On the whole, Kazuo Ishiguro's latest work, When We Were Orphans, is really a test of my patience. While I'm a great fan of a couple of his earlier literary masterpieces, this particular read however, took me at least a couple of months (and two book renewals) to complete. I like Ishiguro's easy and casual writing style and his convincing portrayal of English middle-class life but after awhile, the frequent flash-back sequences which he employed to narrate the story of his protagonist became quite aggravating and so does the way the plot sort of dragged halfway through. Moreover, the story never really reached a crescendo at all; it seemed to, but the momentum waned just when things started to get a little interesting...
At any rate, there were a couple of gems (i.e. effective phrases that leapt from the page; to me, at least).
"All I know is that I've wasted all these years looking for something, a sort of trophy I'd get if only I really, really did enough to deserve it. But I don't want it anymore; I want something else now. Something warm and sheltering, something I can turn to, regardless of what I do, regardless of who I become. Something that will just be there always, like tomorrow's sky..."---- my rating ~ 3/5 stars!
