Magnifying Memories: Kazuo Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans: More like The Unconsoled than the Remains of the Day

» themos100 - More like The Unconsoled than the Remains of the Day

I read When we were Orphans when it was published a couple of years ago, and then recently when it was selected by my reading group as the "July" book. Interestingly enough the group gave it a very mixed reception. Our host is a retired lady who was actually living in Shanhai during the Second World War and was interned with her parents in a Japanese POW camp. She told us that Ishiguro's Shanghai is realistic, but also fantastic, that its anchored in the geography of the city but somehow is utterly unlike the Shanghai of that period.

To me, the book is "fantasy" - far more like The Unconsoled than Ishiguro's more conventional books. There are many scenes which have that bizarre dream-like quality, and indeed the very profession of "detective" has never existed other than in the police force - sure, there have been private investigators but certainly no "detective" with the status and social acceptability of Philip. It reminded me of Kafka's The Castle in fact, where the main character (whose name I forget) finds himself negotiating his way through a mysterious town both grounded in reality but also rather like a bad dream after a heavy meal.

Some members of our group found this very hard to cope with and got frustrated with the unreality of many of the scenes. Having read Unconsoled several times (I love it! ), I greatly enjoyed Orphans and it made me hope that Ishiguro continues his unique writing form in his next novel.

Sorry to go on a bit, but I love this book!

-- posted by themos100