Never Let Me Go

How can the perfect novel be about a dystopia? This is what that I asked myself a few days after finishing Never Let Me Go. When I started the novel I had no idea what I was getting into. Having never been a fan of science fiction, I was worried about reading it. I shouldn't have been concerned, because Kazuo Ishiguro's exquisite writing style transformed the book from a depressing out-of-world love story to a masterful study on mortality.

The narration is careful and understated, and exists solely to focus on the way young people can make a life out of whatever is offered to them. The reader is busily occupied with the interactions of Kathy and her best friends Ruth and Tommy. In these relationships, Ishiguro sets a cat's cradle of psychological and emotional tensions. I was struck by the whole concept of organ donation, and how Kathy, Tommy and Ruth were treated by normal human beings. Never Let Me Go deals with questions about humanity and humaneness as the novel shows a steady erosion of hope. It is a tale of deceptive simplicity. Ishiguro is slow to reveal an extraordinary amount of emotional depth and resonance, but once everything is out it raises an interesting question. Would it be better to be brought up in ignorance and be happy, not knowing you are going to die much earlier than others because you were created to donate body parts? Or is it best to tell the donors what is going to happen to them, and take away the innocent happiness of their childhood. Personally, I can't decide on an answer.

Even though it was a completely unrelatable topic, the novel hit me close to home. It continued to haunt me even after I finished the novel. Kazuo Ishiguro's words weave a beautifully damned world, and even when I didn't understand what was happening, I was very attached to the characters. I still felt like something ominous was looming over the whole plot. I read faster, waiting for the secret to be spilled. I devoured this book in one sitting, and didn't stop to take it in until I was done. It reduced me to tears as if I had just woken up from a disturbing dream. I felt disoriented and anxious, almost betrayed by the thought that this situation could occur, now or in the future. Kazuo Ishiguro was never interested in the possibility of escaping and rebuilding lives. His novel was written as an exploration of a doomed life, where characters realize: you cannot lose a thing that was never yours and things that you have lost cannot wash back to you and wait in perfect condition on the shores.