How To Build A Lighthouse - Kevin Kane

To the Lighthouse

Advantages: ~
Disadvantages: ~

Lighthouse. A little context is probably needed at this point, at least for those who have never heard of Southwold. Nestling on what is almost an island on the north Suffolk coast, bounded by the river Blyth, the sea and Buss Creek, with only one road in and one road out Southwold is one of those towns that has managed to retain its charm without becoming "twee". Several devastating fires throughout its history have resulted in its most recent rebuilding - oh three or so hundred years ago - being based on a plan to provide natural fire-breaks. Wide streets. Open greens. The place wears its age with the comfort of wealth. Many of the houses are grand. Even the old surviving fisher cottages have clearly moved up-market, yet somehow without the pretentiousness that is evident elsewhere. The 'Sailors Reading Room' which so entranced W G ...

hiker 21.04.2006 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of The Blue Lighthouse

Is it too late to talk about Kevin?

Advantages: Gripping writing of a subject that hits close to home
Disadvantages: Haunting

and their daughter, Eva struggles to understand her family, particularly her son, Kevin, and how they all came to their present situation. It is no secret from the start that a tragedy has occurred at the hands of her teenage son, a tragedy from which a family and a community will never fully recover. Retrospectively she tries to comprehend the son of whom she has always been slightly frightened, divorced from emotionally and to determine her own guilt. Had her son been born different, or had she made him that way? Was he unable to love properly because she failed to love him? Shriver explores a philosophical and psychological question that has pervaded society almost from the start, but resonates now as much as ever; are some people born more likely to commit evil than others? She draws Eva in such a way that you are compelled directly into ...

Mountainlilly 17.07.2009 · Read full review
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Review of We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver

I Need To Talk About Kevin

Advantages: Elegantly written, Well researched, Gets you thinking, Compelling narrative
Disadvantages: Not a light read - can be heartbreaking and bleak in places

and uninterested in anything around him to the point where he barely even plays. Eva is driven to distraction by him, no nanny ever manages to handle him for any length of time, while later on, classmates and even teachers display a certain wariness (even fear) of Kevin. While his mother sees this side if him, Franklin cannot - for he is truly in love with his son - a sore sticking point that was to start unravelling their once secure and passionate marriage. Some critics have slated Shriver's novel for depicting an improbable character with almost comic book evil in Kevin, but I think that such comments miss out the fundamental point about this book: what we see, what we only see, is Eva's perspective on the past, not the neutral third-person voice of a disembodied narrator. We have to decide for ourselves throughout the novel how much we believe ...

Collingwood21 21.10.2007 · Read full review
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Review of We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver