Review: The Giver

The Giver by Lois Lowry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hooter: A Children's book that questions adulting

A utopian world where uniformity and sameness is paramount. Just like how five star food is consistent even though bland compared to street food and their riot of flavours, people don't celebrate birthdays - there are rules for every year of your birth till 12 and then you are an adult and forget age. Similarly devoid of colors, occupations decided based on your passion and skills as decided by the council (who also got their roles through a similar process) in an apprenticeship type of culture.

Our protagonist thinks he is going to get the same mundane till he is picked to the "receiver" - a role filled with pain and given to one person in decades when the previous "receiver" decides to become a giver for the chosen one. As he shares years of wisdom and memories to Jonas, Jonas opens up to feeling emotions - a concept he had no clue about neither did his entire community.

A very black and white take with no greys on individuality v/s uniformity and evolution of efficiency in society over humanity. An interesting premise on the type of society it is, the outcomes probably extremely naive but then the target audience is youngsters though adults would find it a fresh perspective unburdened by maturity and age.

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