|
His Mother's Son
The Genesis of His Mother's Son
His Mother's Son, a book about the aftermath of violence,
was inspired by event s that happened shortly after I moved to Eugene
in 1998. There was a school shooting in the adjacent town. A 15-year
old boy shot his parents then went to school and shot a number of
others, killing two. These events are shocking when they happen
anywhere, but when they happen nearby they get under your skin and
become part of your own personal history.
At the time of these shootings my own son was 6 years old –
it was the spring before he would start first grade. As people were
debating in the press about what drove this boy to kill, I was watching
my own son closely for signs of incipient violence. Like most small
boys he sometimes hit other kids or threw things or had tantrums.
And I kept asking myself: Was he more violent than the other kids,
or was this the same boyish behavior my gentle husband had engaged
in at this age?
Again and again throughout that summer, I talked to other mothers
of sons about my son's age – boys at that critical age when
they are moving more fully into the social world, but they're not
fully socialized – and again and again I learned that we all
harbored the same fears, fears that our children could be victims
of violence, yes, but also that they could be perpetrators. How
could you tell for sure? What could you do about it? That was my
first obsession.
Then there was Obsession #2. The boy who did the shooting had a
sister who was away at college at the time, and my husband and I
used to speculate about what it would be like to return home to
such destruction, perpetrated by a family member. How could one
go on living? How do people in such situations manage?
Before I knew it, those two obsessions had merged and given birth
to a character – and an entire novel.
|
