What does it mean to be human?
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro might be written like a memoir, but through vingettes of a persons life calls humanity and human nature into question. So much lies beneath the surface in this short book, that you’ll be haunted by the echos for a long time.
Hype Report
Goodreads readers have rated this 3.85 stars. In my opinion, this is appropriately hyped.
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Aesthetic
The Cover
I had some trouble with the cover of this book, and here’s why:
My first impression was that this looked like it might be about kidnapping or child abuse, which I do not like reading about, so I was put off. Then I saw the Nobel Prize sticker and thought, this might be technically amazing, but maybe it’s “too smart” for me. On the whole, I was not eager to even read the back cover to see what the story was about. (This was remedied by a recommendation from a book club member who suggested it as our next read.)
Technically, it bothered me that the edges of the text were cut off, but otherwise, the cover was well designed.
On the other hand, after having read the book, the cover does seem appropriate and in a way a bit metaphorical. Completely in line with the story beneath, I can’t really fault the cover as being misleading.
Artistically, once I understood the context, I realized the cut-off text was likely purposefully done and appropriate.
So you see the dilemma – the cover can be critiqued before or after reading. In terms of selling books, this cover is likely at least intriguing enough to pick up.
Interior
The pages were kept simple and cleanly designed, if a bit dense. One delightful touch was that the gaps between vignettes within a chapter were punctuated with little doodles. I was unable to discern if these were meant to indicate anything in particular about the content, but they vaguely reminded me of the art theme throughout the text.
Did the design affect whether I bought the book?
No. I picked this book up because my book club decided to read it.
Summary
In Short
Kathy shares memories of her life, creating vignettes of a picturesque boarding school with a troubling purpose.
From the Publisher
NOBEL PRIZE WINNER • From the acclaimed, bestselling author of The Remains of the Day comes “a Gothic tour de force” (The New York Times) with an extraordinary twist—a moving, suspenseful, beautifully atmospheric modern classic.
One of The New York Times’s 10 Best Books of the 21st Century • A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the Century • A Los Angeles Times Best Fiction Book of the Last 30 Years
As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were.
Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life. And for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special—and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together.
Character Analysis
Realistic. The characters are so very well rendered. They remind you of people you know. Everyone is deeply flawed and struggles with inner turmoil, building and maintaining relationships of all kinds, and understanding where they fit in the grand scheme of things. Like real people, the characters are each primarily concerned with themselves, which drives their actions and reactions. The book is a study in humanity as it plays out in a small group of individuals.
…that things like pictures, poetry, all that kind of stuff, she said they revealed what you were like inside. She said they revealed your soul.
Writing Style
The writing is incredibly approachable. The prose is simple. It is a young woman recounting detailed memories of her life so far. But in that simplicity are hidden unfathomable depths. There are layers of meaning and metaphor, implications that seem innocuous through the eyes of a child but hint at the greater problems of the world at large.
Interestingly, the things that don’t get mentioned directly are often as important as the one that are. This includes money, politics, ethics, interaction with ‘normals’ outside the proscribed settings, and the profound suppression of choices in Never Let Me Go.
Themes
There is a lot to unpack here. Never Let Me Go certainly explores themes of friendship and love, and wider notes of politics and ethics. One main theme is “otherness” and all that it can imply. People group and separate things, creating an understanding of this vs that. It happens in small ways, between groups of friends, or in larger ways, which I’ll not spoil here. Memory also plays a central role both in the method of storytelling and as an important element that is explored as a part of human experience. Another theme flowing throughout the story was the importance of art and literature, how these hobbies nurture and sustain a person through hard times.
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SPOILERS
I thought the storyline about Thomas’s animal drawings was a great metaphor for the clones. The clones were like humans, and the drawings were imaginary animals that had similarities to real animals, but on close examination, looking at the details, they had all of these intricacies that made them special, but also different. The fact that he worried over how they might protect themselves or reach things was so in line with the clone’s inability to lead their own lives, have jobs other than carers or donors, or to escape from their purpose of dying so that others might live.
Critical Evaluation
Never Let Me Go is deceptively simple. On the surface, it’s an easy, if sad, story to read. But when you look at it, there isn’t anything simple about it. I suppose you’d expect that from an author who’s won a Nobel Prize for literature. It contains a great deal of nuance and emotion.
Listen Tommy, your art, it is important. And not just because it is evidence. But for your own sake. You’ll get a lot from it, just for yourself.
Personal Opinion
Im blown away by the authors ability to weave so much depth into something that on the surface seems like a memoir stuffed with nostalgia. This book made me melancholy for days. It’s haunting and beautiful in a way that I am not equipped to describe. The more I mull over it the more I find waiting to dissect. This book is going to stay with me for a long time.
Recommendation
I do recommend this book. As a mood reader I think it’s important to say that this isn’t a light read. It will make you think. It might make you feel sad – a lot. So make sure you are ready for that when you dive in. Be ready to be uncomfortable in a way that is hard to define.
Notes
If you like this book, I’d suggest checking out The Measure by Nikki Erlick or vice versa.
Do you read books that you know will make you feel sad? Let’s discuss.
May your life be as full as your bookshelf and as long as your TBR list.
Happy Reading!
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