When We Were Orphans: A Novel
by Kazuo Ishiguro
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Book Reviews of When We Were Orphans: A Novel
Book Review: I thought this book could've been saved...
Summary: 1 Stars
...if there was a surprise reveal, a la A Beautiful Mind, at the end of the book.
I had great hopes for this book when I started it. I love the author and thought the start of the book showed promise, but I lost any connection to the characters and to the story quickly. Christopher, Akira, the barely there not worth it "love" story with Sarah, and the way the narrative was tied up...it was all to over the top and didn't ring true. This was especially true when Christopher returns to Shanghai to solve his parents' disappearance. Return after how much time? It seems unreasonable and doesn't make sense that he believes he'll find them without a problem after so many years. Also, when he leaves Sarah at a pre-appointed rendezvous because he has to find a house his parents may be held in (how long has it been since they were taken and he expects they're in the same house a witness mentioned at the time of the disappearance???), I shook my head in disbelief. This narrative was just too over the top to believe even an ounce. But when Christopher is being led through a poor settlement of houses in search of this house and runs into Akira, I thought this was the most ridiculous book I'd ever read. Then I thought if it was revealed that Christopher was dreaming all of this up (since Ishiguro does allude to him being somewhat strange and out of touch earlier in the novel), it would redeem everything, but alas nothing like that and I was sorely disappointed at the end of this book.
Book Review: Not as good as Remains...
Summary: 3 Stars
When We Were Orphans tells the story of Christopher Banks, a young boy whose parents disappear under mysterious circumstances while they live in Shanghai. When they disappear, the ten-year old Christopher goes back to England to live with an aunt. There in England, the mystery of his parents' disappearance causes Christopher to live in a world of delusion. When he grows up, Christopher works as a private investigator, finally returning to Shanghai several decades later in order to find his parents.
World War II is threatening to destroy Shanghai as the Japanese invade China, and Christopher deludes himself into believing that he can somehow right the world by saving his parents.
The reader, at first believing every world of Christopher's narration, quickly realizes that Christopher does not (and perhaps, cannot) tell the truth. In a truly postmodern narrative, Ishiguro crafts another unreliable narrator, just as convincing and heartbreakingly confused as Stevens in Remains of the Day.
For people who haven't read anything by Ishiguro, I would recommend reading Remains of the Day before delving into When We Were Orphans. The former touches on many of the same themes and issues, but the plot is tighter and less convoluted. However, When We Were Orphans is an intoxicatingly troubling read that never totally resolves itself; readers expecting a coy and satisfying conclusion may well leave disappointed. But that's the trouble with postmodernist narratives.
Book Review: Hey guys, it's a satire!
Summary: 4 Stars
Having read at least a dozen customer reviews of 'Once we were Orphans', I am mystified that no-one sees it as the none-too-subtle political satire that it is. Why does everyone insist on reading this book so literally? Forget about Christopher as unreliable narrator, damaged child, delusional famous detective, etc. Christopher is England, once proud coloniser, now reduced to doing deals with the Communists, the Japanese, whoever, whatever it takes. His parents, mysteriously abducted years before, represent the golden age of colonialism. They have been snuffed out by emerging political forces: the rise of Japan, the internal struggle between Communism and anti-Communism, England's various humiliations in the theatres of war.Akira, his loved/hated childhood friend, represents the formerly humble, yet always troublesome, Japan, who, when the going gets tough after they are reunited in Ishiguro's surreal Shanghai warzone, is a burden, and possibly, a traitor. Christopher sloughs him off without a second thought after being rescued and returned to the British Consulate.
Who is Sarah, his would-be lover, whom he also abandons at a crucial moment? I think she represents other British interests in the Far East that are expendable, even while they are tempting (commerce perhaps?). Christopher's ultimate allegiances are to his parents (political interests), who will serve his interests in the longer term.
Does anyone else agree with this analysis of this intriguing book?
Book Review: Great writing but Disappointing plot
Summary: 3 Stars
I started this book with great expectations. I loved Remains of the Day and here the first half of Orphans was beautifully written and absorbing. So many elements were set up so effectively in this part -- the characterisation, the evocations of childhood and friendship, the foreshadowing of the devastating events to come when the narrator loses his parents under mysterious circumstances at the age of 9.
The last third had some effective chapters, with the narrator entering into a confrontation of his own flawed and denying psyche, in a sense, with the horrific search of finding his parents in the midst of wartorn Shanghei.
Where Ishiguro I think fell apart, in the second half, was by not really tying his characters together; the characters actions and thoughts seem very fragmented from the situation that propels the novel - the disappearance of his parents, and particularly his 'love' situation with a socialite which abruptly ends, and then the absolutely implausible encountering of his childhood friend. I would have liked it if the situations the narrator found himself in was more a direct result of the narrators' OWN actions (or lack thereof). The plot unwinds at the end with a tie-up by his uncle that's again passive and has nothing to do with the narrator's actions throughout the bulk of the book.
So, this book was a disappointment. I still think Ishiguro is a very talented writer, and will definitely dive into his other books.
Book Review: A brilliant study of memory and belief
Summary: 4 Stars
Warning: this book is not what it seems. Ishiguro writes beautifully and his clean, sparse prose lulls one into the perception that he has written a conventional mystery novel with a conventional outcome following conventional plotting. And of course, it can be read on that level albeit with some considerable flaws as has been noted by some reviewers here. However, I suspect that many of the most severe reviews here come from those who never discovered the depth of the protagonist's fantasy world. In fairness, however, in what world, other than a child's mind and comic books, are "detectives" who fight "evil" famous members of society as they solve their "cases".Christopher Banks lives his childhood fantasies well into adulthood, and the story he tells is essentially that fantasy. As an orphan who has lost his parents in a way that remains truly unexplained, Christopher's fantasies are all he has (to the point where he cannot accept classmates memories that don't match with the world he has created in his own mind.) For that matter, it is all that Sarah and Jessica (two other orphans who populate Christopher's real world). He is simply lucky enough to have sufficient funds that he can live that fantasy.
It is in the exploration of the interface between the real world and Christopher's fantasy world that the interest lies in Ishiguro's fable and a brilliant study it is.