We Need to Talk About Kevin

by Lionel Shriver

Only a country that feels invulnerable can afford political turmoil as entertainment.

After all, now that children don’t till your fields or take you in when you’re incontinent, there is no sensible reason to have them,

How lucky we are, when we’re spared what we think we want!

So total was my own immersion in the world of other short people that my memories before about the age of twelve are largely depopulated of adults.