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When We Were Orphans
When We Were Orphans
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
In 1930s England, Christopher Banks has become one of the country's most celebrated detectives. His cases are the talk of London society. Yet one mystery has always haunted him, the mysterious disappearance of his parents in Old Shanghai, when he was a small boy. — Shortlisted for Booker Prize for Fiction 2000.  Shortlisted for Whit...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780571205165
ISBN-10: 057120516X
Publication Date: 3/5/2001
Pages: 313
Rating:
  • Currently 3.1/5 Stars.
 4

3.1 stars, based on 4 ratings
Publisher: Faber
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio Cassette
Members Wishing: 1
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

miss-info avatar reviewed When We Were Orphans on + 386 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This is the most nonsensical book I've read in years. While the writing style is mature, the plot could have been laid out by a ten-year-old, or perhaps someone influenced by the opium mentioned in the book. The narration continually referred to events that were not described in the book, then things go on as though we understand what's happening. Banks is supposed to be this world-famous detective, but we never actually witness him doing anything remotely intelligent. The only detective act we see him doing involves finding a house he thinks his parents were held in 20 years ago - and he believes that both his parents are still sitting in this house, waiting to be rescued. Who kidnaps adults, puts them in a house, then feeds them for 20 years? He's ready to storm this house with only a severely wounded soldier by his side, even though the soldier can't stand up without help. Finally someone says, "Well, you've been working on this case long enough, I'll just tell you what happened. You don't have to find it out for yourself after all." We're led to believe that his parents are so important that everyone - ambassadors, Chinese police, polititians - will drop everything to help him solve the case, and once the parents are found, it will help end the war. Why? His dad was a businessman, not a diplomat. I kept waiting for everything to tie together at the end, and it doesn't. No explanation why a guy he hardly knows from school brought him to his old house, why the guys who own the house will simply hand it over to him, or what happens to the house after all. No explanation why his mother didn't simply go to the British consolate and ask for safe passage home. (That would have solved the entire book.) No sequence of events between finding the truth (if it was the truth) and finding his mother. Just isolated events happening for no reason and with no logic, until things simply end.
Kmarie avatar reviewed When We Were Orphans on + 529 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
England, 1930s. Christopher Banks has become the country's most celebrated detective, his cases the talk of London society. Yet one unsolved crime has always haunted him: the mysterious disappearance of his parents in Old Shanghai when he was a small boy. Now, as the world lurches towards total war, Banks realizes that the time has come for him to return to the city of his childhood and at last solve the mystery - that only by doing so will the world be saved from the approaching catastrophe.

Moving between London and Shanghai of the inter-war years, When We Were Orphans is a story of remembrance, deception and the longing for home; of a childhood vision of the world surviving deep into adulthood, indelibly shaping and distorting a person's life.

Azulita avatar reviewed When We Were Orphans on + 6 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
I found this book very odd, not bad odd, but odd. I could never decide if I liked the main character or not. At times he seems sympathetic and at times not at all.
statue86 avatar reviewed When We Were Orphans on + 19 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Intriguing story, interesting details of old Shanghai. Very odd ending,not sure what to think.
miss-info avatar reviewed When We Were Orphans on + 386 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This is the most nonsensical book I've read in years. While the writing style is mature, the plot could have been laid out by a ten-year-old, or perhaps someone influenced by the opium mentioned in the book. The narration continually referred to events that were not described in the book, then things go on as though we understand what's happening. Banks is supposed to be this world-famous detective, but we never actually witness him doing anything remotely intelligent. The only detective act we see him doing involves finding a house he thinks his parents were held in 20 years ago - and he believes that both his parents are still sitting in this house, waiting to be rescued. Who kidnaps adults, puts them in a house, then feeds them for 20 years? He's ready to storm this house with only a severely wounded soldier by his side, even though the soldier can't stand up without help. Finally someone says, "Well, you've been working on this case long enough, I'll just tell you what happened. You don't have to find it out for yourself after all." We're led to believe that his parents are so important that everyone - ambassadors, Chinese police, polititians - will drop everything to help him solve the case, and once the parents are found, it will help end the war. Why? His dad was a businessman, not a diplomat. I kept waiting for everything to tie together at the end, and it doesn't. No explanation why a guy he hardly knows from school brought him to his old house, why the guys who own the house will simply hand it over to him, or what happens to the house after all. No explanation why his mother didn't simply go to the British consolate and ask for safe passage home. (That would have solved the entire book.) No sequence of events between finding the truth (if it was the truth) and finding his mother. Just isolated events happening for no reason and with no logic, until things simply end.
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miss-info avatar reviewed When We Were Orphans on + 386 more book reviews
This is the most nonsensical book I've read in years. While the writing style is mature, the plot could have been laid out by a ten-year-old, or perhaps someone influenced by the opium mentioned in the book. The narration continually referred to events that were not described in the book, then things go on as though we understand what's happening. Banks is supposed to be this world-famous detective, but we never actually witness him doing anything remotely intelligent. The only detective act we see him doing involves finding a house he thinks his parents were held in 20 years ago - and he believes that both his parents are still sitting in this house, waiting to be rescued. Who kidnaps adults, puts them in a house, then feeds them for 20 years? He's ready to storm this house with only a severely wounded soldier by his side, even though the soldier can't stand up without help. Finally someone says, "Well, you've been working on this case long enough, I'll just tell you what happened. You don't have to find it out for yourself after all." We're led to believe that his parents are so important that everyone - ambassadors, Chinese police, polititians - will drop everything to help him solve the case, and once the parents are found, it will help end the war. Why? His dad was a businessman, not a diplomat. I kept waiting for everything to tie together at the end, and it doesn't. No explanation why a guy he hardly knows from school brought him to his old house, why the guys who own the house will simply hand it over to him, or what happens to the house after all. No explanation why his mother didn't simply go to the British consolate and ask for safe passage home. (That would have solved the entire book.) No sequence of events between finding the truth (if it was the truth) and finding his mother. Just isolated events happening for no reason and with no logic, until things simply end.
miss-info avatar reviewed When We Were Orphans on + 386 more book reviews
This is the most nonsensical book I've read in years. While the writing style is mature, the plot could have been laid out by a ten-year-old, or perhaps someone influenced by the opium mentioned in the book. The narration continually referred to events that were not described in the book, then things go on as though we understand what's happening. Banks is supposed to be this world-famous detective, but we never actually witness him doing anything remotely intelligent. The only detective act we see him doing involves finding a house he thinks his parents were held in 20 years ago - and he believes that both his parents are still sitting in this house, waiting to be rescued. Who kidnaps adults, puts them in a house, then feeds them for 20 years? He's ready to storm this house with only a severely wounded soldier by his side, even though the soldier can't stand up without help. Finally someone says, "Well, you've been working on this case long enough, I'll just tell you what happened. You don't have to find it out for yourself after all." We're led to believe that his parents are so important that everyone - ambassadors, Chinese police, polititians - will drop everything to help him solve the case, and once the parents are found, it will help end the war. Why? His dad was a businessman, not a diplomat. I kept waiting for everything to tie together at the end, and it doesn't. No explanation why a guy he hardly knows from school brought him to his old house, why the guys who own the house will simply hand it over to him, or what happens to the house after all. No explanation why his mother didn't simply go to the British consolate and ask for safe passage home. (That would have solved the entire book.) No sequence of events between finding the truth (if it was the truth) and finding his mother. Just isolated events happening for no reason and with no logic, until things simply end.
miss-info avatar reviewed When We Were Orphans on + 386 more book reviews
This is the most nonsensical book I've read in years. While the writing style is mature, the plot could have been laid out by a ten-year-old, or perhaps someone influenced by the opium mentioned in the book. The narration continually referred to events that were not described in the book, then things go on as though we understand what's happening. Banks is supposed to be this world-famous detective, but we never actually witness him doing anything remotely intelligent. The only detective act we see him doing involves finding a house he thinks his parents were held in 20 years ago - and he believes that both his parents are still sitting in this house, waiting to be rescued. Who kidnaps adults, puts them in a house, then feeds them for 20 years? He's ready to storm this house with only a severely wounded soldier by his side, even though the soldier can't stand up without help. Finally someone says, "Well, you've been working on this case long enough, I'll just tell you what happened. You don't have to find it out for yourself after all." We're led to believe that his parents are so important that everyone - ambassadors, Chinese police, polititians - will drop everything to help him solve the case, and once the parents are found, it will help end the war. Why? His dad was a businessman, not a diplomat. I kept waiting for everything to tie together at the end, and it doesn't. No explanation why a guy he hardly knows from school brought him to his old house, why the guys who own the house will simply hand it over to him, or what happens to the house after all. No explanation why his mother didn't simply go to the British consolate and ask for safe passage home. (That would have solved the entire book.) No sequence of events between finding the truth (if it was the truth) and finding his mother. Just isolated events happening for no reason and with no logic, until things simply end.


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