Author Q and A: Who Is Responsible For Teen Crimes?
Nov. 26 -- Good Morning America's latest book club selection is We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver, which tells the story of a teen who goes on a killing spree at his high school.
The question of who is to blame for teenage atrocity tortures the book's narrator, Eva Khatchadourian, whose son, Kevin, commits the murders and ends up in a facility for juvenile offenders.
The novel raises the issue of whether parents are responsible for their children's actions. Do those who commit heinous crimes do so because of something innate or is it because of their environment? Are parents to blame when teens turn into criminals?
Author Lionel Shriver covered some of these questions in an online Q & A, with Good Morning America viewers who have read We Need to Talk About Kevin.
Read an excerpt of We Need to Talk About Kevin and take a look at the following transcript of her online Q & A.
Question: Hi Lionel! I am the founder of the Masters Book Club, which recommended your novel to GMA! We chose your book because of your wonderful writing style, while talking of issues of today. We loved the language, and the emotions of the novel. I, of course, loved the book! I am wondering, how did you come up with the idea to write the book? When you started writing, did you know how the end would turn out ? Who did you base the character of Eva on? She was so strong, yet so weak! I almost see myself as Eva in a way, but give her way more credit than any situation I would encounter like that! Being a teacher, I don't know if I feel Eva and Franklin were to blame, but in ways I do feel they were to blame. It's such a profound book. We are so excited for you to be part of the "Read This!" book club, and we are so happy we could share this with you! Melissa Svoboda of the Masters Book Club.
— Melissa Wauconda, Illinois
Answer:: Hi, Melissa. I'm delighted you became so engrossed by Kevin, and I owe your book club a debt; I take the "Read This!" selection as a great compliment. You raise some key questions. I got the idea for this novel when I was 42, childless, in a stable long-term relationship, and trying to decide whether to bite the bullet and have a kid. And this was the same year that all those news reports started coming in, sometimes weeks or days apart, about school murder rampages. I found myself taking a personal dislike to the killers. So I started wondering: what if you felt that same personal dislike, but for your own son? As I wrote the novel, I used it to explore my misgivings about becoming a mother. What was I so afraid of? I grew to appreciate that there was a whole lot to fear in parenthood. Ever since completing the book I've admired people who, all too aware of how much can go wrong, still willingly take the risk and have children. Ultimately I concluded that I was too selfish, and too much of a coward, to become a mother. I'm surely one of those women who shouldn't have a child; I'm not cut out for it. But I am truly grateful to the women — and men — who devote so much time and energy to raising the next generation. I did begin the novel with foreknowledge of the ending. All novelists don't work this way, but I almost always know my endings before I write the first page. In this case, it was useful to be able to plant clues, and prepare for the ending, without, I hope, giving the game away.My narrator Eva was based not only on myself, but on any number of other women I know who share my relation to motherhood. You put your finger on it: Eva is strong professionally, and has a fierce sense of herself. Yet she is weak in other respects — not naturally very generous, and terrified of letting her borders bleed in the way that parenthood demands. It takes a certain kind of power to put yourself second to someone else, and a certain kind of self-possession to give yourself freely away. I regard myself as having this same weakness, and I rue it. Lastly, as for blame, you and I see eye to eye. That is, Kevin's murderousness both is and is not his parents' fault. I think culpability in those real-life school shootings is complicated, so I saw no reason to make it black-and-white in fiction; simple finger-pointing can be satisfying, because you have your "answer" as to why this terrible thing has happened, but what good is it, when the answer is a lie?
Question: I am a part of the Master's Book Club who recommended this book to GMA. First I would like to give you the credit you deserve for a well-written book, our book club loved it! One of the many questions that continued to pop into my head is, "How is it that Eva and Kevin had such a disconnection from the beginning?" Even as a baby he knew how to push her buttons. As a teacher I kept wondering if I would be able to identify such a troubled child like Kevin. The way that Kevin was described, I would consider him as being "different." Is there something that I could have done to help him or to get him to express his feelings? How is that Franklin was so naive in this whole thing? Or did he really know, but didn't want to admit it? I really felt sorry for Eva right from the start. She wanted a child, a child to carry her name, and look what she got. She hoped that a second child would make things better, and sadly it just made things worse for herself and her daughter. Everyone suffered here. What was it that bothered Kevin that made him take out his anger on his mother and change her life forever? Only once was there a sense of a connection between the two. When he offered her a computer virus and she had already put it on her computer. Even though she hated what he did to her, she was loyal to her child and continued to visit him. Does she even love him as a child or to simply show that she would be loyal to her child because he is her child? When she asked him why he did it, I was hoping he would have given her an answer. Is there an answer? Again, an excellent book, and our book club was so happy to be able to share your book with the GMA viewers. We hope that you and your book get the attention you deserve. — Miriam RodriguezFox Lake, Illinois
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