When We Were Orphans: Kazuo Ishiguro

I actually brought and read this book for a course I take and Uni, not as a pleasure read. That said, I really enjoyed reading it in preparation for my class, I found the novel engaging, interesting, and different in a very quirky way. However, it was only after going through the book in class that I really understood and appreciated just how intricate the novel really is. I found it a very good read, but getting the best out of it required some effort. There's a lot of very brilliant aspects to the book I only noticed or digested after it had been pointed out me, had I not had a class on it, they might very well have eluded me.

I am currently working my way through all Kazuo Ishiguro's bookstand while I certainly enjoyed "When We Were Orphans', it did not have quite the same strengths as the previous books had had. But don't let me put you off"

This is a real curiosity to say the least. I liken it to Deckens’s masterpiece as it deals with masks of a kind, or to be more precise, the gross misconception of the originating past. I think I see what he was trying to do, though I don’t feel he succeeded. For that reason this is not one of his better novels, though still an absorbing read. The odd duff note in a recital never harmed a great pianist; enough said.

The book was amazing. No question there. Slightly fever-dream-esque towards the end but then I don't think he does anything unintentionally. Only annoying thing was the actual book was missing the first 7 pages.

The protagonist of Kazuo Ishiguro's 'When We Were Orphans' is Christopher Banks, who relates his own story to the reader and tells of his childhood in Shanghai in the early nineteen hundreds, where his father is employed by a company involved with the opium trade and where his mother's strong and vociferous opposition to that trade causes problems within the family and further afield. When one day his father leaves the house, never to return, and his mother also disappears shortly afterwards, Christopher is sent to an aunt in England where he attends boarding school and then Cambridge. Keen from a young age to work as a detective, Christopher's ambitions are realised and he becomes a famous private investigator whose reputation is known at home and abroad. Convinced that his parents were kidnapped and are still alive, Christopher intends to use his detection skills to find them, but it is not until he meets Sarah Hemmings, a young woman to whom he is attracted, and she later travels out to Shanghai, that Christopher is galvanized into action and he too arrives in Shanghai, intent on discovering his parents whereabouts. However, it is now 1937 and China is embroiled in the Second Sino-Japanese War, a situation that makes Christopher's quest even more difficult. But were Christopher's parents actually kidnapped? And could they still be alive and in Shanghai after all these years? Or is Christopher deluding himself and the reader? An unusual and involving story which moves back and forth in time and one that is made all the more involving by the first-person narration and a narrator whose reliability decreases as the story progresses. Initially the reader (or this one, anyhow) accepts Christopher's version of events, but when parts of the plot become implausible, we have to question the reliability of Christopher's memories and wonder about his psychological state of mind. His belief that his parents are still being held in captivity and have been incarcerated in the same building for decades, indicates to the reader that other parts of Christopher's story have been shaped by his distorted vision of the truth and there are other events (including his meeting up with an old childhood friend in the midst of a conflict) that are not entirely convincing and only highlight Christopher's loss of grip on reality - but to discuss this further would reveal too much for those who have yet to read the book. I listened to the audio version of this novel, deftly narrated by the actor Michael Maloney, and was drawn into Christopher's story as soon as I began listening, and although this was not an entirely satisfying read, and by the end of the novel there is much that the reader still does not know about Christopher, I was absorbed from beginning to end. 4 Stars.

As with many of his other works, KI explores the power, intricacies and fallibilities of memory in When We Were Orphans. The first two thirds of this novel is up there with some of KI’s best work - his prose is both restrained and elaborate and the reader is always left pondering what is being implied beyond the surface. With KI that which is left unsaid by characters is often more significant than what is actually spoken - he communicates both the power of language and also how language can be used to distort reality. That said, the final third of the novel loses its way. It becomes almost cliched with the tension being ramped up as the lead character attempts to discover answers to questions he has spent years seeking to discover. Ultimately the answers that are discovered are shrouded in doubt and this seems to be the key message of the novel - memory is unreliable and there are several versions of truth. This central premise is one which is interesting and KI has artfully explored previously; however, here it feels forced, rushed and perhaps a little contrived. I felt like the the book needed another two hundred pages to fully flesh out its ideas but no doubt KI’s published insisted it be around the 300 page mark as most modern novels are.

A flowing read with a persistent feeling that something is about to happen...

I changed my opinion of this book as I read through to the end. If it hadn't been a choice for my book group I would have abandoned it in the first fifth. It would require endless spoilers to explain. My advice is to persevere until you get to the search through war torn Shanghai for Christopher Bank's parents. Devoid of amateur psychology Ishiguro explores the impact of childhood trauma on adults' coping strategies

Forse il più sentito e difficile libro di Ishiguro. Va letto lentamente, assaporando ogni frase. Sembra quasi un thriller ma in realtà è una storia di rivisitazione dell'infanzia e uno spaccato di vita nella Cina pre maoista. Bellissimo!

Ich hatte bisher lediglich Ishiguros grandiosen Roman "Never Let Me Go" gelesen und war gespannt auf die Lektüre, ohne irgendeine Vorstellung davon zu haben, was mich erwarten würde. "When We Were Orphans" hat mich tatsächlich genauso weggeblasen. Die unnachahmliche Albtraumhaftigkeit, die surreale Atmosphäre, der dunkle Abgrund, in den die Protagonisten unausweichlich gezogen werden, zeichnet beide Bücher gleichermaßen aus. Kazuo Ishiguro ist für mich ein phantatstischer Erzähler, der in pseudohistorischen Parallelwelten absurde, den Protagonisten selbst aber völlig normal und folgerichtig erscheinende, Ereignisketten penibel realistisch schildert und einen subtilen Horror kreiert, der süchtig macht. Die aus Zeit und Raum gefallene internationale Siedlung im opiumsüchtigen Schanghai des frühen 20. Jahrhundert liefert die optimale Folie für "When We Were Orphans", diese wahnhafte Detektivgeschichte, in der die Genialität des Detektivs immer nur behauptet, aber nie wirklich nachvollziehbar oder greifbar wird. Ishiguros spät- und postkoloniale Sherlock-Holmes-Figur geistert wie Friedrich Glausers Fahnder Studer durch ein undurchdringliches und furchteinflößendes Dunkel.

Written in fluent style, with little breathing space, the storyline keeps the reader engrossed. Yet many an issue remains as regards logic and rationality of behaviour on the part of the actors in the story, chiefly, the protagonist! The author uses chance rendezvous to get the characters meet at unexpected spots, which, in my view weakens the reliability of the ‘facts’ of the story in that it starts appearing untrue, unrealistic. In progressive writing, emphasis ought to be on reality of the world ‘as it is’ or ‘as it ought to be’; that is the purpose of any ‘literature’! Yet the spotlight on opium wars and the horrific condition of human beings in China and Japan during that time span speaks volumes of the civilisation and its ongoing journey.

Chegou em depressa e tudo em ordem, bem embalado

Wow. What a wonderful read. This is the first book I have read by this author and I was blown away by this book on so many levels. The story begins by detailing the early life of a British expat family living in Shanghai in the early pre-ww 2 years. The relationship between the young Christopher Banks (the son) and his best friend and neighbour, Akira, who is Japanese, is beautifully told. When Christopher is 10, he is left orphaned as first his father and then his mother disappears. After returning to the UK and growing up he returns to Shanghai to discover what happened to his parents. I will not reveal more details as it will spoil the story. Suffice it to say, this book may well be one of the best I have read or will read for a few reasons. First, the prose is elegant and beautiful and secondly, the story whilst sad in many respects has so many life lessons in hope for the future. The emotional depth of the characters and their world-view amidst war and suffering is moving. The deeper motifs of the role of colonialism, greed, cultural differences are wonderfully and sensitively handled and thought-provoking. Definitely 5 stars