I listened to this as an audio-book. I was hooked from the first page. I enjoyed it and think it’s a good book, but not really ‘amazing’.
It’s set in a world that seems utopia. It is a world where families live in total peace. There is no pain, hunger, and little other forms of difficulty. This wonderful world is called a ‘community’.
However much else is also missing. Like the ability to make decisions, the ability to see color, or hear music. There is a voidness of feelings, including love and joy. The society is on a land that has been somehow flattened to ease transportation and agriculture. The weather is controlled by some kind of device so that the weather is always ideal for their lifestyle. This does not include the pleasures of snow or sunshine. Sexuality and sensual feeling are called ‘stirrings’ and are controlled by pills.
People are cast into their jobs according to their skills, which are evaluated by a committee. This committee also chooses spouses for people if they choose to live together.Ā The committee also assigns children to the spoused ‘parents’. Each spouse group is assigned two children, one male and one female. This is to balance the genders. Children come from birth-mothers. This is a duty that is performed by particularly groomed members of the society, however it is somewhat looked down upon and not considered ‘honorable’. Each birth mother has three children which are ‘nurtured’ assigned to ‘parents’ and then ‘schooled’ for 12 years. After 12 years the children which have been educated are evaluated and assigned a life profession. When they are old they are ‘released’.
It’s a meaningless world. People are ‘born’, they get educated, they ‘raise’ children, then they are ‘released’. However it’s a very very well-oiled society. There is no crime, no consequences from bad marriages or bad work assignments. It is perfect communism. It soon becomes evident that this world is perfectly anti-utopian.
The Story is about a 12th year Jonas. When the rest of the children in his year were ‘cast’ into their jobs, Jonas was exempted. Until the very end of the ceremony, when he was brought forth, and it was anounced that he had been ‘selected’ to be ‘reciever of memories’. This job is assigned only once in each generation, about every 60 years. It is perhaps the most honored position in the community. All the memories from the entire history of the world are conveyed via magic to this reciever. They are conveyed to him from ‘the giver’. The giver was the previous memory-holder. As the memory-holder, Jonas becomes the only person in the community to know the real truth. He is the only person that knows what the ‘real’ word is like. He knows how it is in the land known as ‘elsewhere’. He suddenly knows strange new things like color, music, joy, love, and even things like fear, hate, hunger, and war. He cannot live with this knowledge and realizes that it is ‘not fair’. He knows something has to be done.
What i learned from this book?
Seeming Perfectness can often be Perfect Unseemingness. haha. š
There are some negatives. The story is not very plausible. Obviously good stories hardly ever are but i kind of expected it to be because of it’s like ness to that other oneĀ (George Orwell’s 1984). What i found puzzling about this book is that there was no apparent ‘reason’ for this society. The people did not work to make a profit, they didn’t produce anything, they lived only to be self-sufficient. I don’t see the advantage of this society. Whereas in regular communism (regular communism? ha!) the people are all working to create wealth or military gain. Yes, they are living in complete perfect socialism, but what’s the benefit? What is that without joy, or at least money or power.
Schenk Andacht's Weihrauch 