To do so, she creates characters who are unlikeable, sometimes deeply so, but oh-so-human: even Kevin. Unless you're a sociopath, which I think is one of her points, you cannot help but empathize with each of them at times; hate them at others; give them the benefit of the doubt frequently, too frequently perhaps, which is another. Some books stay with us forever! After reading them we cannot stop thinking about them. We keep contemplating each chapter on our minds and thinking of different scenarios about what we would do if we were in the characters’ shoes! In Memoriam: The Rev. Dr. Donald W. Shriver Jr". Union Theological Seminary. August 6, 2021 . Retrieved April 28, 2022. Kalfus, Ken (June 20, 2016). "The bankruptcy of liberal America: 'The Mandibles,' by Lionel Shriver". The Washington Post . Retrieved September 24, 2016. Tolentino, Jia (September 14, 2016), "Lionel Shriver Puts On a Sombrero", The New Yorker. Retrieved August 3, 2021.

Pensieri ed emozioni viaggiano a mille leggendo queste pagine, impossibile restare indifferenti, restare a guardare, si è trascinati in una centrifuga che non lascia scampo: molti di noi sono genitori, tantissimi di noi sono figli, e tutti siamo nati – tre esperienze base che Shriver sa come usare e manipolare.

This novel should, I hope, blast through any of those preconceptions--some of which, at some times in my life, I've believed. Her 2013 book, Big Brother: A Novel, was inspired by the morbid obesity of one of her brothers. [15] I think the writing was superb and despite it being a hard book to read (the incident with the maps was particularly brutal), it was worth it. I think this dealt with the issue of school killings much more effectively than Jodi Picoult's Nineteen Minutes. The character of Kevin did come alive for me and he was believable. I didn't even think that counseling might be an option because Franklin 100% believed that his son was fine and probably would have opposed Eva if she had suggested it. Just like she never thinks about them divorcing, she also never considers giving her son help.

At no point during this novel’s composition did I feel any confidence that I was writing a life-changing manuscript. To the contrary, I’d no idea if it would ever see print. In its own terms the book seemed to be working, but all my other novels had seemed to be working, too. I hadn’t lost faith in myself, but I had lost faith in the outside world meeting my efforts with anything better than indifference. I didn’t even feel proper self-pity, because plenty far more dreadful things happen to people than failure to publish a book. To wit, I completed my final edit in New York in concert with 9/11, after which surely no one would care to read about something as paltry as a difficult boy and his ambiguous relationship with his mother. Shriver, Lionel (September 13, 2016). "Lionel Shriver's full speech: 'I hope the concept of cultural appropriation is a passing fad' ". The Guardian . Retrieved September 15, 2016. Whoosh, whoosh. After a massive stroke in 2015, my mother can’t walk. She can’t use her right hand. She’s incontinent. Her body has grown plump and soft. She can still talk – sort of. That is, she can form words, but rarely has much to say. Much of her scant discourse comprises polite vacuities. Asked how she is, she’ll say: “As well as can be expected.” Our sparse, formal phone conversations are full of silences.

Shriver, Lionel (June 7, 2016). "Lionel Shriver's teenage diary: bad spelling and unreturned affections". The Guardian . Retrieved April 4, 2019. When diagnosed with low-tension glaucoma in the 1990s, she was warned that, if she lived long enough, she’d go blind. She’s lived long enough. As of last year, this formerly voracious reader can’t discern a carry-out menu, nor can she lay eyes on her beloved husband. A television is a radio with lots of dead airtime. Mostly, she sits in her wheelchair, chin on chest. I’ve no idea what goes on in her head. The story is told in epistolary form, through the letters Eva Khatchadourian writes to her absent husband Franklin Plaskett. Eva is the mother of the infamous Kevin Khatchadourian, the architecht of the Gladstone High School massacre. Eva's letters are divided into two parts. One talks of the current time, her travails as the universally shunned mother of the infamous teen: the bereaved parents of Kevin's late classmates have slapped a civil suit on her, which she is fighting in her typically disinterested manner, and visiting her son regularly in the correctional facility where he is incarcerated. The other part of the letters traces Kevin from his conception up to the fateful Thursday.