Much as his heinous crime, and what he did to all those innocent people, reduced me to tears, so, to, did this latest biography of him.
The author, Asne Seierstad tells us "................. his mother, a paranoid schizophrenic, as was HER mother, says that whilst in the womb "It's as if he kicks me almost on purpose, to torment." She couldn't handle seven days a week him so farmed him out to a young couple at weekends with the request that Anders be allowed to touch his "weekend" father's penis because having no regular father figure it was important for his sexuality. From the start, young Breivik appears to have been preternaturally unlovable.....................he took no joy in life,with no spontaneity and no capacity for empathy............."Aggressive and nasty with it" read his case notes...............He had no friends". And so it goes on.
Are we to be surprised at the result? As the author says "............his childhood might have been specially designed to create an adult monster." Had that been so, as an exercise/experiment, I can only believe it to have been a HUGE success.