Wow. I really liked Lowry's The Giver. I liked it a lot. I liked it so much I intend to read Gathering Blue too, just for fun. I find myself appreciating dystopian caricatures of the world more and more as I age and become somewhat cynical and jaded about the human critter and our shared history and potential future. I mean, as I learn more and more, it almost seems inevitable that the human future will look something like the dystopia presented in The Giver.
I especially liked how she grabbed me at the end and pulled me along with her narrative inexorably to the book's conclusion. I almost read breathlessly after Lowry's reveal of what "release" actually meant. I mean, I knew what it meant before she showed me, but for some reason her portrayal was indeed horrifically sanitized and messed-up. I couldn't help but shudder when Jonas' father ended with the evilly glib sound-bites. He was an automaton covered in warped humanity. And yet, he "believed" in what he was doing, regardless of what "reality" meant. Whacko.
I wasn't sure if I would ultimately like Jonas, but his insistence at the end to stay true to his feelings, to "their" feelings, was honorable and on the hero's journey, so I can ultimately say I respect the little dude. However, he's pretty precocious for twelve, I think. Heck, their whole society was a wee-bit quaint, wasn't it? Three year olds agreeing in unison on a sentence of concern for another's behavior in relation to right? Yeah, I don't think so. But, it was still entertaining.
I would have liked it better if she would have fleshed some of the last few chapters out a bit, as they were sparse and felt sort of rushed in some way. But all in all, I was intrigued and absorbed.
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