Wednesday, December 23, 2015

When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro

Earlier this year I read When We Were Orphans with my book club. We read Never Let Me Go by the same author awhile ago, and everyone else loved it. I thought it was just ok, but I thought maybe Ishiguro deserved another chance.

I immediately liked the main character, Christopher Banks, and following him as a child living in Shanghai. I loved reading about his friendship with his neighbor, Akira, and the games they imagined together. Unfortunately Christopher is orphaned when his parents disappear, which brings us to Christopher's story as an adult. He has become a famous private investigator, and has decided it's time to solve the mystery of his parents' disappearance. That's where the story turned for me. It became uninteresting, bizarre, unlikely, and hard to follow.

My book club had the same complaints as me. I think I'm done with Ishiguro. I really want to like him because of all the good reviews he gets, but we just don't click.

P.S. This book counts as my PI Crime book for the Eclectic Reader Challenge.

2 comments:

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

I completely agree with this. I felt like the story just got lost. I do highly recommend The Remains of the Day though, it's my favorite of his.

Captain Nick Sparrow said...

I don't know if I can read one more Ishiguro! But if you recommend it...