Don't Read this Book if You Have A Weak Stomach! (plus calming advice if you do)
Categories: Rediscoveries , Fiction
It's called We Need to Talk about Kevin. It's written in the voice of the mother of a fifteen year old who's murdered nine people. It's even more upsetting than the blurb indicates. Don't read the last chapter and skip all parts about the character Celia.
I put it in the Friends Collection box today along with a bunch of Disney cassettes.
So I turned to Miss Read, whose real name is Dora Jessie Saint. I was surprised to learn she was still alive; her books give the impression of having been written long, long ago. "Quaint" is a word one might use. Her books definitely fall into the "good reads" category; there is little major conflict--mostly character development and interaction. There are a lot of characters, and they reappear from book to book, so you may have to read several books (there are about 30) to get them straight in your mind.
A typical Miss Read book (and one of my favorites) is the gently humorous The School in Thrush Green. The primary school's headmistress and the teacher with whom she shares her house are ready to retire to another village. Why do the real-estate agents keep recommending inappropriate properties, such as abandoned lighthouses? The teacher forms an attachment to a stray cat, while the headmistress dislikes cat. The villagers disagree about the parting gift they will give the retirees. The village restaurant does not want to take lunches over to the eccentric, parsimonious sisters who live next door anymore; why can't they come into the restaurant like everyone else? One of the sisters is a kleptomaniac, but her kleptomania seems limited to the restaurant's baked goods. Their new housekeeper turns out to unsatisfactory.
Almost everything turns out fine in the end.
The Wikipedia article I linked to above indicates that Miss Read's literary ancestors are Barbara Pym and Jane Austen. This comment seams dead on to me. (Using British phrases becomes inevitable if you read a lot of British novels at a sitting.) As with the Kay Scarpetta books, I'd suggest going through the books in chronological order.
The library has plenty of copies of these books in large print and as talking books, by the way.
2 Comments
Actually, it’s called “We need to talk about Kevin”, and fortunately (I think) the library does own it. While I agree it’s a disturbing topic, and not an easy book to read, this is a public library, and not all books need to appeal to everyone to be included in the collection.
You’re right, Amy. I’m not supposed to change blogs after publishing them, but I corrected the title information and toned down my comment on the book. Still, it’s not for anyone with a weak stomach (as I have) or for a reader who worries about her parenting skills (as I do). It’s been haunting me all week.