When We Were Orphans
by:
John Lee (author)
Kazuo Ishiguro (author)
Format: audiobook
ISBN:
9780694523849 (0694523844)
Publish date: September 19th 2000
Publisher: HarperAudio
Minutes: 11
Edition language: English
Category:
Novels,
Literature,
European Literature,
British Literature,
Cultural,
Book Club,
Historical Fiction,
Literary Fiction,
Mystery,
Contemporary,
China,
Fiction
Ishiguro's prize-winning schtick is the unreliable narrator, but this novel's protagonist strays from "unreliable" to "unbelievably dimwitted" far too often. It seems that the entire story could be unwritten had the main character possessed any sort of grasp on reality, his own emotions, or human so...
I love Ishiguro usually, but I found this very difficult to like. The characters were too cold and the whole thing seemed rather forced. Disappointing.
4.5 stars, and I would have loved to give it a full, loving, fat 5, but I couldn't. I loved this book. First thing that attracted me to it was the title. For me it has a special resonance and I really longed to see what could be between the pages of such a greatly named book. I realized from the fir...
a strong work. according to most histories I have read of the period, attitudes towards the Japanese were not so positive as the protagonist seems to unconsciously express. (we live in more accepting, liberal times). so in that sense, the writer is unconsciously mimicking 1990s British or US feeling...
Ishiguro creates characters who think intensely about what they think and feel, but never seem to really know themselves. That, plus the dreamy, almost surreal plotting, where you never quite know what's real, and what's a dream, a fantasy, a hallucination, an alternate reality (like Murakami, only...
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