Never Let Me Go (2005) is a novel by Japanese-born British author Kazuo Ishiguro. Time magazine named it the best novel of 2005 and included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.Throughout the novel the author gives only parts of the truth which creates a confusion about what is actually happening in the story.
The novel is narrated by 31-year-old Kathy H. as she reminisces about her childhood at the sheltered boarding school Hailsham, as well as her adult life after leaving.The story takes place in the mid-1990s in Britain, where human beings are cloned to provide donor organs for transplants. Kathy and her schoolmates have all been created for this purpose.There is no actual mention of the word 'clones' but the author has given facts like the students in Hailsham couldn't have children and the choice ahead for them after school was to become a carer and after wards a donator which makes the reader feel something is not right with them.
Divided in three sections- the novel has three main characters-Kathy,Ruth and Tommy and mainly focuses on the friendship and love relationships between them. When they are young, the students in Hailsham are made are to create works of art which are seleted by a mysterious "Madame" who takes away the best creations for her own personal gallery.This personal gallery and this creations of art find a prominence later in the novel.
In this section too, at their young age the students know that they are born to be donors. In the second section, when the students move to the Cottage, where they write essays, they come in contact with students from other establishments who have been also been bred for the same purpose.In the third section, Kathy has become a carer and first she becomes a carer for Ruth and then for Tommy.Later on she had a romantic and sexual relationship with Tommy as wanted by Ruth.Ruth realises that Tommy and Kathy were meant for each other and she had been acting as an obstacle between them.At the end, both Ruth and Tommy have completed(euphemism for death) after their second and fourth donation respectively and Kathy realises that she is also bidden for the same fate.
Through the novel, not directly but some vestiges of truth can be found.Like Madame who was afraid and shuddered at the sight of the students and Keefers, the caretaker of the Cottage who treated them with disdain and didn't think that they needed any firewood etc. to keep themselves warm.Also there is some lack in details about emotions and feelings of different people.Throughtout the whole novel,the reader feels that there is something wrong,something amiss with the students.Once when they go to Norfolk, they tell an old woman that they were art students and not actually what they were.Also they were searching for their possibles- people whom they cloned from.From my reading i thought that maybe the author was talking about dopplegangers but the large difference in age between Ruth and Ruth's possible sort of dissuades this perception.As seen in Ishiguro’s other works, the truth of the matter is made clear only gradually.The students are not treated as equals by their counterparts like when they were donors, in some of the hospitals they were treated to unhygienic conditions like a toilet was converted to a room for Tommy. It was only in Hailsham that they were they treated as actual students. Although the basic theme of the novel seems to be dark and sombre but the actual narration doesn't comes out to be so which can be said to one of hope, trying to find their true selfs, their spirits as against the establishments.The author has not overtly used harsh truths leaving the reader to surmise for himself what the actual truth might be.The title of the novel seems to be appropriate coming from Kathy' love for the song "Never Let Me Go" by fictional singer Judy Bridgewater.Many years later, during the final confrontation between Kathy, Tommy, and Madame, she asks Madame about her tears after seeing her that day , years ago dancing to that song
Madame replies that the image she had seen was of a little girl facing the new world that was emerging, an efficient but cruel world, and asking the old world not to let her go.The novel manages to raise some questions like if clones might have souls.At the end, the novel comes to be one portraying people who are trying to find some hope and solace and contentment in the face of their impending doom.
Note-I was supposed to comment on the book, not to write a review on it
-Samarth Sarsar
2007ME10523
Do u feel that Madame’s fear and distance from the ‘students’ has anything to do with how society does not want to face the ugly truth behind ‘clones’? Though the clones are so cared of in terms of their medical treatment the lack of ‘care’ towards them is seen disturbing as lacks emotion of love. On one hand stress is laid on creativity among the students, on the other hand Tommy’s work in not viewed with an open mind. Somewhere in these instances we can see the ‘necessary-evil’ attitude of the society towards the clones.
ReplyDeleteWell, I must say I am disappointed due to the lack of emphasis on narrative style, and the things which make Ishiguro's writing different from the rest. The above review, resembled a plot according to me.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I wouldn't miss the opportunity to comment on this wonderful novel. First, the pace of the novel. At one stage, I seriously felt like turning down the novel, but as I insisted myself to go on, it turned out to be an extremely wise decision as the pace of the novel never heightens, it never becomes a page-turner as many would expect from a novel, but the slow-pace of it makes it so delicate and touching that it can immerse you in the novel. It makes it an impossible read by sacrificing intellect, and draws our attention to issues we may generally overlook.
The narrator- Kathy has been often described as "a confused narrator", even in the reviews by the TIME Magazine. There are two sides to it, according to me. One of them is the obvious- Kathy often uses the phrases "maybe", "I can't properly remember but I suppose" which may let the reader cast a doubt on the reliability of the narrative, and is a comment on the theme of memory and individual. The other side is Kathy leaves a space for subjectivity, letting the reader develop his own opinion of things rather than imposing her own on them. That way, it beautifies the plot with the numerous subjective questions the book deals with after all.
The theme is a mixture of emotional, political, debates on right to life. The plot provides a new outlook- the perspective of someone who knows his life is about to end, and the rest of it is devoted to saving someone else's. It obviously focuses on the debate whether humans should have the power to create, something which has been attributed to God for long ages. The very notion of using existence of soul for depicting emotions in the clones is a disturbing thought, much more the need to use art for the same by constantly keeping the actual characters in darkness about their truth.
The land of Hailsham is thus a unique, different and as we progress, a disturbing sight as we discover the similarities indeed but with the realization they are constrained to be unable to lead a similar life. The search of the "possibles" and the very concept again highlights the compulsion of those who get cloned, and the situation of a possible face-off and the evasive circumstances which would built are the characteristic of the narrative throughout, letting the tone fluctuate between gloom, hope, depressing and questioning.
Siddharth Bhattacharya
2008MT50461
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