This is my first Ishiguro novel. I read it, having had my curiosity raised when I saw the film. Though it is invidious to compare the two quite different formats, I have to say I got a lot more from the book, though admittedly it must have been devilishly difficult to convert into a screenplay.
The book has over 300 Amazon reviews, so I guess I cannot add very much by way of yet another, but I was so challenged by it that I thought I might offer a few words. This is a book the reader has to work hard with. What I found so engaging about it is the contrast between its very simple literary style (almost Blyton-esque) and its very profound subject matter. It can be read on at least 3 levels, and as the pages progressed, I kept switching from one to another.
On one level it is a tale of young people, who are not young people. They are clones, manufactured by man with a sole purpose - to provide spare parts to revitalise the ill and infirm. But they have many of the normal characteristics of young people - and the author forces you to empathise with them by giving one of them the task of telling the story - you see things from her perspective. They come across, not as any sub-human beings, but as real people with real feelings, yet sentenced to an awful inevitable predestination. Relationships between the young people are beautifully drawn with repeatedly poignant understatement, and given their destiny, ones heart goes out to them. And one is never certain what human characteristics they been allowed to retain, and what they are deprived of. So, for instance, they can almost certainly love one another but appear not to be able to experience grief. I found this uncertainty puzzling, but it certainly added to the intrigue.
At another level, the book was a considerable frustration. It left so many questions in one's mind - if only a few answers could have been proferred. How was the clone enterprise established? What ethical considerations were made by the instigators of the scheme? How did the clones survive repeated 'donations'? Why could they not rebel? Why did they have no fear of death? etc. etc. But that's one reason why the reader has to work so hard. And it is very possible that if more of these type of questions had been provided with answers, the book would have lost much of its power to make us examine our own ethical dilemmas.
And at yet another level, the book can be considered as an allegory - as a proxy which exemplifies the moral issues whenever a totalitarian power (be it a state, interest group or individual) abuses that power and deprives others of their (human) rights. And critically, when you deprive those so oppressed of the ability to fight back, that power becomes a truly evil force.
I found this book to be outstanding.
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From the Publisher
Never Let Me Go: the 20th anniversary editions are available now — with a new introduction by the author
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Top reviews from United Kingdom
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- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 March 2011
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 July 2012
Top reviews from other countries
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Maurício Fontana FilhoReviewed in Brazil on 6 September 2021
nota máxima dou seis se der não dá
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- Philip WortmannReviewed in Germany on 1 April 2021
From Simple String to Complex Web
