We Need to Talk about "We Need to Talk about Kevin"

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This was a great novel on many levels. Although some of the characters' behavior seemed unrealistic, it was essentially necessary for the plot to be carried out as intended; a frustrating but I guess unavoidable reality. But here's a detail that I wholly admired and would be easy to overlook.

The author wanted to give the troubled teenage boy a physical appearance that would be off-putting and strange. It doesn't work to make him ugly because that's too objective, too logical a reason to feel an aversion to him. The kid has to emanate something that makes people uncomfortable without knowing why, make them feel a subtle disturbance in the psychic atmosphere.

The kid---and the author too---know that having him dress in all black is hackneyed, and oversized clothes would be too urban and common. So the author has him adopt a fashion of wearing clothes that are slightly too small for him. The pants are always too short. The t-shirts hug his torso tightly. The bottoms of his shirt ride up and show an uncomfortable amount of skin. This is not a dorky kid; it's more of a punk vibe, and the kid enjoys the discomfort his body creates in his mother and neighbors and other students. I thought this was a brilliant touch---a really clever solution to a technical challenge in character development.
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