Never Let Me Go
Rating: 3.5/5
First time read
I'd heard great things about this book. The author is a Novel Prize winner for Literature, after all. My seat mate on the train, as she sat down, even told me how good she thought it was and how I definitely needed to watch the movie after. (If it's on Netflix or Amazon Prime...maybe I will. But realistically, I won’t.) All in all, I thought it was good, Kazuo Ishiguro's writing is almost musical and he's clearly talented, however, it wasn't my favorite read.
This book was slow going. Like, when your subway is stuck going local instead of express slow going...I was reading as fast as I could just to see what would happen next because I kept thinking there had to be more. The narrator, Kathy H., was somewhat irritating due to her lack of emotion. She never really showed despair or anger, just brief frustration. Maybe this is the result of her growing up as she did, but the other characters seemed to show more human traits, so I suppose she’s just not one for the feelings. In fact, she’s kind of a pushover, which I think was why I found myself annoyed with instead of relating to her. The entire read was tinged with sadness, but in a beautiful way. Honestly though, the whole time I just wanted to get to the end so I could find out what the big reveal was. Because, there had to be one, otherwise, the whole book would feel, well, dull.
SPOILER ALERT
However, there really wasn't. I knew what was going on and pretty much guessed the behind-the-scenes happenings. So during the “climactic” scene, my disbelief was slowly growing because I started thinking, "Is this it?"
Then the ending. It was almost frustrating because you want two of the characters to stay together until the last moment, but it's understandable, I suppose, why they wouldn't. I’m putting myself in the book too much here and I couldn’t do what they did. At the very end, Kathy finally shows some emotion, but it's extremely short-lived. If it'd gone through what she had, maybe I wouldn't have shown it in public, but I would've been raging, screaming and crying in private. I don't know, maybe I'm too emotional, but it just seems more natural.
SPOILER OVER
Overall, I think it was a beautifully written book, the innocence of the students lasts longer than with normal children in the outside world, which I think adds to that melancholy overlay throughout. It certainly makes you think about the status of those seen as second-class and wonder how close we actually are to this dystopian future. I recommend this book, but I did expect a little more from a Nobel Prize winner.
