Never Let Me Go (Vintage International)
From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans comes an unforgettable edge-of-your-seat mystery that is at once heartbreakingly tender and morally courageous about what it means to be human. Never Let Me Go follows Kathy as she grows from schoolgirl to young woman at Hailsham, a seemingly pleasant English boarding school. It is a gripping mystery, a beautiful love story, and also a scathing critique of human arrogance and a moral examination of how we treat the vulnerable and different in our society. In exploring the themes of memory and the impact of the past, Ishiguro takes on the idea of a possible future to create his most moving and powerful book to date.
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Readers say *Never Let Me Go* is beautifully written and haunting, blending tender, slow-paced storytelling with a chilling alternate reality. Reviewe...
A unique story about growing up and a beautifully sympathetic novel for anyone who has been in love and had to say goodbye.
Oof. The majority of this book is mundane talk about petty boarding school conflicts, but it's sprinkled with underlying hints that the students are being prepared for a weird post-school role in society. Only the very end of the book provides a full explanation that leaves you reflecting on what it means to be human. This book is more about what isn't said, than what's actually said. The ending makes you revisit the characters in your head to analyze their behavior with the newfound information.
By the end of the book, we confirm that the students are all sterilized clones that have been created to be organ donors for society. They live in a world that treats clones as non-human creatures without souls. The school that the students attended provides superior treatment to this particular group of clones and tries to sway society into believing that clones are fully human and deserve more ethical treatment. They eventually lose this culture war because their society can't give up all the benefits that the organ donors provide in curing their ailments and keeping their loved ones alive. This book will leave you contemplating what it means to have a soul and free will. Another reviewer accurately summarized that this novel "explores the futility of human life, its un-bargainable eventual completion, and how we all choose to deal with the inevitable end."
Yes, this is an interesting premise that brought up great thought experiments; however, I have to admit that I didn't enjoy reading it very much. It was slow, and I disliked reading about the constant conniving behavior between the main characters.
By the end of the book, we confirm that the students are all sterilized clones that have been created to be organ donors for society. They live in a world that treats clones as non-human creatures without souls. The school that the students attended provides superior treatment to this particular group of clones and tries to sway society into believing that clones are fully human and deserve more ethical treatment. They eventually lose this culture war because their society can't give up all the benefits that the organ donors provide in curing their ailments and keeping their loved ones alive. This book will leave you contemplating what it means to have a soul and free will. Another reviewer accurately summarized that this novel "explores the futility of human life, its un-bargainable eventual completion, and how we all choose to deal with the inevitable end."
Yes, this is an interesting premise that brought up great thought experiments; however, I have to admit that I didn't enjoy reading it very much. It was slow, and I disliked reading about the constant conniving behavior between the main characters.
In Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, we follow three friends as they navigate love, friendship, and a fate that was decided for them long before they understood it. It is slow and hauntingly emotional, the kind of story where you feel a sword constantly hanging overhead. You know it will fall. It was always meant to.
What unsettles the most is not rebellion, but acceptance. The characters do not dream of escape, only of delay. Of buying a little more time before the inevitable. Their quiet submission feels more tragic than resistance ever could.
Ishiguro’s restrained writing mirrors the students of Hailsham: you are told just enough, but never enough to feel safe. There is always something withheld, and that absence creates a steady, lingering dread.
It was never truly a question that they were conditioned to accept their fate, and yet we cannot help but wonder: would rebellion have changed anything at all?
I didn't know the premise of [b:Never Let Me Go|6334|Never Let Me Go|Kazuo Ishiguro|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353048590l/6334._SY75_.jpg|1499998] before I started. Even though the students were created to become organ donors from birth, the Hailsham students' lives were filled with common school-aged drama.
The Hailsham students hypothesized why they are encouraged to produce artistic and literary works, what their guardians represent, and what their lives might look like after they leave Hailsham. Assumptions needed to be made on the part of the reader to discover the answers to the same questions raised.
The story's pace was sometimes slow, and I don't care about the relationships between Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy much. However, the relationships illustrate more humanity of these students who were modeled from other people in the world.
[b:Never Let Me Go|6334|Never Let Me Go|Kazuo Ishiguro|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353048590l/6334._SY75_.jpg|1499998] does not describe why an individual who had a Hailsham student modeled after them would not keep a close eye to ensure the best match when a donation is needed in the future. There was a brief discussion of eugenics during the Morningdale scandal, which only explains the lack of tracking tangentially.
Also, counterfactuals would be possible in this world, but only one student is modeled after one person out in the world. Perhaps I'm making an assumption, but there were no descriptions of twins or any multiple births.
Overall, [b:Never Let Me Go|6334|Never Let Me Go|Kazuo Ishiguro|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353048590l/6334._SY75_.jpg|1499998] told the story grippingly enough to allow for me to like it and read it at a decent pace, but I can't think of who I might recommend this book to.
The Hailsham students hypothesized why they are encouraged to produce artistic and literary works, what their guardians represent, and what their lives might look like after they leave Hailsham. Assumptions needed to be made on the part of the reader to discover the answers to the same questions raised.
The story's pace was sometimes slow, and I don't care about the relationships between Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy much. However, the relationships illustrate more humanity of these students who were modeled from other people in the world.
[b:Never Let Me Go|6334|Never Let Me Go|Kazuo Ishiguro|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353048590l/6334._SY75_.jpg|1499998] does not describe why an individual who had a Hailsham student modeled after them would not keep a close eye to ensure the best match when a donation is needed in the future. There was a brief discussion of eugenics during the Morningdale scandal, which only explains the lack of tracking tangentially.
Also, counterfactuals would be possible in this world, but only one student is modeled after one person out in the world. Perhaps I'm making an assumption, but there were no descriptions of twins or any multiple births.
Overall, [b:Never Let Me Go|6334|Never Let Me Go|Kazuo Ishiguro|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353048590l/6334._SY75_.jpg|1499998] told the story grippingly enough to allow for me to like it and read it at a decent pace, but I can't think of who I might recommend this book to.
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