Quando eravamo orfani

Second reading. Ishiguro's novels are nothing if not enigmatic. There's disorientation; the reader is never quite sure where he stands. When We Were Orphans is a quasi- Bildungsroman or coming of age/detective story. It is set over a period of fifty years or so in London, Shanghai and then back in Lo Leggi tutto

My favourite Ishiguro! “On the contrary, it is never too late to, as you put it, pick up the scent” Indeed, it most certainly isn’t. This book was so, so, deep. I feel like my emotions have been stretched to breaking point when reading. If you’ve not ready any of Ishiguro’s novels before, then d Leggi tutto

Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro - image from his FB page A pretty good novel. I thought it was outstanding until the back quarter. Renowned London detective Christopher Banks was raised in the International part of Shanghai, sent to England after both his parents disappeared. He is smitten with a

I’ll characterize this novel as ‘haunting.’ A boy grows up with his British parents in the enclave of Shanghai where all foreigners have to live. It’s around 1900. Much of the first half of the book involves the man’s reminiscences of his childhood, particularly time spent playing with his next-door Leggi tutto

Many reviews here have commented on Ishiguro's unreliable narrators (let's let that classification stand, whether or not it is entirely valid or really applies to all of his work), as if this aspect of his fiction is so obvious, or that it has been so exhaustively mined, that there is little to noth Leggi tutto

A celebrity detective had a traumatic childhood in Shanghai which left him an orphan sent back to live and grow in 1920s and 1930s England, where he also feels drawn, to a degree, to another orphan. This book is about his childhood, his detective years, his singular obsession and several follies, as Leggi tutto