Book review: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

I thought that I would give this a go as I'm quite likely to end up seeing the film - although I usually regret any film with Kiera Knightley in it!

I was not particularly hopeful as I had to read Remains of the Day when I was studying English at University as part of a course looking at defining 'Englishness' in literature. I was really not a fan of Remains of the Day - finding it to be indeterminedly long. I remember that I was trying to read it in the lunchbreaks at a summer job working at an industrial unit in South Leeds - it was not sufficiently distracting...

It was an unusual book and intrigues by the slow revealing of why the Hailsham students are really different from 'others'. However I found that, similarly to Remains of the Day, it seems to take a long time for very little to happen. This slow plot gives a lot of space for the friendships (and otherwise) between the three main characters to develop.

Whilst they are still at school this seems to work quite well - I enjoyed the way that he described the quirks of childhood friendships; the myths, the rituals, the loyalties and gang memberships. However, he seems to plant a series of seeds that never really come to fruition. For example, he takes great care to discuss Tommy's issues with his temper but this does not seem to have another motivating, energising side? Surely a natural consequence of being a hot-head might be some consequent action... particularly, and this really rankled with me, why don't they try to run away? I do not want to reveal the plot [what there is] here but it does seem like they have the resources to consider this? Educated, able to drive, able to take journeys away for a few hours without supervision... would escape not look like an option?

Kathy is an interesting character for her detachment. She is quite cool in her recollections and does not seem to have formed any strong relationships or friendships outside of Tommy and Ruth - even when they have years apart. We learn at the beginning of the novel that she is a 'carer' and she seems to be perfectly suited to it as she is clearly able to be fairly dispassionate in her responses. I did enjoy reading her as a narrator - there was something to be said for her cautious revealing and naive interpretation of events.

Finally, though, I could not reconcile her detachments and the other Hailsham students (as adults especially) lack of rebellion. They were clearly institutionalised but once they moved out of the cottages and became carers they did seem to have sufficient freedom to also interact with the world, albeit with always a sense of separation from it. Given what was asked of them it does seem probable they would have moved beyond institutionalism and looked for ways to, at a basic level, survive...