We Need to Talk About Kevin

by Lionel Shriver

So I can see how a woman who’d long slept restlessly on peas might have difficulty lying on an anvil.

Anxiety Over the small = peas. Death of daughter is anvil

parents are like governments: We maintain our authority through the threat, overt or implicit, of physical force.

This dual role of scapegoat and savior was downright messianic,

Teaching