Thursday, February 12, 2009

Book Club Met On Tuesday

We read Lionel Shriver's book - We Need To Talk About Kevin.
To read more about the author, including why she changed her name from Margaret Ann to Lionel, click here : http://www.bombsite.com/issues/93/articles/2774

This book was like watching a well directed horror movie. It's a series of letters written by a mother to her husband about her son who, among other things, slaughters his classmates and teachers. This is disturbing, no doubt. While this may be enough information to dissuade you from picking up the book, I would encourage you to give it a shot (if you will). It's a beautifully written, emotional and thought provoking novel. I am not a fan of horror flicks, but I liked it, as did the majority of women from my club. ( All of us are mothers, the author is not, by the way.)

Read here for more reviews. : http://www.mostlyfiction.com/contemp/shriver.htm

Here's an excerpt :
"I'm unsure why one trifling incident this afternoon has moved me to write you. It's still difficult for me to venture into public. You would think, in a country that so famously has "no sense of history," as Europeans claim, that I might cash in on America's famous amnesia. No such luck.

"Khatchadourian," the girl pronounced when I handed her my debit card. She spoke loudly, as if to those waiting in line. It was late afternoon, the right shift for an after-school job; possibly about seventeen, the girl could have been one of Kevin's classmates.she fixed me with a hard stare. "That's an unusual name."

I'm not sure what got into me, but I'm so tired of this. It's not that I have no shame. Rather, I'm exhausted with shame, slippery all over with its sticky albumen taint. It's not an emotion that leads anywhere. "I'm the only Khatchadourian in New York state," I flouted, and snatched my card back. She threw my eggs in a bag, where they drooled a little more."

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