NEVER LET ME GO
by Kazuo Ishiguro
Continuing the dystopian theme, I recently got around to reading this 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winner and completely loved it. Unlike The Girl with all the Gifts, an action packed story where everything goes wrong, in Ishiguro’s dystopia, it is almost hard to distinguish the differences between his world and ours. Additionally, as we follow Kathy from childhood to middle age, we don’t get the sense that anyone besides her is questioning the status quo.
Although the book jumps around a bit in the narrative of her life, her story begins at a boarding school called Hailsham, and many of Kathy’s experiences mirror those of any teenaged girl at school. But there are a few mysteries, both for her and the reader. As she grows up, some mysteries are solved, but many remain or are left open to the reader’s interpretation.
Ishiguro’s writing style feels very atmospheric and I felt immersed in the places as strongly as I connected to the characters. Thematically similar to The Girl With All the Gifts in questioning the value of life and autonomy over one’s own body,Never Let Me Go also explores young love and friendship.
This is a beautiful, bleak novel that definitely made me want to read more by Ishiguro. (Lily)
A SECOND HELPING
Lily reviewed Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro just last month and I immediately took it out of the pile of my “to be read” books. Ishiguro writes beautifully, as was verified by his winning the Pulitzer Prize for this book in 2005. The quality of his writing adds to the eeriness of his story. Never once in this portrait of what life could look like in the future does our protagonist just come out and tell the story from Point A to Point B to Point C. Rather, we discover her mysterious reality through remembered conversations and cinematic descriptions of places and events. This is not an action book, but it is a book that will long remain with you for its haunting beauty. (Liz)