Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Never Let Me Go
Book Review: all the ways we ache for something real
Summary: 5 Stars
Just the most amazing work: much deeper than the story which is mostly a rough fable regarding real life. Simply: like poetry. The message is so bone deep and complex. This author is a genius. If you want raw pain and raw truth, elegantly told. No future and what would you do with this if you were young and naturally inclined to believe? This spins off to being about any age, race or gender and being shut down. This is a universal human statement, when the powers that be cut you up before you can live. Geez...read it I can't describe how perfect it is.Book Review: Disturbing and Lovely, and Lovely in its Disturbance
Summary: 4 Stars
I picked this book up randomly out of a pile and read the first page of the book before the synopsis on the back. I was immediately captivated by the voice of the main character, which is strong in its simplicity. I read the book quickly. I found the book beautiful, sad, and pointed. There is a clear message here, which is echoed through, as another reviwer pointed out, the works of Margaret Atwood (though i thought more of Oryx and Crake than the HandMaid's Tale), as well as George Orwell and even The Giver. It is a tale of a world gone wrong. It is the kind of book that reminds us of temptation - it is tantalizing to think one could grow new organs for oneself, cure cancer, and thereby prolong life. It is traumatizing to think that these organs must come from living beings. Ishiguro explores all of these deep seated psychological and scientific issues ironically, by ignoring them. All of this - that humans are cloned, raised (and the words separate but equal couldn't help but whisper at the back of my mind), and then systematically killed as their internal organs are harvested one by one. What the story focuses on, rather, is the story of kis growing up. Bewildered by the world of adults, exploring fantasies, exploring each other, forming friendships, and falling in love. It is a coming of age novel, but one that is suffused with suspense from the first page. You can't believe whats going to happen will actually happen so you keep reading to prove yourself wrong. Or right. Either way, suddenly you find yourself in the last pages of the novel, which, and I hope this doesn't spoil too much, is anti-climactic in a dramatic way. All in all, I thought the book rather well done. I did find myself wanting to shake the main character out of her calm demeanor on more than one occasion, but this is part of the point of the novel, I think. All in all, its a read that will stay with you for many days after you finish it....Book Review: An Engaging, Melancholy Allegory
Summary: 4 Stars
Okay, this is not a perfect book, but it is well worth the time. And the reviewers who complain about "plot holes" (i.e. Why didn't they just leave?) miss what is so heartbreaking about the story: escaping their fate never even occurs to the students. Their biggest dream is deferring donations for a few years (not avoiding them completely), which speaks to how well they have been indoctrinated. Even the "do-gooders" don't want to save the clones, just make their life more acceptable until their time comes.
The clones' life is in many ways an extreme version of the average humans' life, given that everyone must grow up, grow apart from friends, and in many ways, do what we "should" do. Like a lot of great sci-fi, Never Let Me Go presents an allegory that throws into relief universal issues: love, friendship, memory, childhood, social and familial obligations, aging and dying. This is not to say that the book is ponderous and heavy. It is an engaging page turner that makes you think and may make you cry.
Book Review: Not worth it
Summary: 2 Stars
By the second chapter I was wondering how The Sunday Times could have called this "The year's most remarkable novel", unless this was faint praise and the publisher's had pulled the phrase out of context. By the third chapter the premise of the book was obvious and I kept thinking it might get better. It didn't ... the characters just seem to meander along in an aimless daze letting their fate arrive. I didn't bother to finish the book - I have better things to do.Book Review: Different, but good.
Summary: 4 Stars
Although this isn't a book that I would pick out of the shelf to read on my own, it was recommended by my English teacher, and I was able to read it as part of an assignment.
At first I didn't enjoy the first part of the book because it had a very slow begining and Kazuo Ishiguro likes to keep the reader in question about what it is that is going on in the book. But as the book continues to evolve you start understanding what is going on between the three main characters which are involved in a triangle-shaped friendship.
Once you reach a certain point of the book where everything is making sense and is unraveling, you get interested in the book, and it's one of those that you don't want to put down, because you wanna see what's going to happen next.
The book is mainly about the exploitation of clones and what would happen if we focused on technology and did such a thing, which most people are probably against. It tells the story of a "carer", Kathy, and she shares with us her experience as a child and as she grows up and shares many experiences with Ruth, her dominating friend, and Tommy her "best-guy" friend. The book is full of surprises, and for those of you that have seen the movie, "the Island" it is very similar to it, and if you like science fiction and things like that, I really recommend this book, its a fast, easy read. This book is mostly meant for more adults because of the content that it has, that many parents may not want their younger children to read.