narrative, which leads with quickening and horrifying inevitability to the
moment when Kevin massacres seven of his schoolmates and a teacher at his
upstate New York high school, is told as a series of letters from Eva to an
apparently estranged Franklin, after Kevin has been put in a prison for
juvenile offenders. This seems a gimmicky way to tell the story, but is in
fact surprisingly effective in its picture of an affectionate couple who are
poles apart, and enables Shriver to pull off a huge and crushing shock far
into her tale. It's a harrowing, psychologically astute, sometimes even
darkly humorous novel, with a clear-eyed, hard-won ending and a tough-minded
sense of the difficult, often painful human enterprise. 4-city author tour.
(May) Forecast: The subject, unfortunately, is nearly always timely, and
this by no means sensationalist account can be confidently sold as the best
novel of its kind; in fact, the extent of the author's insights should make
her very promotable. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
-----Original Message-----
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Kellie Hartmann
Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 7:10 AM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Wishlist possibly filled: We need to talk
about Kevin
Maerie,
Can you tell me what the book is about? I will proof if it catches my
interest.
Btw, I'm loving the Kay Tracy book. So far there are absolutely no errors;
what a beautiful scan! And besides, I'm enjoying the book itself.
Thanks for your hard work--proofers notice and appreciate when submitters do
this much editing or get there scanner settings so perfect.
Kellie
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