I'd heard of the book The Giver for years. And for years I just couldn't quite hype myself up to read it, so I put it on my reading to-do list for this summer and I finally did it. I've had several people recommend it to me, but of course, now I can't remember who-- which is probably for the better because I may just give him/her a hard time about it.
I thought there were some interesting ideas going on within the book, which I did appreciate. The main concept is that all hazards of life have basically been eradicated, leaving the citizens with practically no choice. I guess I immediately saw it as the age old debate from Judeo-Christians regarding free-will and whether or not free-will exists (or if God has taken away free-will--- particularly when looking at stories like that of Judas Iscariot and his betrayal of Christ). I liked this aspect of the book, but because the book seemed geared for an 8th grade reading level (and thus audience?), I felt that I may have been pulling a bit more out of it than the average reader would have pulled from it. The society within the book determines how many children will be birthed and kept, who is eligible to raise these children, who each person may marry (if anyone), the occupation of each person and finally, everything is viewed only in shades of the black/white scale (unless a character does something to overcome this-- which a few do).
The main character is Jonas and his story begins with him preparing for the ceremony during which he'll receive his occupation. He has a few friends, a male and a female, with which the audience is able to see what a "normal" occupational selection would look like, because Jonas's is anything but. Instead of having his occupation selected and being recognized, Jonas is "passed over" and then he is recognized specially at the end of the ceremony by being chosen as the "Receiver of Memory." This means that Jonas will begin to report to the "Giver of Memory" in order to receive the collective memories of the society-- i.e. war, pain, love, etc.
As Jonas begins his new job, he receives new rules by which he must live-- and some of these go directly against how he's been raised. For instance, he's now encouraged to lie if necessary and to ask anyone any question. These rules and the new job brings about a new awareness for Jonas, which is classic of coming of age stories like this. Jonas is also increasingly drawn to the baby which his father has brought home since Jonas's father is in charge of the newborns. This new awareness and the realization that the baby, which the family has taken to calling Gabriel (even though the baby shouldn't have a name yet because it's against policy), means that Jonas builds a particularly strong bond with Gabriel and Jonas ends up kidnapping Gabriel because Jonas realizes that his father will be putting him to death in the morning.
I liked the action and the ease of the language, but I couldn't help but be put off by the ending. I was just left with too many questions and an overwhelming feeling of incompleteness. While I liked the book in that it would probably be a great book to use for a discussion group-- especially one that may connect with philosophy or religion-- I haven't found myself recommending it to anyone.
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