From the Bookshelf of Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)…

Never Let Me Go

Kazuo Ishiguro

Start date: February 1, 2025

Finish date: February 28, 2025

Discussion: Upcoming Books: No Spoilers

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of -22 topics — 244 comments total

Upcoming Books: No Spoilers

This topic has been closed to new comments.

* Purpose of this Folder
By Katy , Quarterly Long Reads · 31 posts · 860 views

last updated Dec 01, 2024 11:48AM

The Cherry Orchard - November 2025
By Bob , Short Story Classics · 1 post · 8 views

last updated 7 hours, 3 min ago

showing 10 of 64 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Apr 03, 2012 Franky rated it really liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. As other reviewers have attested to, this is a difficult novel to write a review about without giving away spoilers. Therefore, be forewarned that there are major spoilers in this review.

I was wavering on what exactly I thought of this book until I finished the third and final part, which sold me on the novel. Some reviewers didn’t like the way the novel didn’t have that “twist” or “wow factor” at the end, but I didn’t think that was necessarily the point or important. When you come down it, th As other reviewers have attested to, this is a difficult novel to write a review about without giving away spoilers. Therefore, be forewarned that there are major spoilers in this review.

I was wavering on what exactly I thought of this book until I finished the third and final part, which sold me on the novel. Some reviewers didn’t like the way the novel didn’t have that “twist” or “wow factor” at the end, but I didn’t think that was necessarily the point or important. When you come down it, the novel essentially questions what “being human” is, and the subsequent ethics of treating “clones” as less than human. Kathy’s struggle with very human emotions as she witnesses the fates of those close to her, and finds out the information behind Hailsham.

Kathy’s style of narration was distracting at first. She has a chatty, conversational tone, as if you are sipping tea with her as she speaks. The problem with this is that she tends to throw these nuggets of information about significant future events at you, and then drifts off to describing something in the present, leaving you frustrated. The jumpy narrative is for a purpose, however, the picture of this world is slowly being revealed to us, just as it was to Kathy.

The first part of Never Let Me Go establishes the society Kathy and her classmates live under at Hailsham. Kathy meets two classmates, Ruth and Tommy, and develops a friendship with them. Guardians oversee the students, and there is a push for the students to create art. One of the guardians, Miss Lucy , comes to Hailsham and seems a bit different than all the others. One day she reveals to Kathy and the others a bit about the real fate and nature of their existence and purpose, which puzzles them. From here, the second part focuses on Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth’s lives at the cottages and the rivalries and friendships they build. As Kathy has conflicts with Ruth over the relationship with Tommy, as well as their world, she begins to reflect on possibility of being a carer. The nature of Kathy’s position as a “carer”,which she alludes to at the beginning, isn’t completely revealed until the third part, and we see the significance of why she is telling us her story. As a “carer”, she has a job that requires sacrifice and the essentials that a “human being” must have to deal with pain and loss.

There’s a certain level of bleakness within Never Let Me Go, but it is still a fascinating and refliective read, one that examines a scary world where clones are exploited for their organs, deemed not human and devoid of a soul. While there’s certainly a backwardness about how the outside world relies on the vital organs of clones to subsist (irony in that, cruel as it is, it is deemed necessary and humane for the “human” world), I wouldn’t exactly classify the novel as sheer dystopia. Never Let Me Go is presented in a quiet, reflective way, and, because of that and it’s first person narrative, it’s more poignant revelations are in the book’s final pages, and makes one think about this society for some time. Therefore, I don’t think anyone should give up on the novel, as the final revelations make up for some confusion in early going. I know you can’t judge a novel on simply one passage, but the final paragraph of this novel is quite moving and powerful, and pretty much puts into perspective the entire moral of this book.
...more

5 likes · Like · see review