Stephen K. (havan) reviewed on 10/8/2011 + 138 more book reviews

I generally have trouble with dystopian fiction and put this one off for some time.

Yet, when I started it, it was strangely compelling. In many ways it turns the genre inside out. In the the overbearing society viewed in 1984 Big Brother was everywhere and wanted to know everything. Here we have a society that wants to know nothing. In many ways this willful ignorance is even more chilling. It's certainly presented in such a way that you can't really condemn the people who keep it going. They don't know any better. Somehow that makes it even more problematic.

While I was reminded of 1984 at first, other passages had me recalling Logan's Run and even the movie Soylent Green.

I was actually surprised when the term love (the whole family at christmas scene)came up as the thing that the Giver disclosed but which the new reciever couldn't share with his family.

The concept of sameness is something that I'm now going to be conidering for months and the to some degree my perceptions
will never be the same.

I've sometimes considered what would make for the perfect book. Among the criteria that I've come up with are characters that I care about and an epiphany generating idea. This book has both of those criteria nailed.

It's been discussed that it's unclear whether Jonas lives or dies at the end of the book. The author says that she left this purposefully vague and yet, we do care. While either ending could still be construed as a happy ending, we really care about the characters by this time.

And yet either way the people of the community get memories back, no? And the results of that would certainly make for an interesting sequal but never as interesting as this initial book was.

In addition to the complex questions I'll now be debating about the joys of diversity and the sorrows associated with freedom I'll be wondering...What does the giver mean when he says that Rosemary is his daughter? Since all births are are sort of anonymous He might have been referring to raising her or maybe she's just his spiritual daughter. After all among the most precious things that we teach our children are our values, no?

If you haven't yet, you really should read this book. Simply reading it may not make you a better person, but honestly contemplating the questions it raises sure will.

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