Kazuo Ishiguro: Never Let Me Go (EBook, 2009, Faber and Faber Ltd)
E-book
English language
Published Oct. 29, 2009 by Faber and Faber Ltd.
A clear frontrunner to be the years most extraordinary novel . . . Not since The Remains of the Day has Ishiguro written about wasted lives with such finely gauged forlornness.' Sunday TimesIn one of the most acclaimed and original novels of recent years, Kazuo Ishiguro imagines the lives of a group of students growing up in a darkly skewered version of contemporary England. Narrated by Kathy, now thirty-one, Never Let Me Go hauntingly dramatises her attempts to come to terms with her childhood at the seemingly idyllic Hailsham School, and with the fate that has always awaited her and her closest friends in the wider world. A story of love, friendship and memory, Never Let Me Go is charged throughout with a sense of the fragility of life.
The dystopian premise that's central but hardly the point narrows and sharpens this otherwise moving English boarding school story of childhood misinterpretations, loves, obsessions growing into adult reframing, acquiescence, and ailing concerns to an objective study of universal questions.
Content warning Spoiler Alert.
Apparently, when I finished this book, I never wrote a review... which is insane to think about but I'll try and write one now (despite it being around a year later). I loved this story. As a British teenager I have always loved the platonic and romantic dynamic that boarding schools encourage and, as such, thoroughly enjoyed how different relations played out throughout this tale. Furthermore, the addition of science-fiction elements allowed for the exemplification of narrative elements and enigmas ergo drawing the audience even further into the strange world of Hailsham. I will likely revisit this book many times throughout my life to feel what I felt whilst reading it for the first time; to walk the halls of Hailsham; to watch the football games on the field; to stare into the ambiguous forest across the accommodation windows.
I picked this randomly, I've never read one of his books before, but I'm glad I did!
It's such an interesting book, the writing is surprisingly fitting for the story. It's such a nice way to build the world through someones eyes, that doesn't see how weird it is. I thought it would change on a specific direction after a certain plot point, but it didn't. It's strange to think about how they would think and what things they wouldn't even question. Why they wouldn't start a revolution, never even consider it. They are just so used to how things are laid out for them, it's just how it's supposed to be for them. I'm looking forward to his other books!
