So what is it with Lionel Shriver and mothers?

I recently saw Lionel Shriver speak at literary Festival. Wow. She really is bitter and twisted. But she sure can write. The woman can convey about five different meanings in just a few words. Amazing really.

If you haven't heard about Shriver, she rose to fame a few years ago when her novel, We Need to Talk About Kevin, won the Orange Prize for Fiction. The book plays out every mother's nightmare ... what if you don't bond with your child and he becomes a mass murderer? I suggested it for my mummy book club once ... and I may as well asked them to have Adolf Hitler for dinner. No one wanted it talk about it. They couldn't get past the fact that Shriver wasn't a mother and was writing about something she has no experience of... (aah, but does she?)

So what does Shriver have against mothers? Nothing, she quickly pointed out to the audience when asked. But I can't help but think this isn't so. Shriver is scathing about her own mother. Just read her "freezer" passage in A Perfectly Good Family (chapter 8). It is one of the coldest pictures you could paint of motherhood. She admits that when published the novel caused a huge rift in her family that still remains. Yet she says writing about her parents was a form of love (the ultimate insult would be not to write about them). Writing is therapeutic and I guess like many of us she is just trying to make sense of her her past.

Her unpopularity in some circles is a bit reminiscent of Kate Chopin (The Awakening), an American 19th century writer that was ostracised for writing about taboo topics. In Chopin's case it was talking bluntly about female sexuality. Shriver touches on some very uncomfortable topics (depression, dysfunctional families).

Shriver changed her name when she was a teenager from Margaret Anne to Lionel (in the 70s it was popular for girls to take boys names and she considered herself a tomboy). She says only now she is beginning to understand how this must have hurt her parents. I can't help but think what else the childless Shriver doesn't understand. Having children can be a great eye opener. Suddenly all those stupid things your parents did, well they are not so stupid anymore. At least you can now understand them. And even if you can't, how about a little forgiveness?

Here's the clincher. This bitterness obviously drives her writing. What happens when she gets it out of her system? Does she have nothing to write about or does she channel her talent into something more positive? Am I missing the point?

As for a sequel to We Need To Talk About Kevin. Probably not. She said she spent too much time with Kevin (writing and the aftermath) and has sated her appetite for the serial killer.

Have you read any Shriver books, what do you think?