With our hectic lives and all of the new books that we are trying to keep on top of, we can often forget about the classics, those books that we loved to re-visit or the books that we just haven’t got to quite yet. Every week, we pick a classic book of the week that is a favourite of ours in the office. This week, we will be looking at the brilliant, The Giver.
“The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.”
Published in 1993, The Giver is one of the most remarkable books you will ever read. Written by Lois Lowry, it has already sold about 5.3 million copies and nominated for the Newbery Medal. The novel is currently on reading lists for schools in the States but has also been one of the most controversial books on those lists.
Set in a Utopian society, the book revolves the central character of Jonas, a young, smart boy who has been chosen by those who control the community to receive the memories of the society before the conversion. That community has committed to the ideal of “Sameness”. In the society they live in, there is no colour, there are no hills, there are no emotions, there is barely any humanity.
When Jonas meets the former Giver however, things change drastically. With the memories, Jonas realises how much the community is missing out on and when he discovers some of the more unsavoury happenings, he decides it’s time to make a change.
The Giver overflows with emotion, creating such a sympathetic character in the form of Jonas and an absolute belief in his cause. Due to the fact that the community know no other life, they believe they are happy but Jonas has experience happiness and this is not what that is.
The moment Jonas first visits the Giver, there is a complete change in the tone of the book. This pours over into the other books which are associated with the project, Gathering Blue, Messenger and Son.
Although there are drops in the logic of the story, this world presented to us by Lowry is fascinating. This is well worth a read.
