Never Let Me Go
By Kazuo Ishiguro
Entry by @axlrosstumanut
SPOILERS AHEAD
For the most part, reading this novel makes you wish that the end or the big reveal happens sooner than later. I’ve read Ishiguro’s An Artist of the Floating World and The Remains of the Day, both of which are gripping novels that tackled the theme of guilt. Perhaps having knowledge of the Second World War gave me ideas on what kind of tensions could possibly arise in these novels, and it helped build anticipation on how the stories would turn out.
Never Let Me Go is something else entirely. Throughout the novel, I felt clueless as to what kind of conflict would emerge. I just know that it’s a dystopian novel and that cloning is involved in the story. Page after page went by and I could hardly sense tensions. Only musing after musing or recollection after recollection. Of course, Ishiguro is a brilliant wordsmith and an exceptional master of subtlety. Reading this novel was, for the most part a struggle in keeping myself interested.
But as the novel draws to a close, I realize why fans of Ishiguro recommended that I read this after The Remains of the Day. Nothing prepared me for the devastation that this novel brought. I can’t remember reading something so heartbreaking from anything I’ve ever read. The secrets unfolded, realizations were made, and fates were sealed in a manner of storytelling that only Ishiguro can do.
This was such a tiring, draining read. But I’m grateful I listened to recommendations because what I experienced was cathartic, to put it mildly.
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