Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
When they were young, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy attended Hailsham, a prestigious boarding school tucked away in the English countryside. There were erratic cliques and enigmatic norms, and teachers were continually emphasizing to their students how unique they were. Years have passed, and Kathy is now a young lady. Tommy and Ruth have returned to her life. And for the first time, she is starting to reflect on their common history and comprehend what exactly makes them unique—as well as how that gift will influence the remainder of their time together.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
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The finest production standards are upheld by Everyman’s Library, which uses acid-free cream-coloured paper, full-cloth covers with two-colour foil stamping, beautiful endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-colour illustrated jacket. An introduction, a hand-picked bibliography, and a timeline of the author’s life and times are all included in Current Classics.
It takes place in a version of late 1990s England where some clones are used as organ donors. They are raised in special schools without knowledge of the greater society that determines their fate. We are never told about the donors’ breeding practices or the nature of that civilization. It appears that the author’s goal is to examine the human condition through a more extreme version of it. Nevertheless, there are issues.
Three “unique” persons, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy, are the subjects of the novel. These are clones that have been engineered to become organ donors once they reach a particular age.
You would assume that would be the main plot point; perhaps they would decide to rebel and run away, perhaps they would decide to commit suicide out of love, or something along those lines. Wow, surprise, they never even consider that. Ishiguro concentrates on the lives of the characters and how they cope with the inevitable rather than the drama such a dreadful predestined fate may produce.
The story opens at Hailsham, a special needs school where a huge number of kids are reared and given future-oriented education. They are never explicitly informed of their fate, which leads one of their guardians to remark that they “have been told but not told” about what is ahead for them.
In his dystopian novel Never Let Me Go, Kazou Ishiguro tells the story of a young woman who discovers she is being used as “parts.” English author Mr Ishiguro is a Nobel laureate. In a private institution called Hailsham, Kathy is a typical schoolgirl. The pupils are aware that something is not quite “right,” but until they leave the security of the premises, they are unable to identify what.
They are aware that they are being used as caregivers and “donors” of parts, including Kathy, Tommy, Ruth, and others. Yet there’s a notion that there’s a method to live a long, fulfilling and healthy life.
Set in a private school in the English countryside where the students are continually informed that they are unique, it is a moral story about science and the soul. But the reason is kept a secret. They don’t get much information about anything important, and the reader is treated to a lovely, gradual revelation because of this. I’m tempted to draw comparisons between the book and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley but without the Monster. With teachers referred to as Guardians and repeated allusions to a hazy future in which there would be donors and carers, the atmosphere and the plot are immediately reminiscent of Kafka.
It is a love story in Never Let Me Go. The story revolves around the perennial conflict between three close friends, Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth, as well as a dominant personality and desire. Ishiguro examines youth and innocence, adulthood and deceit, with insight and even unsettling imagery. He creates a feeling of estrangement and otherness between the reader and the characters that gradually develops into a strong identification. An unsettling investigation of morality, existence, humanness, purpose, and power is explored through the lens of love and loss.
