Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go was the last book on the initial publication of the List. Evidently, there are updated versions of the List that drop some books and add others, and this book is one that was dropped. To keep myself semi-sane, I'm sticking with the original list that I used, which can be found here.
I knew nothing about Ishiguro or his body of work when I picked this up. I recognized a book that he'd written, The Remains of the Day, from an award winning movie starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson (which I have not seen).
Never Let Me Go was a fantastic introduction to fiction on the List that I'd never considered. I guess you could technically call this book science fiction, as it deals with a dystopian Britain of the near-future. Still, if 'science fiction' to you means robots or space ships, that's not what is happening here.
The novel unfolds at its own pace, with Ishiguro revealing key plot points as he sees fit. This creates an incredible curiosity in the reader to determine just what is going on. The basic premise of the novel involves a trio of characters who went to an extremely exclusive boarding school in the wilds of rural England. It is clear from the beginning that it is not a normal school, and once the three graduate it becomes even more evident as they transition to what can best be described as a halfway house of a rustic farm that acts as a buffer for them as they integrate into regular society. Soon it becomes clear that the three, and all of the other students at their school and schools like it around the nation, are being prepped for a chilling purpose.
The novel is told from the point of view of one of the three, a young nurse when the action commences, who is looking back upon the relationship she shared with her two best friends, and how they have come to be reunited as adults. This one is highly recommended and raises more questions than it answers. What is the future of genetics? What are the potential moral ramifications of genetic science? And what is the essence of the human being?
3 comments:
I just read another book by Ishiguro ("When We Were Orphans"), and it seems like all his books that I've read (I think 5 in total) share this very muted tone. Sometimes it really works--mostly it really works--but I thought the voice of this book's protagonist was a little *too* muted. Things happen to the narrator, betrayals and traumas and the like, and through it all, she is practically emotionally catatonic. React, react! Is it an English "stiff upper lip" thing?
It took me awhile to get used to the tone, but for this book, it really worked for me. I think because of the emotionless and secluded upbringing of the characters, the incredible 'evenness' of the narrator made sense to me. How this would translate to other stories, I'm not sure. I do know that The Remains of the Day is about a butler. You don't get any more remote and 'stiff upper lip' than that!
When every narrator, though, is *so* understated--if you read more Ishiguro, who I think is a great writer, you'll see this--it makes you wonder if he can write people who are passionate and impulsive. His characters do impulsive things, but you get the feeling that they don't really know why, they're just sort of drifting into it.
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