Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
I can’t help it, before a summary, before anything, I’m blurting out my opinion so here goes:
I was so disappointed.
It dragged more slowly than the donation process and left me colder than a clone who’s completed and is lying on a slab of metal in the morgue. And if you don’t understand that and want to read the book with fresh, unspoiled eyes, read no further.
Actually, it wasn’t that active a disappointment; it was slower and more seeping. Kathy went to school at Hailsham, a private school in the country, where all the students were made to feel special, as though they had a purpose. There are two students with whom she has a special relationship, Ruth and Tommy, who eventually become a couple. Years later, Kathy acts as carer to both. You see, they are all raised for organ donation; they are clones of real people and their sole purpose is to to provide the healthy bits to unhealthy real people.
The idea is fabulous. The problem was the tone; I would characterize Ishiguro as being a master of quiet dissonance, which works so well in Remains of the Day and The Unconsoled. To me, it didn’t work as well here; the characters — with the exception of the manipulative Ruth — the characters seemed flat. Perhaps the slow exposition of the spoiler was to blame; I already knew what it was.
It’s not that I thought it was bad — Ishiguro writes so well. But for a better literary science fiction novel, read Atwood’s Oryx and Crake instead.