Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Published by simon on August 7, 2010I’ve lost my reading mojo a little in the past 2 months. Partly due to lethargy, partly because i was stuck with this book.
I tried to power thru the first few chapters, but the description of the mundane life of kids in a privileged English boarding school was too inane to get my interest going. There was something special / weird about them, but the hints were to scarce it was getting a little infuriating.
After leaving it for a month or and spending my time watching TV series and old movies of my hard disk, i decided to finish the book 2 days ago.
Conclusion – yes, the start is difficult, but all in all, Ishiguro is a genius and this is a masterpiece.
There is not much I can tell without giving away the surprises in the book, but it amazes me how Ishiguro can write like this. So patient and nonchalant, his storyline weaves from the present to the past to the present and to another past.
There’s a big reveal at the end that explains almost everything, but by then you would have long realized that the strange setting of the novel isn’t the driving force of the book – the relationships between the 3 main character is. And how the cope with their perception of life through memories.
I hear there’s a movie from this book coming out this year. Gotta watch it.
Good review
I see it as an allegory of how we all also unconsciously look at some folks as less than human, for example, foreign laborers, maids, etc. Aren’t they as deserving of dignity and compassion as the rest of us? Aren’t they just as misunderstood as the characters in the book, i.e. feared and shunned?
but reading the book, i couldnt help but wonder, what made them resign themselves to their fate? if it were real, most of them would run away from hailsham or commit suicide.
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