Contemporary Reads: Never Let Me Go

Never Let Me Go (2005) is the latest novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. It is the first novel by him I have read and got mixed feelings about it.

The book's premise is very interesting: in modern-day England, individuals are cloned with the purpose of using their clones to donate healthy organs. The narrator Kathy H. tells us about her upbringing in Hailsham (a school for cloned children) and her youth. The slow realization of what she and her friends were, the distorted vision of the outside world are very insightful. Once grownups they'll all be destined to become donors although some of them, like Kathy, will become carers for a few years first.

There are some rumours that the couples who are in love might be able to optain a deferral. However, towards the end of the novel we discovered that this was not so.

I find it hard to appreciate Ishiguro's style. His prose is plain but, unlike Orwell's, I found it so uninteresting I just wanted to get through the book as quickly as possible. A page-turner, certainly, but not in a good way.