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Scientists claim that if you physically punish or otherwise abuse your child, that child will have a higher probability of becoming physically aggressive, cruel, or even criminial as a grown up. But other people contest that it is the inherently bad child that, on the one hand, is more likely to become (or rather: stay) miscreant as grown up and, on the other hand, more likely to be physically punished by its desparate parents.
The question if parental conduct influences a child's character or if it is the other way round lies at the heart of Shrivers novel about Kevin who grows up to kill 11 people in a highschool-shooting. The relation to his mother Eva is rocky right from the beginning and only gets worse. Kevin does not drink his mother's milk, he will not be pacified by her and certainly does not play with her. He ruins everything she holds dear while showing no attachment either to persons or objects. In the course of his childhood and youth there are multiple incidents in which Kevin hurts other children, which culminate in his killing eight co-students, one teacher, his father and his little sister.
Is all this the mother's fault? That is what Shriver’s novel-mother Eva asks herself and which the ending may imply. But although in her afterword the author claims otherwise, I have the impression that from the beginning almost to the end of the novel Kevin is described in a way that puts all the blame on him. He is presented as such an evil child that it is easy to understand how Eva denies him any love at all. The relationship to his father Franklin seems better, but only on first sight: Eva is rightly convinced that Kevin only plays happy family with him and indeed, towards the end of the novel, Kevin himself describes his father as a dupe.
So, according to the novel, the responsibilty clearly lies with Kevin who simply is an evil character.
But: this is a novel, it is fiction. The author herself does not have children because she does not want to. Of course she, too, has every right to write about what forms children’s characters - but how should she know? The Kevin in the novel is definitely a flat character and not really convincing. He is not modelled along the lines of real persons, he is not modelled according to scientific findings. What the novel really tells us is how the relation between children's characters and parental ways are in Shrivener's mind. Therefore, the novel will not give us any relevant insights. It might, however, raise relevant questions or just be entertaining. But beware: reading about Kevin really hurts.
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This is a strange mix between a dictionary, an encyclopedia, and a linguistic history book. Taggart gives explanations on the origins of modern English words. The book is organised by topics, e.g. Fun and Games, Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll or Hi- and Lo-Tech.
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There's a lot of responsibility coming with parenthood. Different people have different concepts of how exactly to cope with this responsibility, but about everyone would agree that Guy Delisle's approach is the bsolute worst. Therefore, the title »Guide to Terrible Parenting« is more than appropriate.
Delisle's has a minimalastic style in drawing but a vivid and rich imagination in texting. The father he depicts in this collection of cartoons is absolutely inept but immensely recognisable and sympethetic.
Apart from telling us how not to be parent, he also has tips on how to teach:
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Paul Auster writes what at first sight seem to be classic detective novels set in the 1940s. All the usual clichees are there - the lone wolf detective, the shabby suroundings, the myterious clients and their enigmatic communications. Still, all the cases develop in an unexpected way: They drag on and on, peetering out and dissolving into nothing. But not before they absorb the detective's life completely, raising questions about identity, truth, and meaning, which are generally left open and unresolved.
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Wer Deutschland lieb haben möchte, kann im Flüchtlingssommer von 2015 das wahre deutsche Sommermärchen sehen. Einmal hat die Kanzlerin das gemacht, was möglicherweise eine pragmatische Notwendigkeit, aber eben auch das moralisch Richtige war: Flüchtende Menschen in Not einfach ins Land gelassen, vielleicht sogar ohne rechtliche Verpflichtung dazu. Und das erstaunlichste: Öffentlichkeit und öffentliche Meinung bis hin zur Bildzeitung folgten ihr auf diesem Kurs. Einen Sommer lang konnte man sich an einem Deutschland mit menschlichem Antlitz ergötzen.
Diese Zeiten sind längst vorbei, und es ist nicht nur die erstarkte afd, die gegen Flüchtlinge und Merkel hetzt, sondern auch Öffentlichkeit, Bildzeitung und selbst ihre eigene CDU finden schon lange nicht mehr gut, was damals Gutes geschehen ist.
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