3.47 AVERAGE


4.5⭐️
emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

This is my third Ishiguro book in quick succession. Maybe it was a book too far, as I didn't enjoy this one anywhere near as much as the first two.

When We Were Orphans is the tale of Christopher Banks whose parents disappeared while they were living in Shanghai. Brought up by his Aunt in England, he grows up to be a celebrated detective. Yet, when he returns to a war torn Shanghai with a mission to finally locate his parents devastating truths are revealed. 

This is a slow, mannered book. The narrative style reflects an English gentleman from the 1930s. This can be a little grating at times. The return to Shanghai doesn't totally work either, I could never work out how he was going to save the whole country simply by locating his parents. Maybe, I missed something.

At heart this is a good novel though. It's reminiscent of the old Sherlock Holmes tales, the love story is well developed, while the revelations at the end did take me by surprise. As an exercise in style the book is a huge success. It must have required a large amount of discipline to write the entire novel in this way. While I don't see myself reading it again, I am pleased to have spent a few days in it's world. 

At first, it's an enigmatic traversal of the main charachter's past. Then, it is a childish fantasy-like view on the pursuit of these memories with the war only on the skirt as something of a backrgound. At the end, there is stumbling upon the hard adult reality and its often belligerent, gloomy nature. The final is sadly sweet. Somehow, I could put up with such mood changing only through the last pages.

susansanders's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 5%

Nope. Not for me. I hate this guy already

A lot of the same themes as "The Remains of the Day," but a more adventurous plot. Very pleasant to read and definitely recommended!

The middle felt rushed and frantic, the ending hurried but a likeable character.

I was quite dissapointed with this book. I read Klara and the Sun which I loved and I also read Never let me go which became one of my favorite books, so when I saw this in a book fair I had high hopes that this story would be an intriguing read. I liked it at first, I liked how Christopher was an unreliable narrator and that this was a sort of crime/thriller mix with literary fiction. However I was waiting for a drop, a turn of events which would shed light on everything confusing with this book, but there wasn’t anything like that. Some things became clear, as it did to Chistopher too, but at the end, I didn’t know what was the point in reading a story like this. But it was okay, it had some interesting thoughts in it, so it’s a 2,5⭐️ for me.
adventurous dark informative reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
slow-paced