I made a small pile of books from the tbr pile to read over Christmas, before I had to start on reading for next term - first among them was Lionel Shriver's We Need To Talk About Kevin. I bought the novel not long after it appeared in paperback, my book group at home having read it and thought it very good - since then I've known various people proclaim the best or, alternatively, the worst novel they've read in a long time. I'm up to page 40 and so far I'm in the latter camp...
It's not the horrific nature of Kevin's deeds - which have yet to be particularly elaborated - it's the utterly awful writing. I'm all for fancy words in prose, but, when discussing the amount of water in the hot water tank, 'the awareness that there is no reserve permeates my ablutions with disquiet' - Really? The main character is that irritating I-don't-care-what-people-think-but-really-I-do type, all introspection and independence and sock-it-to-'em honesty mixed with psychobabble... I almost never give up on books, but...
...that is my question, really. For those who've read We Need To Talk About Kevin. Should I bother continuing?
No comments:
Post a Comment