tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8198415664685235178.post6820931014482481736..comments2023-10-17T07:36:49.126-04:00Comments on Little Wonder's Recommended Reads: Book Review: The GiverLittle Wonder Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03937473248474032197noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8198415664685235178.post-90080343541161462982011-02-27T17:06:46.794-05:002011-02-27T17:06:46.794-05:00+JMJ+
Hmmmm. I guess it's just that if I had...+JMJ+ <br /><br />Hmmmm. I guess it's just that if I had been in Jonas' place (and I <i>was</i> about his age when I first read this book), I would have had tons of questions about the history of the community. Now that I think about it, he kind of lets me down as a character because he doesn't ask them. <br /><br />As for the funky SF issues . . . The reason I buy whatever L'Engle is selling is that she writes as if it could happen to anyone in real life. Some characters have special abilities, but these turn out to be perfectly natural: the universe has always had beings like them, even if our own planet has been relatively blind to the fact. I got a similar sense of "magical realism" from Lowry at the beginning of <i>The Giver</i>, when the setting seems to be a dystopian future of our own world. But our world doesn't have people who can transmit memories through touch: this ability is never explained at all. <br /><br />I look forward to the future post about Jonas and Gabe! =)Enbrethilielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03414765854670926854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8198415664685235178.post-55130636972585842632011-02-26T17:54:05.218-05:002011-02-26T17:54:05.218-05:00Enbrethiliel,
I didn't want to comment on the...Enbrethiliel,<br /><br />I didn't want to comment on the end in my review because that would give the end away. :-) I might write up a post at a later date about Lowry's writing overall, and then I might say more on the subject of Jonas and Gabe's survival...<br /><br />But I will say this on the subject of Lowry's "silence" regarding the history of the community -- I think that it works because the book is from Jonas's perspective. We never find out anything that he does not know -- and he is not at the point yet where he is asking questions like, "How did we come to this?" or "Who decided to transition our society to 'Sameness'?" He has too much to absorb already, at this point in his life. So I think that while I'm curious about those things, I don't need them for the story to work.<br /><br />I agree, though, that the whole mode of memory transition from The Giver to The Receiver is a WIDE open question... that's the "science fiction/fantasy" part of the novel, and I guess I'm just willing to play along and ignore that unexplained phenomenon. I'm not really sure why I'm more willing to go with Lowry's funky Sci-Fi than L'Engle's... but for whatever reason, I am. Oh, well... :-)Little Wonder Laurenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03937473248474032197noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8198415664685235178.post-29338526952369164762011-02-26T15:06:24.245-05:002011-02-26T15:06:24.245-05:00+JMJ+
I also read The Giver as a child and ended...+JMJ+ <br /><br />I also read <i>The Giver</i> as a child and ended up rereading it several times while growing up; but although it should be right up my alley, it still manages not to be one of my favourites. <br /><br />For me, Lowry's silence when it comes to the history of the community--exactly <i>how</i> they got from our world to their world--is a major weakness. Well, okay, it's possible to fill in most of the blanks by ourselves . . . but what about the memory transmission trick which Givers and Receivers use? And how do memories escape (only to be caught again?) if a Receiver dies--or even leaves the community--without passing them on to another? <br /><br />Lowry just left too many things wide open for me, I'm afraid. <br /><br />Lauren, your point about illusions is interesting to me in the light of the ending. Most readers seem to think that Jonas dies at the end. I've actually never thought that. =P I believe he and Gabe make it in the end. But if we're going to read the story as if they don't . . . then the dream/hallucination of the sled and the lights is just another kind of illusion, isn't it? Like the community he has left behind, he's just seeing what he wants to see and not what's real. And so we can ask whether the illusion of having found another community was also worth it.Enbrethilielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03414765854670926854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8198415664685235178.post-19138382441690488742011-02-25T20:52:17.422-05:002011-02-25T20:52:17.422-05:00I love this book!I love this book!Sarah Lydiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01016280070408399423noreply@blogger.com