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ATTENTION CITIZENS! OUR BROTHER COMMUNITY OF SAMENESS HAS FALLEN! DOUBLEPLUS UNGOOD! BUT DO NOT FEAR! OUR REVOLUTIONARY RHETORIC AND UTOPIC IDEALS REMAIN SACROSANCT! IN OUR BROTHER COMMUNITIES OF OCEANIA, ANIMAL FARM, PANEM, THX 1138-VILLE, AND FAHRENHEIT 451 TOWNSHIP! AND SPREADING FURTHER! DOUBLEPLUS GOOD!

brief synopsis: at some point far in the future, an 11-year old boy named Jonas comes of age in an unnamed utopic community. coming of age means he is given his life's work; in Jonas' case, he is chosen to be The Receiver. he is given memories of all that came before and the responsibility of advising his community by accessing those memories. and as he takes in those memories, he gradually comes to realize that his idyllic little community is not so utopic after all.

do you remember the first time you realized that other people had their own lives - ones entirely apart from you, that have nothing to do with you whatsoever? i do. my cousin Christie - who i had a sizable crush on - was talking about what she had done in the days before. it slowly dawned on me that there were things that happened when i was not around, things that were important and interesting and had nothing whatsoever to do with me. i remember looking around the room and seeing the adults, and realizing that they too did not just disappear when they weren't in my presence. and then, in a flash, understanding that they had their own feelings and thoughts and plans that were just as important to them as mine were to me. i suppose it was my first exposure to the idea of empathy, of seeing people living lives in parallel to mine - rather than just in connection to mine - and feeling feelings that i felt, but had nothing to do with me. it was a startling realization for a budding young sociopath.

all of the above came back to me when reading The Giver. my favorite parts of this children's book were those points where young Jonas puts himself in other's shoes, tries to understand the motivations of his friends & family & community, angrily rejects the choices that some make, and experiences empathetic connections with The Giver (whose job he is taking over) - his failed but brave predecessor, and the baby Gabriel. i thought those parts were genuinely thrilling, sometimes painful, and often beautiful in their simplicity.

and yet the concept of empathy is not really what The Giver is about. simply put, it is a perhaps rather familiar tale of the importance of Individuality and of Individual Choice. i have absolutely no problem with that message... i just don't have a whole lot to say on the topic. seems like a no-brainer to me.

The Giver accomplishes its goals with ease. the prose is simple and straightforward and clear. the narrative moves from the depiction of a rather pleasant and happy community to the portrait of a community that is horrifying in its blind need for pleasant happiness for all. because the reader quickly realizes that not everything is perfect in perfectville, there was an overall tone of slowly building unease that was expertly handled. whether it is wondering about what "Release" truly means, the reappropriation of the word "animal" to mean a "foolish person", or worrying about the eventual fate of the infant Gabriel, Lois Lowry weaves in her troubling undercurrents in a way that is understated and yet still manages to pack an emotional punch. i did not feel manipulated. all in all, this is a striking novel for kids, one with an important message, and i am happy it is required reading in many schools.

it is also a surprisingly controversial novel. the complaints seem to boil down to three major concerns:

(1) The Giver is either too sophisticated for children or too unsophisticated for adults

(2) The Giver does not stand up to literary criticism; The Giver has constant lapses into illogic

(3) The Giver is anti-socialist propaganda

okay, i was going to spend some time (and who knows how many boring paragraphs) in attempting to refute all of those criticisms, point by point. eh, who cares. people will always have their opinions. my major response right now is OH, GIVE ME A BREAK, THAT IS SUCH BULLSHIT. i did not see illogic in The Giver; i saw a pleasingly straightforward morality tale, a fable of sorts. i think this is a book that kids can easily handle and to think otherwise is to think little of a kid's capacity for understanding. as far as being too unsophisticated for adults or not standing up to literary criticism, honestly all i can do is yawn at such trite and trifling accusations. and regarding the novel being anti-socialist propaganda... i just have to roll my eyes and yawn again. the timeless message of The Giver certainly moves it beyond any pointed crique of any particular style of government. seriously... duh. stop hatin', haters. don't get it twisted. if you want something to hate, exert yourself over Ayn Rand instead - who takes a similar message and perverts it until the message about individuality becomes abhorrent and disgusting. unlike the atrocious Fountainhead, the message here is a pure one.

and that's that. this is a great book. if they haven't read it already, give it to the kids in your life; i know i will.

one last thing: The Giver reminded me a lot of the equally wonderful Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron. read that one too, it's awesome.