Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro Best Reviews from Goodreads

My lovely friends, how is your progress going on with your reading goals this year? We are almost near the end of February, which is 1/6 of the road, means we at least expect ourselves to reach 1/6 of the goal. Sorry for my way of getting into the topic :P Statistics and Data course is hunting me in my dream. I do hope you enjoy those companions so far, because Never Let Me Go has been a good friend of mine on the tube, on the bus and through some quite far trips. It brought me tears, happiness, pondering over the philosophy of the book. Compared to other Japanese books I have read so far, this one is surely an easy breath and fills in every corner that quiet, peaceful and dreamy of England.

About the delivering message of the book, I wasn't sure myself that I fully grasped what the author tried to send through. So I will be collecting some of the best comments I think about the book in Goodreads and share my thoughts about it. Hope that everyone will enjoy it just as I and decide to give it a try.

Tatiana - "Ishiguro is a master of subtle telling without telling, foreshadowing, and emphasizing the gravity of the unsaid."

Let's start with a summary of the book. Their destiny was revealed at the start as "special" or so it seemed to be, but as things unfolded, you could sense that bad omen underneath the peaceful picture. Every word from the guardians sounded weird, twisted and had double meaning when you read it twice, signaling for something terrible waiting for them in the outside world.

Now to the novel itself. Kathy, now 31, is a former student of an English boarding school Hailsham. Hailsham is a school for kids with special purpose. All education in this school is geared towards conditioning its student to accept their "special" destiny as a given. As Kathy is getting ready to make her first donation while being a carer for other donors, she recounts her life in Hailsham and on her own, mostly in a form of anecdotes about herself and her best friends Ruth and Tommy, their rivalries, jealousies, and affection for each other. There is nothing particularly shocking, gruesome, or intense about Kathy's story, and yet it leaves you with a sense of being a part of a nightmare.

What scared me the most was they lived their whole life blindfolded from the fact. Actually, there were no facts, truth or lie here, only 'purpose' or how things should be. If you have been raised your entire life as an experimental, you will think you're one without questioning, and you think that's the normal way of living your life. Why they were not running after knowing the truth you ask? You can not run from the person you are, accepting your fate is often easier to fight back. And at the end of the day, we are just ordinary people with short lives.

Just imagine the life that we are living now, everyone wishes that they have a good job, live up until 80, live laugh love, and so on, some have bigger plans, shaping the world into a better place. Are these ' purposes' of us under our control or does the butterfly effect drive the change to each human era in millennium years? For me, I will better let the current take me to places, and enjoy my short years on this earth until nothing can hurt me anymore. The inevitable end was also subtly mentioned by Ishiguro, or shall I use Tatiana's words, foreshadowing, tore my heart slowly. If life was this painful, please don't bring me here in the first place, or let me quickly return to thin air.

In many ways Never Let Me Go reminded me of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Only Kathy is a step further from Offred. If Offred knows what horrors she is subjected to, but has no strength or will to change her circumstances, Kathy doesn't even know that her life "purpose," her destiny is inhumane. This work is also, to me, very reminiscent of Ian McEwan's Atonement. McEwan is a master of subtle build-up to an almost unbearable, life-shattering moment, but Ishiguro is a master of subtle telling without telling, foreshadowing, and emphasizing the gravity of the unsaid.

Maxell - "I love the tone this book has, one I will continue to describe as flipping through an old, faded photo album."

I love how he described the vibe of the book, this is exactly how I felt about the theme in a black-and-white movie. With happy sounds, people laugh and love but the colour had been taken away so all you could feel was the bitter cold (like London weather right now).

I love the creativity behind it. I love Ishiguro's ability to give away so much by sharing so little. I love the tone this book has, one I will continue to describe as flipping through an old, faded photo album. It's musty and opaque, yet there's a candidness to it that I adore. Ishiguro doesn't shy away from the darker parts of the world. But he is able to approach these subjects from a perspective that offers relatability and insight that is hard to recreate. It's a simple story from the perspective of a simple woman, and still it touches on so much of the complexity of human existence. A book I will return to again and again, and one that keeps me thinking event after finishing it. 5/5 stars

Miss Emily and Lucy

The guardians were also my favourite people. They think that they serve a better purpose than the kid, and what they did what giving them the once-in-a-lifetime gift that turn the page to a better place. But all are just living hell, and who has the right to decide other lives? But we live in a society where class, race, ethnicity, education, gender and numerous factors categorise us within moulds and shapes and tell us if we're the right fit with the rest of the world, their world. Humans are selfish creatures like that.

“'I can see,’ Miss Emily said, ‘that it might look as though you were simply pawns in a game. It can certainly look like that. But think of it. You were lucky pawns. There was a certain climate and now its gone...’

‘It might be just some trend that came and went,’ I said. ‘But for us, it’s our life.’”

I wonder what is the purpose of my life. I am still figuring out in the midst, but at least we can give ourselves the fake joy of walking confidently towards the end, controlling life in our will. Thinking this way, I feel less disappointed about myself, if I could fool myself this entire life, I could simply mask the shame under that shiness :). Happy reading!