Book Review (Canon): Never Let Me Go

Never Let Me Go
Written by Kazuo Ishiguro in 2005

The Raccoon: Never Let Me Go illuminates the life of Kathy H., a former student at the peculiar boarding school, Hailsham.  She reflects on her childhood and how her and her friends’ destiny has shaped their lives.

UNMASKED: “All right, you can hear this, it’s for all of you. It’s time someone spelt it out…  The problem, as I see it, is that you’ve been told and not told.  You’ve been told, but none of you really understand, and I dare say, some people are quite happy to leave it that way.  But I’m not.”

These lines are the beginning of a speech from Miss Lucy, one of the guardians at Hailsham, in which she reveals to the main characters their purpose in life.  Ishiguro has strategically outlined the story so that the reader, too, is “told and not told.”  For example, I knew before I started reading it that Never Let Me Go is a dystopian novel, so certain truths were quickly accepted.  However, there are darker meanings to these that hit powerfully as the book climaxed, similar to when you are standing in the ocean and see a wave coming, but nonetheless are unprepared for the force of its impact.

Ishiguro mainly executes this dichotomy through Never Let Me Go’s nonlinear storyline.  Kathy’s narration jumps around and melts into various ideas as she is reminded of them, similar to how actual thoughts work.  Her tangents are the perfect length, which allowed me to fully understand a concept without forgetting what Kathy was talking about before she explained it.

The other aspect of Never Let Me Go that makes the book stand out is the relationships between characters.  Kathy and Ruth’s friendship has more substance than any other I have read, with their loyalty balancing their resentment and their gratitude balancing their regret over the span of their entire lives.  The interactions between the guardians and students are profound and often humorous, and, unlike most teachers in novels revolving around students, the guardians have established lives and conflicts outside of their time with the main characters.  This makes a reunion near the end of the novel much more impactful.

Never Let Me Go almost feels like reading the ocean.  Waves briefly rise and crash into each other, pulled by longer-lasting, deeper tides, and the tides in turn are the ocean’s way of saying “I’m here.  I’m somebody.”  Because of this, I see the novel as a statement acknowledging people who are seemingly invisible, the ones who silently suffer while they pull the carriages of high society.

Strong Points:

• Every character mentioned adds to the narrative in some way, and all of them are well-thought out, with layered emotions and motivations.
• The way Kathy tells the story perfectly aligns with her life experiences.  At times, she phrases things strangely or expects the reader to have come from a similar institution as she did.  Rather than sounding awkward, this adds to the realism of the novel.
• There are no questions left unanswered.

While the ending is rather depressing, I am unable to find anything wrong with this book.

Rating: 20/20 pieces taken for the Gallery

Ideal Setting: Read this before a long drive, to contemplate what all of your actions have been leading up to and to ensure that you do not have an audience when the book makes you cry.