The Giver

Lois Lowry

There are a few books released every year that gain both wide-ranging critical acclaim and deep popular support. They are few and far between, and fewer still when the book in questions stirs up as much controversy as has The Giver. Personally, I don't see what all the controversy is about; everything in here that could possibly be seen as questionable is an echo of a canonized piece of science fiction (the two books that most come to mind are Logan's Run and Brave New World). Yet, as soon as you try to boil down Nolan or Huxley for the kidlit crowd, hackles get raised. I just don't get it.

A distillation this may be, but it is in the same way that Things Fall Apart is a distillation of Greek tragedy; there's enough there for the author to have worn her heart on her sleeve, but the themes are places within a different framework of characters well-enough drawn that no one's ever going to be accusing Lois Lowry of plagiarism (one hopes). The story centers on Jonas, on the brink of turning twelve at the beginning of the novel, in a utopian society where there's no crime, no poverty, etc. Jonas is chosen to be the new Receiver of Memory for the colony; he's something of an uber-consultant, the person to whom the ruling council turns when they come across something they have no way to understand. For Jonas, and those Receivers before him, store the collective memories of those things which their society has managed to forget over the time they've been apart from the rest of the world (never actually stated, but by the way the characters talk about the world previously, it's been hundreds, if not thousands, of years). Lowry sets things up exceptionally, and there's a wonderful revelation about halfway through the book that alone is worth the price of admission (when Jonas figures out what seeing-beyond really is—Lowry has managed throughout the beginning of the book to lull the reader into such a state that the reader hasn't even realized what it is that's missing). While that's the only real surprise here, the predictability of much of what comes after is forgivable enough. Lowry sets up a number of easy endings, none of which she takes, and the predictable pieces to the puzzle are all part of that setup. Just because the end result could have been done better doesn't mean it's not good as it stands. Highly recommended.