BOOK REVIEW OF 'THE GIVER'

BOOK 2 OF 2023

THE GIVER BY LOIS LOWRY

GENRE: DYSTOPIAN/SCI-FI

The Giver by Lois Lowry is the first instalment in this quartet.

The story begins in an unassuming manner with enough hints at a dystopian genre. As the story proceeds you wish ( I wished…) that were were trigger warnings given on various levels. Coming back to that in a while, there is an unreal world out there.

They call themselves a community where—

People live by the rules and follow them no matter what.

People don't ask questions as it's considered rude.

Food is delivered at each doorstep and the boxes collected after meals.

Children go to school , go to mandatory volunteer duties after school and adults go to work.

Utopian much? Not really! The twists and turns comes in waves. Peeling off each layer unravels the dark setup behind the scenes.

Following a concept of 'Sameness', it's revealed that the population is genetically engineered. It's a black and white world where people are deprived of seeing colours...

They don't know what singing and music is!

They don't feel human emotions and go about their lives robotically without questioning. Questioning is out of the question!

The community is taken care of by a group of Elders. Every child born out of an assigned Birthmother is called a New child and a ceremony is held every December to mark a year. Every year the child is given a milestone to upgrade and give up certain privileges.

At twelve they attend their final ceremony and go headlong into training to prepare themselves for adulthood. Jobs are assigned accordingly.

Everything is taken care of…or so we think.

People hold no memories of the past, know nothing about what lies beyond the community dwelling, have no knowledge about rain, snow or even sunshine! They haven't seen animals and birds! It's a climate controlled dwelling with a flat topography.

The Elder called The Giver holds the memories for everyone so that people don't burden themselves with pain and sadness. And now it's time to pass on those memories to our protagonist Jonas who turns 12 and has been assigned as The Receiver of Memories.

The memories unfold dark and disturbing for Jonas as it does for the reader. Ample triggers are in store but I would like to leave it at this and not give away spoilers.

Despite receiving accolades and the prestigious Newbery Award, this book was temporarily banned and was on the list of frequently challenged books. It has met with enough opposition from parents to remove it from school libraries, for obvious reasons.

The second book in the quartet is Gathering Blue.

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Sangeetha Kamath

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