Ishiguro’s 'Never Let Me Go'' Just finished the book…
0 reactions
Ishiguro’s 'Never Let Me Go'' Just finished the book, first thoughts on memory, adult self-deception, capitalism, and the tragic of life
I just finished Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, and here is what I thought about it. To set the scene, it takes place in the English countryside. The narrator recounts her happy childhood with her friends Tommy and Ruth in an academy called Hailsham in the nineties, telling her story from her current point of view as a carer. As the novel progresses, we are a little lost and slowly come to understand the situation, knowing something terrible is going to happen without knowing what. Gradually, the story turns into a dystopia when we realize they are clones born solely to donate their organs and raised to die.
This very particular narrative mode, telling the story through memory rather than unfolding linearly, allows us to ask ourselves the same questions than the characters about life, grief, and childhood. "We are Told and not Told" The book addresses childhood memory as a golden age whose memories vary, where characters constantly disagree over tiny details. What is done so well is how it captures our inner thoughts, the lies we tell ourselves, and the abstract meaning we give to our actions. In childhood, everything is sprinkled with games where we pretend, but this continues into adulthood. Like when the teenagers at the Cottages pretend to have read many novels when it is obvious that is not the case.
There is an extended metaphor of **transitioning from childhood to adulthood,** heightened by the extreme situation of these donor clones. I see in it a metaphor for the reality of today's capitalist world, where we are ultimately a cog in a larger machine and work slowly wears us down. The successive donations represent the stages of life where the world forces us to give our body for a cause that serves us no purpose. It asks why we do not rebel and why we accept this life, serving as a critique of modern society that often asks us to settle for little progress.
The other hidden theme is of course **death**, which hovers throughout the entire novel. The fundamental philosophical question it poses is this: **what is the meaning of life knowing it has a known end,** and does each moment between the beginning and the end have any value? All of this comes with the notion of memory and what is most precious: knowing how we used this time from birth to death. Through the donors who disappear one after another, the book reflects what happens in normal life when we lose people who shared those memories, since the strongest bond between two people lies in shared memories.
There is an immense tragic side to this book through the **stories that could have been but did not happen**. Even if Tommy and Kathy seek to relive their love much later, far too late, this love that was thwarted turns into a bitter pantomime when they find each other in adulthood, diminished. We often do not realize the chances we let slip by forever, often for tiny reasons, before realizing their importance when choices are already made. This love story was held back by codes, conventions, and the gaze of others, which is what so often blocks us in life.
The three main characters represent **different attitudes toward this fact of life.** Ruth chooses to believe in fantasy, making her in a way the freest, while Tommy understood determinism early on and resigned himself. Kathy is quite ambivalent, comforting herself in conformity while delaying the moment of realizing that none of it makes sense. It is a novel that leaves a bitter taste and a feeling of despair, but does so with great realism and nostalgia.
It is a **true masterpiece**, extremely intelligent and true, and I come away quite shaken and full of admiration.
#entertainment
I just finished Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, and here is what I thought about it. To set the scene, it takes place in the English countryside. The narrator recounts her happy childhood with her friends Tommy and Ruth in an academy called Hailsham in the nineties, telling her story from her current point of view as a carer. As the novel progresses, we are a little lost and slowly come to understand the situation, knowing something terrible is going to happen without knowing what. Gradually, the story turns into a dystopia when we realize they are clones born solely to donate their organs and raised to die.
This very particular narrative mode, telling the story through memory rather than unfolding linearly, allows us to ask ourselves the same questions than the characters about life, grief, and childhood. "We are Told and not Told" The book addresses childhood memory as a golden age whose memories vary, where characters constantly disagree over tiny details. What is done so well is how it captures our inner thoughts, the lies we tell ourselves, and the abstract meaning we give to our actions. In childhood, everything is sprinkled with games where we pretend, but this continues into adulthood. Like when the teenagers at the Cottages pretend to have read many novels when it is obvious that is not the case.
There is an extended metaphor of **transitioning from childhood to adulthood,** heightened by the extreme situation of these donor clones. I see in it a metaphor for the reality of today's capitalist world, where we are ultimately a cog in a larger machine and work slowly wears us down. The successive donations represent the stages of life where the world forces us to give our body for a cause that serves us no purpose. It asks why we do not rebel and why we accept this life, serving as a critique of modern society that often asks us to settle for little progress.
The other hidden theme is of course **death**, which hovers throughout the entire novel. The fundamental philosophical question it poses is this: **what is the meaning of life knowing it has a known end,** and does each moment between the beginning and the end have any value? All of this comes with the notion of memory and what is most precious: knowing how we used this time from birth to death. Through the donors who disappear one after another, the book reflects what happens in normal life when we lose people who shared those memories, since the strongest bond between two people lies in shared memories.
There is an immense tragic side to this book through the **stories that could have been but did not happen**. Even if Tommy and Kathy seek to relive their love much later, far too late, this love that was thwarted turns into a bitter pantomime when they find each other in adulthood, diminished. We often do not realize the chances we let slip by forever, often for tiny reasons, before realizing their importance when choices are already made. This love story was held back by codes, conventions, and the gaze of others, which is what so often blocks us in life.
The three main characters represent **different attitudes toward this fact of life.** Ruth chooses to believe in fantasy, making her in a way the freest, while Tommy understood determinism early on and resigned himself. Kathy is quite ambivalent, comforting herself in conformity while delaying the moment of realizing that none of it makes sense. It is a novel that leaves a bitter taste and a feeling of despair, but does so with great realism and nostalgia.
It is a **true masterpiece**, extremely intelligent and true, and I come away quite shaken and full of admiration.
#entertainment
| 0 mlx | |
| 3 | |
| 0 |