Friday, March 8, 2013

Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go *** 1/2

Never Let Me Go is a perfectly constructed novel. Its plot and narrative voice exactly suit its themes. It tackles nothing less than the meaning of life. Objectively it deserves a better rating than I've given it, but Ishiguro's reserved tone held me at arm's length even as I recognized its appropriateness. I admire the book more than I enjoyed it.

The story puts a science-fiction gloss on a British coming of age story. It's about the things we "know and don't know" about our lives and how this uncertain state influences what we do. This theme is even reflected in that way our narrator Kathy tells her tale: Every chapter has at least one instance where Kathy refers to an event as if we readers knew the reference ("that evening we were sitting out in the ruined bus shelter"), then goes back in time to provide the context, then implies that the incident will have further repercussions later. We know and don't know what the event represents.

Full disclosure: I saw the film version of Never Let Me Go before reading the book -- or half-saw it, since it was on a seat-back screen halfway through a trans-Atlantic flight. So I knew more about where the story was going than a fresh reader would have.

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