“Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro
Ok hear me out. And don’t get mad. I’m going to ruffle some feathers here…
I didn’t love it.
Phew. I said it.
This was my first Ishiguro novel, and maybe I would like others of his a bit more, but I’m not running to the shelves to read more of his stuff. I had very high hopes for this book, based not only on its ranking, but because of what people have been telling me for years now.
Alas.
First and foremost, updated rankings:
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
The Overstory by Richard Powers
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon.
Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
So clearly I didn’t hate it. I didn’t skim it or skip parts ( I was thankful it wasn’t any longer than it was) but I just felt a bit… meh at the end of it.
What I liked: His alternate reality of England is very believable and immersive, and it’s a good analogy or allegory of what it means to be forced to grow up and grow out of things that were once so meaningful to us. I liked what he does with the concept of childhood and the trauma of losing innocence, moving into the adult world and what we hold onto (or never let go…). I also felt that it was a compelling read and I was intrigued. But that’s about it.
Pacing: The pacing was ok. As I said, it’s a compelling read, but there were parts that lagged a bit for me. I wanted to spend more time in Hailsham and their childhood. It would have had more of an impact for me and my relationship with them as adults. As it was, the ending did not devastate me as much as I think it was supposed to.
Language/Style: Ishiguro’s writing style did not blow me away. I understand he’s a very understated author and takes his time building a story, but… didn’t work for me. I could not get into the characters as people; no one felt real to me (except for Ruth a little bit). I felt removed from the narrative, as if he wasn’t fully letting me in. Also, I should note, dystopian fiction is usually not my jam, so maybe it’s a genre issue for me.
What was the aftertaste? I came away from it a bit confused. I know a big theme of this book is memory and how we remember what we remember; how memory affects the narratives we tell later in life, and how we reflect (or don’t reflect) on things that happened to us. But for me, the way in which he did it, and this goes into style a bit, was just really annoying. I could not read one more time “So this is what happened”, “Let me tell you what happened”, “And then it happened this way.” JUST TELL ME. I don’t need you to hold my hand. I get what you’re doing. It felt very repetitive and stilted. I understand it was Kathy working through her memories and her trauma, but the level of self-reflection she had was…. too much. As we get older we understand more why something happened the way it did, but how many times did she need to tell us that? I would have enjoyed it more if she had kept on the memory lens, truly believing what she was telling us. As it was, I felt like she had too much self- insight into the fact that her narrative was unreliable.
That’s enough of me rambling. Memory skews the narrative. Got it. Move on.
Did it teach me anything? Not really. I guess I took a bit of a look at how I remember things, and what that means for my story. Am I objective? Is that even possible? And how much does it matter? But that’s about it.
Maybe someone can change my mind? Would be interested to hear your thoughts, or if you liked another of his more…
Next week I’ll be discussing The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, so stay tuned!
& Happy Reading