Krishna
This is a book for young adults. Talks of a futuristic society where everything is ordered. Every child follows the same regimen: at seven they get a bicycle as a gift, at nine they get assigned to occupations – including Birthmother, where your job is to beget children through artificial insemination for three years and get reassigned to Manual Labour thereafter. Children have to be requested by Mother and Father and the Committee of Elders assigns the Child to the Family.
People do not know how to lie. The central character of the story is a boy called Jonas. Jonas is excited about his Twelve Ceremony, where he will be assigned an occupation. Of course, there are ‘desired’ occupations and really undesired occupations, Birthmother being one of the latter. The Elders “study” the child all its life and when the child turns Twelve, they ‘know’ which occupation will best suit him or her.
In the naming ceremony, names are called in alphabetical order. When his name is passed over, he is ashamed and astounded. But at the end, he is given the most important job of all: The Giver.
His father is a Nurturer. taking care of newborns until they are ready to be assigned to a family who has requested them. He has a sister already, so the NewChild his father brings home and (illegally) nicknames Gabe cannot be adoped by the family as the limit of two children for the family has already been reached with Jonas and his sister.
As expected of every family, they share ‘feelings’ around the table during mealtimes.
When Jonas begins his training, he learns that he was chosen because he has the Gift of Seeing Beyond. A previous Giver, chosen due to her gifts, asked for a Release to the Elsewhere. Babies who are underweight or a Twin who is of a lower birthweight than the other are also Released to Elsewhere. So are Old People, who anyway have to move to a Care Home at a certain age.
Though constructed as a mystery, the Release is very obvious. If the Giver disappears, the memories stored in them would be released into the community. So, usually a Giver transfers all his memory to a new chosen Giver (Jonas is the current one) so that unnecessary and troublesome knowledge does not corrupt the purity and happiness of the community.
Jonas and the Giver hatch a daring plan to break this cycle of Givers and Receivers getting all the Wisdom to guide the community.
A fairly well written book and keeps your interest but the plots and language are simple – I do understand that the book is written for young adults, but so is Holes by Louis Sachar or any of the Harry Potter books. They are not simplistic but meant for young adults as well. Since the undercurrent of talking down to you runs throughout the book, the book fails to achieve the heights it may have otherwise reached due to a good plot and narration.
A reasonably good read and gets a 5/10
- - Krishna