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Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. 304 pages, $24.00 (hardcover) Knopf.
This is one of those books that a well-meaning book reviewer can completely ruin for a reader. Admittedly I wanted to read this book because I had read so many reviews praising it, but those same reviews taught me something important about spoilers.
If you thought spoilers were just for movies, let me tell you, knowing too much about what’s going to happen in a book can ruin it for you just as quickly as knowing the plot of a movie will make you not want to watch it. (For instance, don’t read the reviews on Amazon if you want to keep the suspense.)
Kazuo Ishiguro’s book Never Let Me Go should really be approached knowing as little about what’s going on as possible. Sure, you’ll be confused for a while, but when you find out what’s really happening in the story you will be rewarded for your patience.
What I can tell you is that the book revolves around three people, Kathy H., Ruth and Tommy, who lived together at Hailsham, a sort of boarding school where the chidren are taught by “guardians” to become “carers” and give their “donations.” It’s apparent pretty early on that these are not ordinary kids, but I’ll leave it to you reading the book to figure out what’s so special about them.
This is a really wonderful, sad book about the inevitability of our lives and the potential horrors of modern science. It’s a very subtle and beautiful book, with spare language that sends the reader rolling along the hillsides of England with Kathy H. as she remembers her childhood and the darkness that lay just below the surface of an otherwise idyllic seeming life.
I heartily recommend this book to anyone who has read Ishiguro’s other books, to lovers of literary fiction and even to those who normally like suspense books. Ishiguro is a master of the form, and you won’t be disappointed.