Kazuo Ishiguro

When We Were Orphans

Tip: Don’t go into it expecting an Agatha Christie-style mystery, it’s as far from that as can be. 

Wingyan Chan

*Kazuo Ishiguro's new novel Klara and the Sun is now available to preorder* By the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go Shortlisted for the Booker Prize England, the 1930s. Christopher Banks has become the country's most celebrated detective, his cases the talk of London society. Yet one unsolved crime has always haunted him: the mysterious disappearance of his parents, in old Shanghai, when he was a small boy. Moving between inter-war London and Shanghai, When We Were Orphans is a remarkable story of memory, intrigue and the need to return.

Julie Rubens

I wouldn't say I didn't like this book at all, because there were definitely some good parts and the final revelation was definitely interesting. But there were a lot of boring parts in this book, for me, as well and over all I found it difficult to keep on reading.

Cody Degen

Every Kazuo Ishiguro book is about two things: the subjectivity of how we interpret things around us, and being the most British anyone has ever been

I’ve rated it 3 stars but I’ll probably think about it a lot more than other books I’ve rated higher

Irene Alegre

I really liked 'Never let me Go'. It strucked me as interesting, different, thought-provoking and sad, depressing and heart-breaking. 

'When we were Orphans' was quite a less interesting read for me. It is a good novel and it is very well written. I really like how Ishiguro draws the characters and makes them real and truthful, especially Christopher and young Akira. I loved the childhood passages. Sarah was a well written character as well. 

However, it still felt like a long boring read at too many points, and the novel is not really that long (about 300 pages).

In 1930s England, Christopher Banks has become one of the country's most celebrated detectives. His cases are the talk of London society. Yet one mystery has always haunted him, the mysterious disappearance of his parents in Old Shanghai, when he was a small boy.

Trevor Berrett

I liked this book, but in the end I didn't really feel anything. However, I thoroughly enjoyed how Christoper Banks naively believed he would find his parents decades after they disappeared in the exact place they were taken to and still being held by the their original captors. His naivety, which is crushed into complete disorienting disillusionment perfectly (I felt) paralleled the naivety of the world as it approached WWII. The diplomats all feel they can go to China and quickly settle its dispute with Japan. They feel that their skill could avert something that no one had control over, something building up for years. In a light read it would be easy to think Ishiguro was writing a sophmoric book with unbelievably ignorant characters, but the ending shows that he was in control the whole time. He just choses to reveal what he's up to little by little. His subtlety could be missed.
However, his writing skill wasn't enough for me in this one.

sera

Monica

** spoiler alert **
           As I read the book a drafted my thoughts...

Day 1
I think that Ishiguro is really not my style. I don’t like at all the way in which he writes. It seems quite repetitive. Also very absurd sometimes. It is weird to ask an important friend you have just been introduced to whether he has been in China and, having the affirmative answer, inquiring whether he met a childhood friend. A childhood friend in China to a man he just met! I just found it a very bad way of introducing a new character into the story. And I am utterly bored. 

Our protagonist is all the time recalling the past, which he states he doesn’t remember well or that he might be all together mistaken about something he just said. Ah! I cannot bear it! And his Japanese friend, his past in China: he fears talking about it but for no reason whatsoever! 

Day 2
And he goes on and on remembering... the story is now more interesting because there is something going on. But the continuous “I don’t remember exactly... but I recall”... It drives me nuts. 

Day 3
It is more interesting now. He still goes on not having a very good memory. I think it is ok for him not to tell us what he does not remember exactly, we don’t care. I’m a bit obsessed but it is really annoying. 

Day 4
I hate Mr. Banks! What a horrible man! He doesn’t even know if his parents are alive but he assumes they are. After so many years! And he demands that soldiers who are currently fighting against the Japanese accompany him to save his parents. It just makes no sense. He is such a stupid man. Plus, he thinks that he is saving China and the world just by solving the case of his parents. Come on! You are just a detective! He doesn’t even have mercy with with badly wounded friend! So selfish and arrogant. 

There are too many good coincidences that are not believable... finding his friend in a weird place just by chance, just happening to look to a particular writing and asking about its meaning after seeing so many that are the same... 

Day 5
I finished the book and I didn’t like it as a whole. Too many things that could have made the story reacher and more engaging are left out, while other unimportant details are said. And just too many coincidences. Also, we never see him being a detective... The ending so vague... No, it just didn’t get me.

When We Were Orphans

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