Kazuo Ishiguro’s “Never Let Me Go,” is the first book I have read by this Nobel Prize Winning author. I read it in two days which is very quick for me, and after finishing the book I felt like I was in a daze, and a few hours later when I was no longer in that daze I was in a state of contemplation about what this book was about…for me.
Aside from the science fiction aspect which I had discarded early on, and the moral issue of using other people’s DNA to create a society of children who later in their lives become donors and, in short, instead of living complete lives barely live half a life; even though if not for the donations they are healthy, normal individuals whose life expectancy would be the same as any other individual living in England.
Aside from those two themes, this book represented for me what our lives would look like if the average life expectancy wasn’t seventy-five but thirty-five. Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy, the three main characters brilliantly depicted by Mr. Ishiguro, go through the stages of life (childhood, adolescence, early adulthood) very similar to what you would expect. It is the time they have to make the donations, so early in an otherwise normal individual, that they are faced with the inevitability of death with the questions and doubts and decisions that people approaching this final stage often contemplated with either fond memories, sad times, and what could have been. What could have been, What might have been, and What was?
I was truly impressed and highly recommend.
Aside from the science fiction aspect which I had discarded early on, and the moral issue of using other people’s DNA to create a society of children who later in their lives become donors and, in short, instead of living complete lives barely live half a life; even though if not for the donations they are healthy, normal individuals whose life expectancy would be the same as any other individual living in England.
Aside from those two themes, this book represented for me what our lives would look like if the average life expectancy wasn’t seventy-five but thirty-five. Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy, the three main characters brilliantly depicted by Mr. Ishiguro, go through the stages of life (childhood, adolescence, early adulthood) very similar to what you would expect. It is the time they have to make the donations, so early in an otherwise normal individual, that they are faced with the inevitability of death with the questions and doubts and decisions that people approaching this final stage often contemplated with either fond memories, sad times, and what could have been. What could have been, What might have been, and What was?
I was truly impressed and highly recommend.
A Curious View 