This is my second time reading Never Let Me Go, so I was surprised that even though I knew the sort of "surprise" of the book, I still found it almost impossible to put the book down. I think this is because the book is so complex that it is not solely dependent on the mystery of what Hailsham is. The reader is not only intrigued by all the hints that are dropped about donors and carers, Ishiguro takes the reader into someone else's mind, into another world so completely that I could not tear myself away! I've only read one other of his novels, The Remains of the Day, and that book also is told from a very close first person, so close that you have to sort of figure out what is really happening apart from what the narrator is telling you.
In Never Let Me Go I was impressed that Ishiguro was able to create this female voice that was so authentic, and also to create this world of Hailsham that sounded familiar, while at the same time it was something totally alien and ultimately disturbing and tragic. He makes the reader nostaligic for a time and place that he created. I think this plays on a sense of nostalgia that is true in our world today-- we long for simpler times, that perhaps never existed, for times when things were more "authentic" or less complex. But just as Hailsham is not really what Kathy always thought it was, each time period has its own complexities and problems.
Apart from all that, I just think this is a great book. I really could not put it down, I felt so strongly for the characters in the novel. Ishiguro managed to create this strange, sort of sci-fi world and somehow root it in the angst of adolescence.
Comments (1)
I like your expression, "a very close first person." It may be a standard description but I've never seen it before. Never Let Me Go is the only Ishiguro novel I've ever read but you make me interested in trying some of his others.
Posted by Lucy | December 10, 2007 2:10 AM
Posted on December 10, 2007 02:10