When We Were Orphans

Kazuo Ishiguro

I know full well what you've been thinking all this time, Lieutenant! I could see it in your eyes. You believe this is all my fault, all this, all of it, all this terrible suffering, this destruction here, I could see it in your face when we were walking through it all just now. But that's because you know nothing, practically nothing, sir, concerning this matter. You may well know a thing or two about fighting, but let me tell you it's quite another thing to solve a complicated case of this kind. You obviously haven't the slightest idea what's involved. Such things take time, sir! A case like this one, it requires great delicacy. I suppose you imagine you can just rush at it with bayonets and rifles, do you? It's taken time, I accept that, but that's in the very nature of a case like this. But I don't know why I bother to say all this. What would you understand about it, a simple soldier?

Now we are grown, we can at last put things right.

It seems like some of the best books in the world, I cannot write anything about them. When We Were Orphans is not one of the best books in the world. Not even high up on the list. But I think Ishiguro is close to being a great author. He would be great if he could find more than one voice in his throat. Any one of his books would stick with you longer than most books, but if you read more than one of his books you'll find yourself wondering if he's really that good after all. It's the similarity, you see.
But back to not being able to write. There are many reasons a book will leave me speechless of the written word; sometimes, and this is the most common, the book inspires me to write and I end up writing something that isn't a review at all, sometimes it makes me want to say something so profound that I trap myself with the pressure and never get anything out at all, sometimes fills me with too many things to say and none of them closely connected. In every case, I usually let time pass and the feeling fade or deaden itself, slow gas escaping, like flat soda.
When We Were Orphans will make you squirm a good deal. And then some. Prepare for that.