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.

Comments

HOME AND HIBERNATION

And out of nowhere came this madness to wreck mayhem in my already topsy turvy world! Tickets back to Singapore were initially booked on the Chennai transit (why of all the cities?) Because of the shortest layover I could muster, given my still delicate health conditions and which was never even an intentional choice in all my 23 years of travel to and from Singapore. This had to be it even though I was on unfamiliar grounds. But Luck seemed to have a mind of it's own and turned its back on me when Fenjal decided to crash bang in the middle of orderly events, a day before my intended day of travel. When destiny's favorite child was shielded by Baba and his blessings, even Luck had to bow down and retreat in haste. **** Roused from my siesta with a sense of a peculiar dimness and chill , a far cry from the usually sunny and blinding brightness of humid Mangalore, I couldn't help but have that niggling feeling at the back of my mind. Checking on the flight updates for IXE-M...

IRONCLAD

I trudged through withered bracken and the frosted winter parade As ice-storms swept across a barren, icicle'd glade A hushed midnight and the gloomy woods were bathed in a dull pallor of the gibbous moon Melodies lamented and moaned an endless, melancholic tune ‘Twas a lone walk through pastures of wilted blooms Solitude was a friend in the summers of honey breath in the deep green woods Swept away by the currents or blown away by the torrents As twilight lazily rested on hillocks and in the amaranthine dells Like a laden cloud I cascaded down when the load was a dead weight I had gathered pieces of myself and strung them together with a parched wreath Pensive was the boon of listening to rumbling whispers Like a dimpling stream I flowed and carved my own trails Like the ocean arose and crashed to write my own fate, Letting the sun guide my way and the moon shine on my rugged path Now I ask all the pulsing stars to sing of my struggles, The forests to hum...

SECOND LIFE SECOND BIRTHDAY

I finally muster the energy, the grit and the emotional embrace to write about it. When life socked the daylights out of me in ways that I never imagined, I looked on the upside of it as a divine intervention and a another miracle to add to my list in this year 2024 which went down the memory highway full throttle ahead. July 7, Dear Diary is a day which left a distinct mark. A day when my father had a coronary follow up and I not only went along, but also had a check up done for myself. This was a couple of days after my visit to Sai Mandir where Sai Baba guided me to go for a cardiogram. A strong inner voice, authoritative yet kind, a heightened intuition, call it what I may, rang in a manner that couldn't be ignored. That said and done, I had a consultation with my father's doc who did my ECG and ECHO. Minutes flew by in deafening silence when he finally finished the tests and to my horror bluntly revealed that I have an ASD. A 38mm hole in my heart. I was advised to go f...

SAPPHIRE POOLS (DAY 3, POST 1)

Glinting sunlight off jeweled pools of sapphire Shimmering in the vast aridness of coppery fire Fringed with a viridescent canopy of trees fig and fronds of palm A sanctuary for birds and animals to splash about, it's a soothing balm Scorched and parched, my soles trudge on the sun baked grains Seeking respite from the bleeding crimson fireball, stranded I remain Mounting sand dunes, slipping, tumbling, sinking Scraped and raw, peeling sunburnt skin Veils of illusion lifts from fleeting dreams and hollow shine Fading hues of paradise around reduced to shriveled creepers and withering vines Imperial silver puddles on blazing bronze sand Deceived again by the phantom of the parched land Visions and charms swirl like a mist under a chrome moon Conjuring sprites of the desert weave mirages of oasis and lagoons Sailing across a barren horizon are walls of crystal waves No water lilies and wild roses unfurl under these mystic skies. ©️ Sangeetha Kamath Pic Courtesy: Pixabay

TULIP-O'-PURPLE

TULIP-O'-PURPLE The flower you sent me stands tall in a vase of porcelain The bud clammed close concealing drops of rain It holds a promise of a lavender refrain The silken petals of webbed lilac veins The stalk a mossy green reminds me of meadows The long walks in the Alps and valleys below I conjure up woodlands and dappled sunset glow Purple is my favourite colour you always know The delicate bloom of sweet fragrance Reminds me of an amethyst of lustrous brilliance Swaying in the summer breeze it yearns for a dance A single Tulip in a vase takes a ballerina stance Blooming in full two days later Invites butterflies all aflutter As precious as a fairytale dream It is tinged at the tips in hues of clotted cream Purple is soon brown---a colour of wither... A hardbound diary is used to press and preserve Along with the card and cheri...

Sangeetha Kamath

Search This Blog