📚: Never let me go, Kazuo Ishiguro

⚠️ Warning: Spoilers

Very touching novel about friendship, and making the best of the time we have with those we love. The story is woven greatly and the desenlace is crisp and stirring.

The main theme is how we take for granted the things we’re given —our time on earth and with others— and always want more. This isn’t about clones bred for organ harvesting; they are just stand-ins for ourselves, for the natural human condition. We all have a limited time, our lives pass us by while we’re preoccupied with small things under the illusion that we’ll always have more time.

There is also a related question of the extent to which knowing that we’re on borrowed time and being raised in lies reduces the value of our experiences, prevents us from being truly free.

The characters are okay. I found Ruth a bit over-the-top, a bit too much —though, then again, she kept reminding me of someone I grew up close to. Tommy —though he also has his moments— and Kath are more convincing.

The story is very well woven. Kazuo lays the entire foundation masterfully, only hinting subtly at the depth of what’s going to happen, which he reveals at once towards the end. The hammer falls and it hits hard.

I am repulsed by the annoying little “cliffhangers” littering the text —little “I’m going to tell you something very important, but first I must mention something else”-type crap. Manipulative and annoying. Just get on with the story, stop this briefly leaping ahead to tell us what’s coming, like an advertisement.

One example, a section ending like this (where no boat has previously been mentioned):

[…] I was about ready to report to them that it hadn’t worked out […]. But then everything changed again, and that was because of the boat.

Another:

Maybe, looking back, there was an atmosphere of something behing held back, but it’s possible I’m only thinking that now because of what happened next.

Another:

What I’m saying is that all in all I was under the impression we were dealing […] pretty well together, and that’s why I was so knocked off balance by what he came out with that day we walked around the field.

If this happened occasionally, it wouldn’t be bad; alas, it’s a defining characteristic. The fact that it’s Kath who does it, as she tells her own story, doesn’t excuse it —it is, ultimately, the writer’s choice. Because of this, I’m withholding my highest rating.

I think I also would have given sex and porn a smaller part.

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