When We Were Orphans

Rating:
Summary: Remains of the Day ---this was NOT
Review: As I was interested in this book from a NPR review that I heard on the way to work one morning and purchased it on that basis, I was extremely disappointed when I completed the read. Better time could have been spent doing a variety of other things.... I enjoy the intricacies of English culture/life as much as the next reader but find it unhelpful when it is used as filler and does not appreciably add to the story line. I kept reading on waiting for the plot to improve and for some unusual chain of events to reveal some insight that would make the torture of what I had been laboring through worth the struggle...it never happened and by the time I suffered through the end of this weak but complex tale, I was assured that it will be my last effort with this author as life is TOO SHORT to waste it on drivel...

Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: Like many of the others who have reviewed this novel I adored Remains of the Day, which is somewhere near the top of my 50 favorite books of all time. The books have similar themes - an isolated man who misses all life's cues and clues. Where they differ is that When We Were Orphans is both thoroughly tedious and quite preposterous. I notice that most people click that a review has been helpful when that review is positive. Fair enough. Don't take my word for it. But do at least try to borrow the book from the library rather than invest any money in it.

Rating:
Summary: Ishiguro loses his way...
Review: What a disappointment! After reading Remains of the Day, I couldn't wait to read this lastest novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. When We Were Orphans doesn't begin to approach the quality of Remains of the Day. While it tries to be a detective novel, When We Were Orphans fails even at that. Instead, it details the pathetic life of a boy (he stays a boy even as a man) whose parents made a mess of their lives. At the age of nine, Christopher Banks finds himself uprooted from Shanghai, the only home he has known. Because he loses both parents through mysterious circumstances, he is packed off to England to live with his aunt. As an adult, Banks becomes a detective and weaves a fantasy about the circumstances of his parents' disappearance. This fantasy follows much the same type of storyline that he pursued in play when he was a boy in China. At the end of this book, this fantasy becomes entirely unbelievable to the reader. Finally, even Ishiguro tires of it and wraps up the story in a few pages. He jars Banks into reality with the true story of his parents' demise. The reader will be glad, too, to be jarred awake as this plodding and dull novel finally comes to an end.

Rating:
Summary: When We Were Orphans
Review: "When We Were Orphans" is passionless. My sister and I both received the detective novel for the holidays, and when we discussed it over lunch the other day, I discovered that I was not alone in my confusion about key plot points and storytelling devices - and my lack of empathy and sympathy for its protagonist. I always break the binding of books with a desire to love them - not find fault in them. I do not often feel as dissatisfied as I did while reading and after finishing "When We Were Orphans".

Rating:
Summary: The emperor has no clothes
Review: If this book were written by anyone other than Kazuo Isagura, editors would have covered the pages with scrawled notes like "inconsistant," or "what??" or "whose style is this supposed to be?" and sent the manuscript back to him with "FIX THIS" written large in red ink. If I told you the plot of "When We Were Orphans" you would probably do as I did and run out to buy it. You can call "When We Were Orphans" great or god-awful, and you could probably back up your argument either way.

It has a terrific plot. It is just very hard to find. The characters are so remote and unemotional that they remind you of those dreams you have when you've slept too long. Suspense builds when Christopher Banks, the main character, returns to Shanghai and everyone thinks he's about to rescue the parents who vanished twenty years before. Why do they think this? Why does Banks behave as if he also expects to find them after all this time? The novel then swings into full-on realistic mode with Banks searching through buildings shattered by bombs as the Japanese army advances on Shanghai.

I'm one of the few who actually prefered the weird "The Unconsoled" to the hallowed "Remains of the Day." The surreal landscape of the former was interesting until it became frustrating, annoying, and finally, dull. "Orphans" suffers from much of the same irritations. Parts of it take off with terrific writing and blazing images, only to be shanghaied (sorry) by some pretentious experiment in something. I did finish the book but felt like I'd been had.

Rating:
Summary: Tempering the Unconsoled
Review: A very good book, nominally about a detective's search for his long-lost (abducted) parents, but actually, in true Ishiguro fashion, about the malleability of the past, the irresistibility of momentary whims, and the disjuncture between a man's subjective world and the course of events unfolding around him. In this last respect, the book is more like Ishiguro's Artist of the Floating World, set against the backdrop of post-WWII Japan, than The Unconsoled, which might as well be set in Oz, for there IS an objective reality here, and I was relieved when it ultimately reasserted itself -- the unrelenting surrealism of The Unconsoled not being something that should be repeated. At the same time, I am among those who found The Unconsoled to be the most brilliant of works, and consider When We Were Orphans a tentative if necessary foray into a different type of story-line. Ultimately it will be The Unconsoled that I will read again and again, because my fascination with that book is so unrelated to how it ended, and because Ishiguro's outlandish creativity flowered more completely in that longer, less inhibited work.

Rating:
Summary: Have Patience
Review: I find it difficult to believe that anyone could call this book an "interesting failure" or claim that reading When We Were Orphans amounts to torture- the reviewer who claims simply to give the book time is on the mark. Like all Ishiguro books, this one takes about 50 pages to get one's attention, and, after that point, becomes difficult to put down. Ishiguro is an immensely talented writer who has a knack for crafting complex characters and enjoyable plots, and in When We Were Orphans he outdoes himself: the settings of pre-WWII London and Shanghai are perfectly realized, and Christopher Banks is the most intriguing narrator created by Ishiguro since Stevens in Remains of the Day. Ishiguro manages to write both with the technique of a thouroughly modern writer, and the language of a pre-war British aristocrat; the novel is unmistakably British, but makes liberal use of flashbacks and openly questions Banks's reliability as a narrator. I expected this attempt at the detective story genre to be stale and unexciting, and while the plot as a whole is not without its flaws (Ishiguro creates 200 pages of brilliance only to bring the story to a slightly disappointing climax), the book is enjoyable and quite readable as a whole, and has an outstanding ending. While When We Were Orphans is not the best work Ishiguro has done, it stands out as one of the best novels of 2000, and will reward the reader who simply has the patience to let the plot develop.

Rating:
Summary: An example of British arrogance
Review: If you pick up this book because of the reputation of this author based on his prior works, please read this review. I want to share my experience so people don't have to go through the same disappointment I had on this one. The story happened in Shanghai and London in the 30's to 40's. Although the author has collected much depiction of lives then and there, he has failed to exercise logic and common sense in developing his storylines, especially toward the ending of the book.

For example, the main character of the book, a famous detective from London, went back to Shanghai to solve the mysterious disappearance of his parents that happened nearly 20 years ago. He also expected to "solve the problems in Shanghai", as if him along represents utmost power and justice for the world. With the background set in the war-time Shanghai, isn't it absurd that he would get any attention and support from the British government, and the Chinese police force in the middle of a blood bath? Why would they care about this private detective and his aged case while so many lives were endangered, and bombs flying around? But the author continued to build his dreamy storyline with something I can only call arrogance, which totally ignored the relevance and significance of the background. This book is created in a most absurd and illogical setting that makes finishing it quite a painful experience.

Rating:
Summary: disappointed INDEED
Review: The beginning is interesting and promising. The childhood in Shanhai describtion is detailed and inspiring. It was great and I was looking forward to see how all developes, being patient and coping with the time elopes. But than suddenly all clushes and becomes indeed a big mess (as the reviewer before me mentioned). The plot loses its credibility. It does not feel like surrealistic to me. It just feels like the author lets us down and the book loses its integrity. I just felt sorry for the time spent reading this stupid novel.

Rating:
Summary: Most disapointing
Review: I have never written a review before but felt compelled, in this case, in the hope of sparing someone else the torture of this book. The storyline becomes more preposterous as it progresses culminating in the last quarter of the book in a mishmash that seems to be either a dream or a hallucination. I forced myself to finish it since, after all, it is a mistery and I wanted to know the ending. However Ishiguro seems to insist that all is real by transitioning to a believable (albeit very disapointing) ending. In effect, he appears to be saying: "that's my story and I am sticking to it". When I finally put the book down, I felt I had been cheated of the time it took to read it.