

Loading... Never Let Me Go (2005)by Kazuo Ishiguro
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This ultimately is a story about relationships. The way you see yourself in relation to others and how others in the group see you. It shows how experiences change those relationships. ( ![]() Ishiguro keeps the progress of the story tightly wound and moving like clockwork; the formula he uses began to wear on me, but then became a pleasant rhythm that rocked the story forward and back between time lines. His use of the macabre "scifi" element, which is what drew me to the book in the first place, was very light; he didn't lean on it, but instead used it as the background for his character's struggles. The main character, Kathy, understands human emotion and reaction and reason so well, that it makes the point that clones are humans too without stuffing the lesson down your throat. Simply told, beautifully imagined, and just slightly disturbing. Looking forward to his other novels. From her mid-life position as a carer, Kathy reflects on her life and upbringing at an elite school that groomed her and her peers to Lots of great themes here, foremost that of duty. Definitely a literary novel in which every character choice and reflection has a larger thematic purpose. Readers seems to be either awestruck by the thematic depth ("such an adult novel") or frustrated by the way that depth manifests ("why don't they rebel"). For me, I felt like the story was extremely well-executed but the themes were pretty pedestrian -- I had the sense this was a book that would have engaged me best in high school. Would recommend widely regardless. Never Let Me Go (Vintage International) by Kazuo Ishiguro (2006) One of my favourite books of all time. “Here is what will happen, and there is nothing you can do about it”. The mythos that forms around offsetting and the measurement of love’s “truthfulness” upset me perhaps more than they should. But the humanity in hope and clinging on to any shred of possibility is… well… human. It’s us. It is to see and imagine and play out in one’s head who you are and what you would be, should shoes be reversed. It is contemplative and as I’ve said of Ishiguro’s works in general; this is where his writing shines. It is contentious amongst my friends, but I don’t believe Tommy intelligent. Not stupid, not emotionally stunted, but unexceptional in all but his enthusiasm and optimism. He is to blame, I believe, as much so as Ruth, and yet I feel we are to forgive him more so than she. Perhaps she knew better, perhaps he went along, and perhaps everyone, Kathy included, was just so traumatized and scared by what was to come that we cannot make reasonable judgements exterior to the situation. But I feel Ruth got off harder than Tommy, and honestly, I think that’s the point. To not spoil the ending, which often are the most profound parts of Ishiguro’s works, I will just say that Kathy’s final words have always stuck with me. There is an inherent space between, one we may spend our whole lives attempting to overcome, and yet we inevitably cannot — and in that way, our lives are not so different. We all want more than we will have. It is depressing, but it inspires as well that one live in such a way as they shuffle off having dome all we could have. It is not a novel idea, but this story has never left my mind, in at least some small way, since I first read it.
Ishiguro is extremely good at recreating the special, oppressive atmosphere of school (and any other institution, for that matter)—the cliques that form, the covert rivalries, the obsessive concern with who sat next to whom, who was seen talking to whom, who is in favor at one moment and who is not. The eeriest feature of this alien world is how familiar it feels. It's like a stripped-down, haiku vision of children everywhere, fending off the chaos of existence by inventing their own rules. "Never Let Me Go" is marred by a slapdash, explanatory ending that recalls the stilted, tie-up-all-the loose-ends conclusion of Hitchcock's "Psycho." The remainder of the book, however, is a Gothic tour de force that showcases the same gifts that made Mr. Ishiguro's 1989 novel, "The Remains of the Day," such a cogent performance. This extraordinary and, in the end, rather frighteningly clever novel isn't about cloning, or being a clone, at all. It's about why we don't explode, why we don't just wake up one day and go sobbing and crying down the street, kicking everything to pieces out of the raw, infuriating, completely personal sense of our lives never having been what they could have been. Belongs to Publisher SeriesIs contained inHas the adaptationHas as a reference guide/companionHas as a studyHas as a student's study guide
Hailsham seems like a pleasant English boarding school, far from the influences of the city. Its students are well tended and supported, trained in art and literature, and become just the sort of people the world wants them to be. But, curiously, they are taught nothing of the outside world and are allowed little contact with it. Within the grounds of Hailsham, Kathy grows from schoolgirl to young woman, but it's only when she and her friends Ruth and Tommy leave the safe grounds of the school (as they always knew they would) that they realize the full truth of what Hailsham is. No library descriptions found.
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![]() GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914 — Literature English {except North American} English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:![]()
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