Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Author: Kazuo Ishiguro

Title: Never Let Me Go 

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Published: 2005

Pages: 304

Genre: Science Fiction / Romance 

     In one of the most memorable novels of recent years, Kazuo Ishiguro imagines the lives of a group of students growing up in a darkly skewered version of contemporary England. Narrated by Kathy, now 31, Never Let Me Go hauntingly dramatizes her attempts to come to terms with her childhood at the seemingly idyllic Hailsham School, and with the fate that has always awaited her and her closest friends in the wider world. A story of love, friendship, and memory, Never Let Me Go is charged throughout with a sense of the fragility of life.

     Never Let Me Go is one of those books I've been meaning to read for quite some time. A friend of mine suggested the film to me a good few years ago. I enjoyed it immensely but didn't know it was based on a book at the time. So having discovered it on the shelves of a dusty bookstore a little while after I added it to my to-be-read collection. But is so often the way for some reason or another, I forgot all about it and only remember about it last week. I think for me this worked out for the best as by the time I picked it up to read I can safely say I had forgotten pretty much the whole plot. Nevertheless, I think this is one of those books that when you read the blurb you can't help but be drawn in. It seems like there is so much going on that you can't help but want to know just what twists and turns Kathy's life is going to take. 

     This is one of those books that whilst it is listed as sci-fi, it never really seems to fit into the idea you have in your mind's eye. I suppose when we hear this term we tend to think of spaceships and laser guns. Even something like Blade Runner still feels one step removed from our world. But in this narrative, Ishiguro has created a world that feels like our own. In fact, if there was a breaking headline in tomorrow's news that closely matched the events of this book you probably would not be as surprised as you would hope to be. And I think that is part of the beauty of this novel. You never feel like you are being pulled into the strange and unusual. Another point would be that whilst this book does deal with something that seems slightly impossible that is not the point of this narrative.  This is a tale of how those friendships we make in our childhoods can be difficult to navigate as we get old. When the hormones start to rush through our bodies we start to change how we see those in our lives greatly. It is a novel about great loves that stay with us for a lifetime. And also that something things our completely out of our hands. Those losses we suffer along this journey we call life can feel like our hearts have broken into a thousand pieces. After all, life is one of those journeys that we survive for as long as we can. Ishiguro has set out with his heroes to find a way to navigate this giant beautiful mess we call life into something that is at least meaningful from the inside. 

     There is a deeply introspective look at how we deal with our own humanity to be found in this book. Kathy is in the midst of trying to reconcile all she has been through in her life when we first come to meet her. And whilst she and her friends have spent the bulk of their lives locked into a very close group of people without much interaction with the outside world. There is still a great deal that we can feel that is familiar to all of us here. I suppose certain key moments within most people's lives are universal. those first blushes of what we come to know as love. But also how we navigate friendships in those difficult teenage years. It is most certainly something I can look back on from my own life and see little fires of recognition. It is also this strange feeling you have of seeing Kathy and her friends dealing with the waste of their lives. By this I mean those moments when we say I should have said something sooner or if only I had just done this back then. It does seem to be something we discuss all that often in our real lives. maybe in part its the shame of it all. Knowing we could have changed things if only we had been a little braver or more honest with the people in our lives. Either way, it seems to be something this author has managed to effortlessly capture within these pages. 

     I try my best not to use the word haunting too often as I personally believe it's one of those words that get thrown about when a story seems a little sad. But I think in the case of Ishiguro's novel it seems to fit so deeply. This is a book that goes straight for your feeling but in a soft and elegant way that it is hard to feel anything but empathy for not only them but the journey they've been on. This group of friends can only see all they go through as normal for everyone. This closed world has no universal points of reference to the outside world, which makes it all for the worse. As readers, we know what has happened to them if nothing else is morally wrong if not straight-up abusive. I believe that the author has delivered a book that gives us so many hard truths about lives that it transcends the genres that hold it in place. We are left as the only witnesses to all they have been through their laughter and tears. And whilst we can have a smile on our lips having known them we are left with a gentle wave of melancholy for the lives they should have had.