Never Let Me Go by Kazuo IshiguroMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Never Let Me Go has had the biggest impact that one single novel has had on me in quite a while.
After reading more than my fair share of love-triangle-filled, development-lacking YA stories, it was such a refresher to finally sit down and read this book, something I admit, albeit ashamedly, I've been wanting to do since I heard of the film, which stars my favorite actress, Carey Mulligan, as well as Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield. I wanted to read the book before I saw the film, as most people do, although I knew that, especially being a standalone, this book has been contrasted quite often to the film, at least as far as the ultimate impact goes. I haven't yet seen the film, although I have it on hold at my local library, so I'll have to pick it up soon.
Back to the book, though. Never Let Me Go follows the story of Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy, three children who have been raised in the sheltered haven of Hailsham, a 'school' designed to raise its 'students' to believe they are happy and safe and living their lives the way they ought to be lived. But the Hailsham students know they are a bit different from those not at Hailsham, and the outsiders definitely know the Hailsham students are different. After completing their lives at Hailsham, Kathy and her friends are sent into the real world, where they encounter many human obstacles and experiences, and then begin their lives as carers and, eventually, donors.
The painful sense of realism in this book is what makes it most touching and poignant, and what makes it so strikingly easy to connect to. Kazuo Ishiguro, the author, said in an interview that in writing the book, he intended to elaborate on the idea that humans tend to put the knowledge of death, or their own expiration date, to the back of their minds, and that he wanted to bring that to a forefront for these unique children, who really have a lifespan of approximately thirty years. The characters in the book begin as children who have been so isolated from society that they are rather naive, but also quite perceptive, considering their circumstance. But that's the thing about being a child, you have this sixth sense where you can almost detect the catch in a situation, yet it eventually dies out over time, because it has just become so settled into your lifestyle. Ishiguro does a beautiful job of showing how these characters grow so attached to each other and how dependent they are on one another, for if they split up, they would feel so lost and alone in a world that they really fill up only the most minuscule percent of the population. It's the way they transition into the most human ways of handling situations that makes the book position at a level of comprehension that isn't always done as successfully in other novels with this sort of premise.
In part one of the novel, I knew from the very beginning I would like Kathy. That never changed throughout the book; I loved Kathy from page one all the way to page 288, and my loyalty to her story never wavered. Strangely, though, I was originally sort of annoyed by Tommy in the beginning. I'm not sure what part of Tommy really bugged me, but perhaps it centered around his fits and how trivial they seemed to me at the time of reading the story's beginning. I was able to infer that Ruth would continue to be bossy throughout the story, although I didn't dislike her at the start. But as the story transitioned into the second part, I grew to absolutely loathe Ruth. She was a complete insensitive bitch who wanted so hard to conform into the mold of society, what with the idea of her relationship with Tommy, following Rodney and Chrissie like a little puppy, and searching so eagerly for her possible, hoping to have a successful career in her life. I felt for her, though, when she delivered her line about being modeled from trash, but I also felt Kathy's pain, after reading through the magazines and observing the faces of the models. That was something I liked about Kathy: her hidden curiosity, and how ambiguous it seemed until everything was pieced together. I loved that about this book (something not many books do anymore): things were actually spelled out for the reader; especially at the end. Books like these need explanations from the characters themselves, not little bits of hints dropped to make the reader just guess forever. Anyway, back to Ruth. The point of no return for her, in my opinion, was when she told Kathy that while she knew she and Tommy wouldn't last, Tommy never saw Kathy as anything more than a friend. It just showed how overbearing and tyrannical Ruth was; how controlling she was. At that point, I thought Ruth would never redeem herself. But then we get into part three, and after having a falling-out with Ruth and fleeing the cottages to be a carer, Kathy has settled on caring for Ruth as she nears her "completion" (the term for the death of a Hailsham student). Ruth and Kathy begin to rekindle their friendship, and decide to go and see Tommy, who is settled at another centre to be cared for. They go and find a beached ship, just for the sake of seeing it, just the three of them. Besides the other nice moments of reprieve of Ruth deriving from her conversations with Kathy, she really made me love her when she acknowledged that she knew the entire time that Kathy and Tommy were meant to be together (after finding out about the rumor of deferrals for Hailsham students in love) and that she hoped for Kathy and Tommy to get their deferral, and spend their lives together before Tommy completed. At that point, Ruth's entire characterization came full-circle, and I appreciated her 10x more than I did before. I loved Kathy and Tommy, but Ruth's character was so, so intriguing and strange.
The ending of the story was quite heart-breaking, but everything made sense. I assumed that Kathy and Tommy would get their deferral, but I totally understood why they didn't, and I understood Miss Emily's reasoning for the way everything went down at Hailsham. The final ten pages of the book revolved around Kathy and Tommy's last days together, and how Kathy wishes she had more time with Ruth, but also how she was content with how her life with Ruth had ended. Ruth and Tommy reach an agreement that it isn't healthy for Kathy to continue caring for Tommy, so a new carer is appointed for Tommy, and just like that, Tommy is gone, and Kathy is left with the recurring memory of him waving as she drives away, constantly returning to Norfolk (where she found presumably her childhood copy of the song "Never Let Me Go" on tape) and watching the sky as Tommy filtered in and out of her thoughts.
I couldn't go throughout this review without mentioning the title, though, and what it refers to. "Never Let Me Go" is a reference foremost to the song Kathy dances to whilst at Hailsham, before being stumbled upon by Madame. The chorus ("Baby, never let me go") strikes Kathy as referencing a mother who thought she couldn't have children (similar to the condition of Hailsham girls--infertile), but finally having one, and holding it close to her while she begs it to never let her go. Madame explains, at the end of the novel, that she had assumed that--when she saw Kathy--Kathy was pleading with the world to never let her go, as she would move on and face life outside of Hailsham. The title has beautiful meaning in the story, and it's obviously referencing the song, but I think it also ties into Kathy's relationship with Ruth and Tommy. It links to Tommy in the end, when Kathy holds him down as he enters a fit after finding out the rumor about deferrals was false, and that moment reflects their entire relationship; the balance and mediation she brings to him, as opposed to the unbalanced nature of Ruth. Speaking of, the title connects to Ruth and Kathy's friendship by the way that, in a sense, Kathy eventually did let Ruth go...twice, actually. The first time was when Kathy left Ruth to become a carer, and there was a 10-year gap between that point and when she saw her again, and once more when Ruth completes, and although there is some regret that she left Ruth on the wrong foot, she accepts the positive nature of the finality of their friendship and does let Ruth go.[
The book was beautiful, and I feel I could write an essay on Kathy's outlook on her life, and her pain and her guilt and her desire and her struggle and her benevolence overall, but I truly have no time for that. I knew instantly upon finish the book that it had become one of my favorites, and I can only hope it has the same effect on every other reader it meets. View all my reviews
