More on Motherhood & Child Influence

As a follow up to yesterday's post on 'to breed or not' post, I was introduced to "We need to talk about Kevin," through a Denver-based friend of mine.

"It's about a child who goes on a shooting spree at school and about how it is to be the mother of that child. She wrote the book after or while she and her husband were deciding to not have children. She said that she got a significant and very emotional response from women about this issue, thanking her for writing a book in which the female protagonist discusses her misgivings and how she
doesn't like her child.

We Need to Talk About Kevin is about motherhood and the possibility that one's ambivalence about breeding might influence the growth and development of a child. Eva, in her scathingly honest and often witty recollections of her relationship with Franklin, her agonized decision to give up a life of traveling for motherhood, and her painful years with (the truly hideous and apathetic) Kevin, faces the question head on: Am I responsible for what my child has done?"

Identity theory discusses it in detail, including an extensive interview here.