Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Never Let Me Go is set in a parallel contemporary history. The story is of a woman who, as she reflects on her private school years in the English countryside, reunites with her two friends to face the dark secrets buried in their communal past. With minimal contact with the outside world during their years at the boarding school, they discover they are clones, born and raised for the sole purpose of providing organs for transplants.

Never Let Me Go the movie will be directed by Mark Romanek and stars Academy Award nominees Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan along with Golden Globe winner Sally Hawkins.

The book presents the idea that these people (ie human clones) have souls although the characters themselves behave with soulless passivity. The book raised related issues around abortion, personal organ donation etc as topics for discussion.

While the song title “Never Let Me Go” doesn’t seem to exist by Judy Bridgewater. However such a title does exist, and seems spot on, in terms of the song that Kathy holds dear. It has been performed by various artists, for an example of this haunting piece see:

Scores

Dennis 8.5
Raj 8.5
Leanne 6.5
Kevin 6
Andrew 2
Mary 7.5
Mark 0 (not just a zero, a big zero)

Total 6

Personally I think Kazuo Ishiguro has ice in his veins and an appalling view of humanity. Although the work is fiction and should be appreciated as such, I believe that a fiction involving people is better if the fundamental human behaviours and motivations are still believable. This is not the case here. These characters have had sufficient exposure to the outside world to understand and resist what is happening to them. This is not to mention the resistance that would occur in the outside world to such a situation, despite the notion that people generally would accept this for the sake of their own well being.

The next book is: Stieg Larsson's, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Mark Gordon