Auxiliary Book Club!

Can I join too please?

I read Kevin recently - very emotionally draining - found myself empathising with the mother (scary!).

I'd like to add my vote for the Kite Runner too if that's not being too pushy for a newbie.

Yhey! a book club on a running site how fantastic!! (im so easily pleased!)

This is really wierd, my "real" book club has just chosen The Kite Runner for our next book.

I found Kevin very compelling to read.

yes, compelling is definitely the word!

at times it made quite uncomfortable reading but I guess the author probably intended that

OK, so... Kevin, then...
The first 300 pages were a drag. I felt like putting the book down because it was emotionally difficult to carry on. It became easier in the last 100 pages, I thinbk because K's anger was directed at his classmates rather than his family.

I found Eva completely unlikeable to start with. The style she used to write the letters was so contrived it made me cringe, and her relationship to K was not something I as a parent could understand. That being said, the father was just unlikeable.

However, I did grow to like her by the end of the book. I just felt she had gone through a lot, esp with Celia's murder, and once again as a parent I can relate to her feelings at that time.

All in all, I am still ambivalent about htis book - I can't say I enjoyed reading it, but I'm glad I did (bit like running a marathon...).

I think it is esp good at raising the "nature vs nurture" question, although I'm not sure it offers any answers to it.

Interesting GregW...your thoughts on the fist 100 pages or so are the same reason's why I couldn't get past those first pages. Utter dislike for Eva being a major one. Though, you're better than me for plowing through it, I just don't think I can. Still...might pick it up again another time.

Kick-start for anyone still interested...

Suggest 'Never Let Me Go' by Kazuo Ishiguro.

I'm about a third of the way through Kevin, so thought I'd add some comments here, then see if they changed as I got further on, in light of the comments that it gets better.

I's currently swinging between empathising with Eva, and wondering how a mother could feel that way about a 4 year old (they've just moved house where I am in the book).

What's slightly disturbing me is that I have had similar "unsympathetic" feelings towards people in my life who really deserved compassion and understanding (i.e. why are you ill when I need you to be well, or don't want to change my lifestyle to look after you? type feelings). I don't have kids (yet), but if/when I do, will these feelings come back or will I bond with my child the way I am "supposed" to.

BUT, Eva is writing with hindsight - would her feelings actually have been different at the time, or would her memories be different if "Thursday" hadn't happened.

I also don't like the tone of the letters, because I don't think anyone would write in that style to someone who they had had such a close relationship with in the past. If she were writing to a therapist, or writing for a newspaper, maybe. I don't think the author has actually thought about how someone would actually feel in Eva's situation, which is probably why she comes across as being so cold. She seems to "know" things (which helps the story, I suppose), where in "real life" there would be panic, indecision, fear, lack of understanding.


In saying that, I am finding that I am enjoying it, in so far as when I go to bed really tired, I'll still pick it up and read a few pages. I tend not to with books I am not enjoying.


Next installment in a couple of weeks........