The Giver

Good Lord. I knew that this is what the young people were reading in school nowadays, and I wondered quite a bit what it was about. I had NO IDEA. If the kids are actually reading this, everything is going to be fine. My favorite English teacher, Henry Brady, used to have us read Brave New World, trying to get the same effect, but it was too enmeshed in the adult world, and was too dated to make much sense to most students. But this is something else again. Its fundamental premise is that left unchecked, society will ultimately rob us of our humanity. It is thoughtful, deep, multilayered, imaginative, elegant, bold, and deserving of its many accolades. Ron Rifkin makes a passable reader for the audiobook, but the director of this should be ashamed of himself. Terrible synthesizer music at the same frequency as Rifkin's voice pops up at various key points in the book and basically ruins them.

I guess I should read the sequels. Thanks, Lois Lowry, for protecting us from ourselves!