When I first bought Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go, I wanted to love it. I found myself intrigued by the plot, the premise, and the recommendation that I received from friends. Unfortunately, after finishing all I could feel was disappointment. It usually takes me just a few days to read a book, especially one as short as Never Let Me Go (288 pgs). But Ishiguro’s novel took me a week and a half to finish. Sitting down to read the book everyday felt like a chore, and I could only read a chapter or two before I felt bored.
One reason for this is that Ishiguro assumes a lot of his readers. When I entered the novel’s world I had an extremely difficult time finding my footing. He gives no background information about what the characters are, why they are attending a boarding school like Halisham, and what exactly the main character’s job is. In the first few lines of the book we are told that the main character, Kathy H., has been a “carer” for twelve years. Then the word is abandoned and we move on from it, without ever being explained what “carer” means. While I appreciate narratives that assume the reader’s knowledge of a fantasy world without having to explain it, Isiguruo alienates the reader instead of integrating them.
Most of the book is a recording of childhood memories that may or may not fall into chronological order. The narrator is scattered and skips around a lot, going off on anecdotes much like how a flustered girl telling a story to an interrogation officer might. Though he is attempting to give the narrator a conversational tone, the narration is instead superficial and falls flat. He often incorporates clichés into his prose making the book sound like a piece of amateur writing from a much younger artist.
For me, the greatest downfall of Never Let Me Go wasn’t so much Ishiguro’s writing and alienating world, but the disappointing climax and plot. Throughout the book, the reader is given hints and insights into the world of the clones, who grow up at a boarding school and go on to fulfill their empty destiny of making organ donations for the sake of human health, only for themselves to die at a young age. While the overarching theme of the novel is to prove that the clones possess the same humanity (if not more) than the people they are dying for, it fails to go as deep into the psychology of this idea as possible.
Ishiguro has so much to work with. The novel has an intriguing base idea and main characters, but he allows them and their needs to fizzle out. Throughout the book, the reader is lead to believe that the prose is building up to a large climax—a thunderous secret reveal that would make trekking through the dryness of the book worth it, but in the end we are left with nothing. In retrospect, it all seems like a bad joke.
When I placed Never Let Me Go down, I did not feel like I had gained insight about humanity. I did not feel like my universe was temporarily altered. I did not feel the sadness in knowing that the world I had played in for a week and a half was gone, and that I would never be able to access it again—the way Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy will never be able to come back to Narnia again. These are all emotions I often have when finishing a good book. Instead, I felt drained of my energy and relieved for it to be over. Now I can finally start reading The Princess Bride.
P.S: This may be old news but it looks like Never Let Me Go is being made into a movie starring Keira Knightly and Carey Mulligan, to premiere in late 2010.
