Addendum to Orphans

I had not quite finished "When We Were Orphans," when I wrote about it recently, and while I still agree that he does not consistently take you away to another dimension from start to finish, he makes up for it in the last chapter or so.....not only does he finally make the otherwise superficial main character human, but we gain the most important insight into his thinking behind being orphaned. The rawness and transparency of it all.

More than abandonment and orphan thinking, the clutter from those living unauthentic lives are revealed honestly and openly. He closes with an understanding, appreciation and acceptance of contentment, which we often only gain later in our lives, after too many promises wear out or fade out, or perhaps grow gray over time like the melancholy stormy skies in Spring.

In the end, he does not spend his life with the woman he never seemed to truly connect with, yet gravitated to and probably loved. He reflects on her own orphaned state and aloneness, as he starts to truly understand his own and that of his adopted niece, who has no parents to turn to throughout her adolescent life and beyond.

He writes, "My feeling is that she is thinking of herself as much as of me when she talks of a sense of a mission, and the futility of attempting to evade it. Perhaps there are those who are able to go about their lives unfettered by such concerns. But for those like us, our fate is to face the world as orphans, chasing through long years the shadows of vanished parents. There is nothing for it but to try and see through our missions to the end, as best we can, for until we do so, we will be permitted no calm."

Permitted no calm!! Spot on Kishiguro. Bravo bravo. Yes yes yes, you get it all don't you?