We Need to Talk About Kevin. Yes we do, I’m afraid. You may have been (like me, for many years) avoiding reading this novel by Lionel Shriver, ducking away from discussions and avoiding reviews, having got wind of the gist of the story through the mass media.

To summarise the book, We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver is written in the form of letters penned by Eva Khatchadourian to her estranged husband Franklin. These missives form a chronological examination of her life before and after the entrance of their son Kevin into their lives (or perhaps, more accurately, the invasion), and they follow the painful path through his childhood, dissecting the family relationships that shape his development along the way. There is no secret about the main event. Kevin, at the tender and cleverly calculated age of 15 years and 362 days, commits mass murder in his school gym.

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“Choice is how we go from who we are today to who we want to be tomorrow.”

Most people likely do not know Sheena Iyengar. However it is likely that you know about her famed “jam study.” In this study she had a tasting table at a grocery store with either 24 varieties of jam, 6 varieties, or only gourmet jam. Although the larger display was able to attract more customers, the customers from the smaller selection were 10 times more likely to purchase jam. This study stood in contrast to the assumption of retailers that more choice is better.

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