Do you have time to listen to an old chap?*

Do you have time to listen to an old chap?*

When We Were Orphans, by Kazuo Ishiguro, ff: faber and faber, England, year 2000, p313, reviewed by Mai Elise Hammer.

When We Were Orphans, is a mix between historical facts and fiction. The facts of the real world are neatly webbed in the foggy and not so clear mind of the narrator. If I was younger I would probably feel cheated out of a good detective story, because this is by no means an ordinary way of narrating what seems to be an epistolary novel. This is more a Novel which explores the mystery of the mind of the narrator, than the usual ‘Detective saves the world story’. Detective Banks do try to save the world. If it is the real world, or just an attempt to avoid thinking too much about his own life is up to the reader to consider.

The theme of this book can be seen from the title as an orphan’s way of handling life from he is left on his own to he is an adult, but considering that memory is such a big part of the narration it can also be said that memory or rather how we remember our life and how we narrate it to our self and others can be a theme in itself.

Ishiguro or Mr. Banks has an original way of representing his story, but it is like listening to an old uncle who is about to become senile. He starts telling about one thing, and then trails off and starts talking about something else. He is very preoccupied with the circumstances around the kidnapping of his parents, but there are several other memories that seem important to justify why he has acted as he has during the years.  His memory, or rather the lack of memory is sometimes challenging for the reader. Sometimes it seems like he is making everything up, or that he is delusional. You will soon find out that Mr. Banks is an unreliable narrator. The first pages of the book seem legit. You would think from the first chapter of the book that the narrator is reliable, because you meet an old detective telling of about the beginning of his career, but even in the first chapter you can read from what Mr. Osborne says to Mr. Banks about their past at their School that Mr. Banks is not telling everything to you as a reader. After a few more chapters, as the lines between reality and fiction become blurred to Mr. Banks, it becomes clearer to you as a reader that you too have to play detective and keep an open eye on the narrator. Every dialog is very constructed with over done politeness and it is full of clichés like an old black and white movie where you can tell the next line even if you never have seen the movie before. The old chap is a good story teller at times, but he narrates it in a way that that makes three hundred pages into what seems like the double. Either you have to accept the old uncle and his bad memory, or you just have to close your ears and just listen to what you find interesting, because whatever your opinion is he will keep rambling on. “When I was young…”  

My verdict about the master detective is either: “You got to have patience young grasshopper. Patience.” Or the easy one; No offence old chap, but your work is probably for an older audience.

*NB! This is partially satirical, some irony and mild sarcasm are used. Do not take offence.

This was written for my second OA for Prose&History. We only got 500words, so I decided to play with the satirical genre. This is first uploaded to the www 10.11.11, besides It's learning.