Ivo wonders about...

On Ivo's way back from Hong Kong, he sat by a white woman reading a book called "We Need to Talk about Kevin". The name struck us all as funny - almost coulda been, "There's something wrong with Kevin". We'd never heard of it - and were only interested in it for it's title. It looked and felt like some kind of memoir-y/advice book... Some almost-true account of raising a troubled or otherwise special-needy kid named Kevin. So now that we keep seeing the book translated into Chinese - I'm wondering what it's about. Turns out it fiction! Here's a review.

The author won the 2005 Orange Prize which is a British literary award given annually to a woman author. I still have no interest in reading the book - but am interested in the social and cultural implications of such a popular crossover. When I thought it was empathetic pop psychology, it seemed a little sickening to me. Now that I know it's fiction from the point of view of the mother of a teenage serial killer, it's a whole different kind of sickening.

Another couple points of interest. The author, Lionel Shriver, changed her name from Margaret Ann as a teenager - because "I thought I would prefer to be a boy." Upon completing her novel, she and her husband claim to have decided not to have children!