This book surprised me every step of the way. Every time I was positive that it was now clear how the rest of the story would play out, the plot veered in another direction.

The last 85 pages – I simply ignored everything I was supposesed to be doing at home and read them in one sitting.

I chose the book fairly  randomly. It was one of those library visits when I get discouraged beccause I can’t find any of the titles I am looking for and every book I pull off the shelf seems to be the “your uncle is really your father” type, which I detest. The review quoted on this one states ” This extraordinary novel seduces as it also challenges”. “Challenges” sounded promising!

The book presents a family of three dealing with an 11 year old daughter who stopped talking. The plot progresses as we see things each time from the point of view of each of the parents and the daughter. Be warned, it is a deceptively  “slow” book. There are a lot of descriptions of different sorts (winters in New England & New York , feelings,) and you may think things aren’t “moving”. Then suddenly you realize they most certainly have been moving. I’m not spoiling anything by saying that there IS a happy end, since I had no inkling of how they would get there. And isn’t the journey what a book is all about, not the destination?

Our youngest son (18) just read “When We Were Orphans” by Kazuo Ishiguro. He simply  pulled the Hebrew version off the shelf in our living room bookcase and read it. We have it in English as well. Back in 2001 I was so impressed with how pleased my husband was with the book and was still such a stickler for not reading books written in English in any other language, that I went out and bought it.

My husband just came back from the library with a copy of “The Remains of the Day” by Ishiguro. The movie came out in 1993 and despite having written on this blog that I had only seen the movie I believe  I DID read the book though some years after seeing the movie. I have memories of comparing the versions.

All that was a very long time ago. The most recent book I read by Ishiguro was “Never Let Me Go” which was excellent and powerful all the way through. I remember it well. My main memory of the first book is of my feelings – I was fascinated by the beginning, utterly drawn in, and disappointed by way it ended. Regarding the plot, beyond the fact that the hero began his life in the Far East, went to England and then went back to the country where he was born, I could not remember a thing.

Being delighted that our son read the book, I wanted to discuss it with him. Luckily he is very open and talkative and was willing to supply basic details from the plot, which made me feel better. Also, I must admit to being a bit pleased by the fact that he wasn’t crazy about the ending either. But it raised a question in my mind:

If I want to discuss a book read long ago, should I read about it on the Internet? On the one hand that will supply me with details long forgotten, which sounds like a good thing. I had been trying to remember details from the book all week!

But won’t my personal feelings and memories of the book get lost when I read summaries and reviews by other people?

What do you do?

I have mixed feelings about this book.

The style of writing is a pleasure to read, it flows and the descriptions are vivid. The author brings alive the American reporters attempts to make the American’s back home understand the horror that what was going on in England and in Europe during the early period of WW2, before Pearl Harbor.

But the main issue Blake seems to be dealing with is whether there is some order to the chaos of war, whether or not there is someone up there watching out for us or all that happens to us is random. And she rams this down your throat with intensity.

This is one of the books where I feel the author counts pages. Every seven pages (or maybe it is eight) something sensual or romantic must be mentioned.  Every ten pages the major questions must be asked again – does it all add up? Is someone watching over us? is there ryhme and reason during war time?

I’ve read a large number of novels about the same period, written by authors from different countries. Many of them certainly made me think of these questions and other moral issues, without being so explicit about it. It is if the author wasn’t sure we, the readers, could figure it out on our own and she needed to spell it out for us, repeatedly, throughout the book. Its a shame because the book could have been better.

Nonetheless, I certainly didn’t want to abandon ship and had to read to the end!

I know it isn’t fair to label a book as a “travel book” but this book was such an excellent choice to take on a trip!

Just picture this: four a.m, sitting at an airport gate on an uncomfortable chair after barely getting any sleep, loudspeakers in the background, and me engrossed in this book. I read a lot on the plane too, which I don’t always do.

It is very easy reading and the author made me feel as if I was standing beside Miss Julia. I’m not spoiling anything by saying that you know at once there will be a happy end but that just gave me a warm, comforting feeling. Especially as I had no idea how that “happy end” would happen. The story is a great combination between things that make you chuckle and some serious notes.

The book reminds me of “Fried Freen Tomatoes” by Fannie Flag, though I admit I probably made the connection a lot faster because there’s a recommendation by Fannie Flag on the cover of the book! It also reminds me a bit of “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett. Not in the sense of civil rights, this book doesn’t touch on that subject. But rather regarding the issue of the right of the American Southern white women (in the sixties, more or less) to be independant thinkers and manage their own lives. That was certainly an issue that came up in”the Help”.

I finished the book the day after I arrived. Tired or not – had to finish it!