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A review by chaz11
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
3.0
Strange and meandering - though interesting nonetheless.
Never Let Me Go kept me intrigued throughout the book. It's a story framed by Kathy H., who at 31 is reflecting on her life as she retires from being a 'carer' to become a 'donor'. You think you know what these words mean, much like you think you know the sort of place Hailsham is (on the surface, a typical British boarding school) but the more you read, the more you find that something very different is going on here.
I enjoyed Kathy's narration. It felt conversational, like listening to an old friend. Kathy would tell stories of her childhood and youth, often nesting stories within these to give a better context. By this, there was also a focus on the ordinary things (some might even say mundane). There's a larger and stranger world, but it's in the background of Kathy and her friends' human experience.
The 'twist' is scattered throughout the book - Ishiguro does a great job of saying things without saying them. After all this, there's a point where the truth is explained more plainly and then the end comes quickly. It left me with the same vague feeling you'd imagine the characters to have and I suspect this is intentional on Ishiguro's part. In life, the truth comes suddenly and it is not wholly new to us, it fills the gaps between what we know and don't and leaves us to just deal with it.
Never Let Me Go is a quiet book about loud ideas. It may not be for everyone, but it is thought-provoking.
Never Let Me Go kept me intrigued throughout the book. It's a story framed by Kathy H., who at 31 is reflecting on her life as she retires from being a 'carer' to become a 'donor'. You think you know what these words mean, much like you think you know the sort of place Hailsham is (on the surface, a typical British boarding school) but the more you read, the more you find that something very different is going on here.
I enjoyed Kathy's narration. It felt conversational, like listening to an old friend. Kathy would tell stories of her childhood and youth, often nesting stories within these to give a better context. By this, there was also a focus on the ordinary things (some might even say mundane). There's a larger and stranger world, but it's in the background of Kathy and her friends' human experience.
The 'twist' is scattered throughout the book - Ishiguro does a great job of saying things without saying them. After all this, there's a point where the truth is explained more plainly and then the end comes quickly. It left me with the same vague feeling you'd imagine the characters to have and I suspect this is intentional on Ishiguro's part. In life, the truth comes suddenly and it is not wholly new to us, it fills the gaps between what we know and don't and leaves us to just deal with it.
Never Let Me Go is a quiet book about loud ideas. It may not be for everyone, but it is thought-provoking.