Book Review : The Giver

Title : The Giver

Author : Lois Lowry

Publisher : Harper Collins

ISBN : 978-0-00-726351-6

This is a story of a young lad Jonas, who is eleven now and is quite apprehensive about the upcoming ceremony where all Twelves of the community will be assigned an occupation, a job, a position in the community. Jonas is a member of a 'perfect' community where everything is same, in order, under control, as per the rules in the great rule book - the only book accessible to people of the community. The houses are exactly the same, the dresses of people are alike, each family unit comprises of a mother and a father and they can apply for one male and one female child. The community is unaware of any kind of emotions or feelings - happiness, sadness, sorrow, love, affection, suffering. They have not even heard of things like hills, mountains, snow, sunshine and even colors. This is because long back, the people of this community had chosen 'sameness' for themselves.

Even the terminology in the community is fixed and cannot be changed - children younger than one are called 'newchildren', same age children are 'groupmates', and weak, elderly, diseased or people who break rules three times are being 'released'. There is a set pattern to everything. The children at eight begin their volunteer hours where they are observed by the elders who later assign the children their roles in the community at Twelve. On the crucial day of assignments, Jonas is selected as a new 'Receiver of Memories'. He gets this unique responsibility owing to his intelligence, integrity, courage, wisdom and capacity to see beyond. The elder Receiver becomes the Giver now and needs to pass on the memories of the past, of all the feelings, emotions and truth to Jonas.

While on the journey to receiving memories from the Giver, Jonas as an intelligent student realizes that their 'perfect' world is not so perfect in reality. People have no freedom of any kind - what to wear, what to eat, which profession to chose or even selection of a partner - everything is decided or assigned as part of the community rule.

Through his training as Receiver of Memories, he experiences how there is so much more to the world and to the life which has been completely eradicated from their worlds. After having experienced the best of memories of being loved in a family setup to the painful memories of war and sufferings, Jonas decides that he must do something to bring in the change for himself and for his people. He sets on a journey to the 'elsewhere' land with whatever little reserve of memories he had received from the Giver over one year.

I really liked the subtle way how Lois Lowry described the perfect world yet bringing the feeling of uneasiness about the whole setup. The narrative had a wonderful flow to it but found one thing lacking in it - the Giver never mentions why exactly people chose the 'sameness' for themselves and how it happened. The end is a little mysterious leaving the readers wanting for more. A wonderful and completely out-of-the-box plot and executed with excellence.

Many controversial topics are being touched in the story - infanticide, suicide, euthanasia, sexual arousals (stirrings), concept of surrogating (separate group of females assigned the work of mothering). These issues have made this book a little controversial and I understand that in some US states, this book was banned for some years but now it is part of sixth grade curriculum in some schools. I feel there is a lot of scope of discussion about these issues through this story and good way to understand how young adults feel about the differentness, uniqueness and sameness.

Book Review : Number the Stars

Title : Number the Stars
Author : Lois Lowry

An amazing, sensitive and emotional story about two very dear friends - Annemarie Johansen and Ellen Rosen set against the backdrop of World War II in Denmark. The two girls love to be together but at this time saving life is of prime importance, for which even separation is acceptable. Ellen belonged to the Jewish community and for Jews - Denmark, their own country, their own home for ages was not safe anymore. Nazi soldiers were all over the place and some strict irrational rules were being imposed on the people living in the city - not to use the electricity, no proper availability of food items, just to name a few. In spite of all these, people were continuing with their lives as normally as they possibly could, but one day, the Jewish families were informed that Germans had prepared a list of all Jewish families in the neighborhood and plan to "relocate" them. By now, people were aware of what Germans meant with the word 'relocate'.

Johansen family became instrumental in doing their bit to protect the Rosen's family and ensure that they exit Denmark before Germans reach them so they hide Ellen in their home as their eldest daughter, who had died in a mysterious accident. And they made arrangements to send the Rosen's family to Sweden with the help of Annemarie's uncle Henrik who was a fisherman. In this pursuit, Annemarie found herself in a very crucial situation where she had to use her presence of mind and her inner confidence to make this mission a success.

As the events of the story unfold, we observe Annemarie getting mature, not by years but by the experience. I liked the way author pointed this out so subtly - 'They (Annemarie and her mother) looked at each other for a long time and said nothing. In that moment, with that look, they became equals'. Sometimes adversity manages to bridge all gaps between individuals and that is what gets conveyed through this book.
While witnessing the situations and the sudden changes in her and her dear ones' lives, Annemarie's mind struggles to find answers to many of her doubts and questions, but she understands and later comes to realize the importance of her uncle's simple wisdom - 'It is much easier to be brave if you do not know everything. We know only what we need to know.'

The story very cautiously reveals the fears, apprehensions and uncertainty that were in the minds of each family and more so in the Jew families, without going into the gory details of holocaust and concentration camps. 'Number the Stars' manages to strike the right balance between just appropriate amount of information for the young readers while focusing more on the friendship which cuts across castes, creeds, religions and communities. The beautiful handling of the subject makes it a highly recommended book for 9+ yrs.