In 2011 I was blessed to have the opportunity to study abroad in Cannes, and in May I was able to be a part of the Cannes Film Festival. One of the first movies that I had the pleasure to attend the premiere of was the film We Need to Talk About Kevin starring Tilda Swinton, who was amazing, John C. Reilly, and Ezra Miller. The film was captivating and terrifying. It chronicled the relationship between a mother and her son, a caustic and poisonous relationship that resulted in a son, tormented by the real world, who massacred his schoolmates with a bow and arrow. The movie was amazing to watch, and the atmosphere in the theater was electrifying - an experience I'll never forget.
The book was also charged, but it felt more like chewing gravel, closing your eyes, relishing the torment, biting the inside of your cheeks until you develop sores, and then continuing to bite because it feels so good. The book is grueling. I felt guilty for feeling sympathy for the mother (Eva), because she struggles to love her son. She sees through his facades and the act he puts on for his overly-doting father, and she knows deep down something is wrong with him, and often blames herself. It isn't until she shows her true self, by throwing him across the room when he's a child, that he starts to respect her a bit more. Mother and son understand each other in a way no one else does. In the end, she's both the one he saves and the one he makes suffer. The book is a series of letters that Eva writes to her husband about their son, often noting how she wishes he was there with her, as well as detailing how much discontent she suffered when she first became a mother - something she never truly was comfortable with in the first place.
The book is hard to read, because it transports you to a place of empathy that you don't really want to go to. You don't know who to feel sorry for, who to blame, or mostly what to think about yourself as a person. What would you do if that was your son? And what would you do if, in the end, you realized that you were the only one your son ever really loved or respected, and yet you were the one he tormented the most - because you saw him for what he was, because you understood him. What would you do if your child rejected you, refused to use the toilet just because, even as a child, he enjoyed seeing you squirm as you changed his soiled diapers? If your son chased away every babysitter, and ruined things you loved, just because to him, they were stupid. Tortured you with his intelligence that he kept from his teachers. And finally, took away everything you loved. And in the end, can mother and son finally reach the place of ... content ... that they always sought and never could find when tragedy strikes and reality sets in?
If nothing else, Kevin is right ... by brutally murdering his fellow students and a teacher he became something that American people crave ... the depraved story to invest yourself in. Americans love a good brutal massacre; we prove that everyday by the stories we discuss and the TV shows we watch. Kevin knows something we don't, a TRUE brutal story is much better than a fake. And he delivers. This story is brutal, but fascinating and while you'll struggle to get through it, you won't be able to put it down. READ IT! And only then, watch the movie. The book is filled with more disgusting details - you won't be able to stop yourself from engaging in it, and wondering if something is wrong with you for finding solace in it. A truly great read, written by an author who delivers something I'm not sure anyone else can.
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