Book Review: "The Giver" by Lois Lowry

What can I say? I've been on a tear of reading lately because it is so damn hot outside that doing anything out there between 8am and 5pm results in melting and my dog's feet starting on fire. So we sit in the shade and read or even better, sit in the comfort of my air conditioned condo. I read, she sleeps on one of there many beds in my apartment.

This particular book I think I have read before, and it one of the most famous "dystopian tales" of all time. I think that a lot of you have probably read it but if you haven't, you should.

This is far more digestible than Stephen King and the fact that it makes you think and reflect about the changing of society that we are kind of going through right now could possibly serve to be a bit of a warning to people about remembering to be a free thinker and not give over too much control to something like social media and the government.

Anyway, I didn't have a real copy of this book because books are hard to come by in Vietnam so I will instead show a picture of my vicious guard dog as she watched over my 2nd generation Kindle that I have had since... sheesh, I dunno but a really long time.

_{You woke me up for this!}

This books reads like something that was made in the 60's and it kind of is like that in the world that is portrayed but this book was actually published in 1993 and in that year I was at such a cocky young age that I would have completely ignored it and all of its messages.

The cover has changed over the years but this is one of them and I think that I actually had this one at one point.

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I am just now realizing that it was made into a film and I can only presume that it was shite or I would have heard about that as well.

The Giver is such a profound book that I don't think anyone would ever be able to do it justice on a big screen. I think this is why 1984 and something like Animal Farm have never been done in a way that was ever going to please fans as well.

The Giver is a story about a society that at first glance and in the first 6 chapters or so, seems to be an absolutely ideal society. Nobody has to worry about anything, everything is provided for them. One need not worry about how they will get food, or shelter, or education and while learning is encouraged in such as way that it isn't even forced, children are not taught to really think. The society that they are in decides for them based on a panel what it is that they would be best at and normally, these assignments that they receive as "a 12" is met with glee in all the situations that are described because the job they are given or instructed to do is genuinely something that they are interested in and good at.

That is until Jonas is receiving his assignment as a 12 and they pass over him at the ceremony. In this society nobody makes mistakes and his passing over was intentional because he is not going to be a doctor, a laborer, or an educator, he has been assigned to take over the position of "Receiver of Memory" and this is a position that only one person can ever hold and they hold it for a lifetime. It is a great honor indeed but Jonas has no idea what the job entails nor what needs to be done once one gets this job. This is where he meets the man that will eventually suggest that he be referred to as "the Giver."

I don't want to spoil the story because I really think that you should seek this book out and read it for yourself. It really is a truly profound story and I recently discovered that this is the number 11 "most challenged" book of the 1990's. Don't get the wrong idea about that title, this doesn't mean that the book is challenging, I am not smart enough to take on a task like that. What it means is that of ALL the books written in the 1990's, "The Giver" has faced repeated attempts to have them removed from schools or libraries because certain groups think the subject matter is dangerous or controversial. I think that in the case of this book there are some groups that would have an issue with this book because it ignores religion in society and also presents a story that appears as though it could be suggesting that it is anti-government.

The thing about "The Giver" though is that it doesn't outright try to tell you these things, it isn't trying to persuade anyone to do anything, it is merely presenting a fictional future scenario where things that were intended to be for "the greater good" actually HAVE been great for the people it benefits, but in the search for that Utopian society, only certain people are allowed to survive in order for everyone to benefit from their existence. The weak ones are not catered to, they are "released." Also, society has so much central control that certain ways of talking or thinking have been prohibited for so long that the members of society don't even know how to revolt or even how to think differently anymore.

Does this sound like a tough concept to grasp? Well if you read the book you will understand what I mean. It's pretty deep and after you have finished it you can kind of reflect on the world that we are living in right now and see how certain parts of society and thought control attempts by various groups aren't really so much of a fiction as one might hope.

I won't go off on a tirade about how I personally feel that this book is reflective of today's life but even though it was written over 30 years ago, it does seem to be very relevant now..perhaps it always will be.

_{Speaking of givers, since I don't own any books the bottom shelf of what could be considered my bookshelf has been converted into yet another doggy bed for my best friend Nadi}

This book is somewhere between 160 and 200 pages long depending on who published it and the chapters are short. This is a far more digestible book than the Stephen King book I just reviewed and it is also something far more important than some horror writer dipping his greedy toes into a genre that he isn't even very good at.

I tore through The Giver in just two days and at night I was actually staying up late to read "just one more chapter."

I highly suggest you read this one. It is truly enlightening, exciting, and captivating. You will think about this after you are done with it. It has also been translated into nearly every meaningful language on the planet, including Vietnamese.