Journal Entry 1 by booklady331 from Cape Coral, Florida USA on Monday, July 03, 2006

Pre-numbered label used for registration. 

Journal Entry 2 by booklady331 from Cape Coral, Florida USA on Monday, July 03, 2006

Amazon.com
When 9-year-old Christopher Banks's father--a British businessman involved in the opium trade--disappears from the family home in Shanghai, the boy and his friend Akira play at being detectives: "Until in the end, after the chases, fist-fights and gun-battles around the warren-like alleys of the Chinese districts, whatever our variations and elaborations, our narratives would always conclude with a magnificent ceremony held in Jessfield Park, a ceremony that would see us, one after another, step out onto a specially erected stage ... to greet the vast cheering crowds."
But Christopher's mother also disappears, and he is sent to live in England, where he grows up in the years between the world wars to become, he claims, a famous detective. His family's fate continues to haunt him, however, and he sifts through his memories to try to make sense of his loss. Finally, in the late 1930s, he returns to Shanghai to solve the most important case of his life. But as Christopher pursues his investigation, the boundaries between fact and fantasy begin to evaporate. Is the Japanese soldier he meets really Akira? Are his parents really being held in a house in the Chinese district? And who is Mr. Grayson, the British official who seems to be planning an important celebration? "My first question, sir, before anything else, is if you're happy with the choice of Jessfield Park for the ceremony? We will, you see, require substantial space."

In When We Were Orphans Kazuo Ishiguro uses the conventions of crime fiction to create a moving portrait of a troubled mind, and of a man who cannot escape the long shadows cast by childhood trauma. Sherlock Holmes needed only fragments--a muddy shoe, cigarette ash on a sleeve--to make his deductions, but all Christopher has are fading recollections of long-ago events, and for him the truth is much harder to grasp. Ishiguro writes in the first person, but from the beginning there are cracks in Christopher's carefully restrained prose, suggestions that his version of the world may not be the most reliable. Faced with such a narrator, the reader is forced to become a detective too, chasing crumbs of truth through the labyrinth of Christopher's memory.

Ishiguro has never been one for verbal pyrotechnics, but the unruffled surface of this haunting novel only adds to its emotional power. When We Were Orphans is an extraordinary feat of sustained, perfectly controlled imagination, and in Christopher Banks the author has created one of his most memorable characters.
 

Journal Entry 3 by booklady331 from Cape Coral, Florida USA on Sunday, June 03, 2007

Very interesting book. The depth of the writing kept me reading. I will either put it in a bookbox or RABCK the book after vacation 6/18. I don't think it is a good book to wild release. 

Journal Entry 4 by booklady331 at U.S. Postal Mail in By Mail, A RABCK -- Controlled Releases on Monday, July 02, 2007

Released 4 yrs ago (7/5/2007 UTC) at U.S. Postal Mail in By Mail, A RABCK -- Controlled Releases

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

to samutsari in Sri Lanki 

Journal Entry 5 by samutsari on Thursday, August 02, 2007

Thank you booklady331 for sending this book. I have always wanted to read Kazuo Ishiguro but books like his are hard to find here, so I am so grateful for this. Will set this at TBR for the meantime, I have 2 rings ahead of this but will read it soon and set ot free afterwards... 

Journal Entry 6 by samutsari on Tuesday, August 28, 2007

This book made me ponder after reading..quite disturbing but gives you some closure with sense of peace or contentment at the end. I would surely like to read more of Ishiguro's works. Thanks booklady331 for sharing it. I am sending this on to meexia in Singapore as a Ray-It-Forward. 

Journal Entry 7 by samutsari at to a fellow Bookcrossing member in by mail, RAY IT FORWARD -- Controlled Releases on Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Released 4 yrs ago (8/28/2007 UTC) at to a fellow Bookcrossing member in by mail, RAY IT FORWARD -- Controlled Releases

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

Mailing this off to meexia. 

Journal Entry 8 by meexia from Punchbowl, New South Wales Australia on Monday, September 10, 2007

I got this book today! Thanks samutsari! I'm very excited. It's the first book I got from bookcrossing (just joined a few weeks ago). It's also my first Kazuo Ishiguro book. I'm right now reading one of Haruki Murakami book, who also happens to be Japanese. It's Japanese frenzy! :D This will be the next book after I finish the one I'm reading now. Will journal more later!

ps: One of my colleagues was almost as excited to see that I got a post from Sri Lanka. She asked for the stamps :) 

Journal Entry 9 by meexia from Punchbowl, New South Wales Australia on Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Finally I got around to read this book, which I found enjoyable. I will watch out for more of Kazuo Ishiguro's books.

My complete review here

Will pass this book to Azuki in Hong Kong, since she and I are going to meet there in a few days time. Looks like this book is traveling alright ;)

Coincidentally I just found another copy in my fave used bookshop. I'm still thinking how to pass that one along. 

Journal Entry 10 by azuki from Miami, Florida USA on Wednesday, January 02, 2008

It was nice meeting Meexia in Hong Kong, and it's only now that I am journaling it that I realize that the book has come a full circle back to Florida! Guess it likes the weather here.
I really enjoyed Ishiguro's A Pale View of Hills so look forward to a good read.