Would you believe it, I haven't actually watched any TV worth commenting on for a while! I seem to have rediscovered reading for pleasure, something that I lost interest in when I realised that my uni course consisted almost entirely of extremely unpleasurable reading. I may throw a few book posts into my blog in the future.
So, Never Let Me Go (for a fuller summary of the plot, follow this link).This book is written by Kazuo Ishiguro, a Japenese-British author. I read Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day (also a not-very-well-done film starring Anthony Hopkins that leaves all of the best bits of the book out) for A Level English. I can't say it was a favourite of mine at the time; the book is full of so much subtle symbolism that you find yourself thinking 'did the author really give so much significance to so and so glancing out of a window'? The protagonist who narrates the book is also somewhat irritating throughout most of the novel, although I think this is the whole aim of the book, as we begin to feel more sympathy for the character as the story progresses, and it is only once I had finished the book that I realised I had enjoyed it.
Never Let Me Go is pretty different to The Remains. I was expecting symbolism galore and artsy messages like with the other book, but symbolism was not the main theme of the book as far as I could tell (although of course there were plenty of symbolic elements). The book is centred around an adult called Kathy reliving memories of her youth and looking at them again with adult eyes, with the added dimension that Kathy and the other characters are clones whose sole purpose in life is to grow up and 'donate' their organs to the rest of the population. This book isn't remotely sci-fi though; the clone and donation aspect is only really discussed in terms of how that affects the lives of the characters, not in a science fiction sort of way, and it works really well (as I'll come back to later).
This book feels like it is written quite simply, with the narrator's style flowing casually through the story. I felt pretty detached from this book until near the very end; like The Remains, I don't think I realised how good it had been until I'd finished it off, and then I wanted to read it again almost immediately, feeling I would appreciate it much more the second time round. Having said that, this book is weirdly addictive. Even though there isn't even that much of a gripping plot line with no real major events, there is always the feeling that over the next few pages you will find out something totally integral to the plot.
It's the clone dimension that makes this book a real page turner. That the characters are clones is hinted at throughout the book, and it is easy for the reader to work out their true purpose in life from fairly early on. However, within the story anything to do with their destiny as organ doners is shrouded in euphemism, and the characters seem to live a pretty normal life. Kathy and her friends are puzzled by aspects of their lives and make guesses as to what different things mean, and this curiousity is passed onto the reader, leaving me desperate for answers by the time I reached the final section of the book. As I said earlier, the ending makes the book and it is during this part that we get the answers to the questions that Kathy has been alluding to throughout her story.
The ending also makes you realise how attached you had become to the characters. The main voice of Kathy holds little emotion in my opinion, almost as if she has resigned herself to her fate and wants to factually record the musing of her earlier life. Because of this, the emotion that I felt at the end of the novel really surprised me. I won't say anymore so that I don't ruin the ending for those of you who read it, but this is a truly brilliant book that I urge everyone to read, even if it doesn't seem that way to start off with. I can't really express how much I enjoyed this book so read it yourself and see if you agree!
Never Let Me Go has also been turned into a film which I haven't yet seen but I'm sure I will feel the need to write about as soon as I have watched it judging by the trailer:
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