Wednesday, Feb 25, 2009

Book Review: Never Let Me Go

Author:           Kazuo Ishiguro

Publisher:      Vintage / Random House

Website:        Click (HERE)

Type:             Fiction

ISBN #:          978-1-4000-7877-6

Pages:           288 Trade Paperback

Purchase:      $11.20 at Amazon.Com (HERE)
  

 The Story Line

Kathy (“Kath”) is a “carer.”  What, you ask, may that be?  A carer is one who takes care of organ donors while they are recuperating.  She is the narrator of this novel and shares with the reader her history at a school called Hailsham, located in England’s countryside.  At Hailsham, Kath is an observant young girl and very sensitive to the feelings of those around her.  Her two closest friends are Tommy and Ruth, who eventually couple-up.  Despite this coupling, Kath maintains a level of feelings for Tommy.

Kathy also recounts her time at The Cottages, where a portion of the students from Hailsham went to live upon their graduation from Hailsham.  At The Cottages, these “special” students learn more from life experience than from the books they read at Hailsham.  This is a time for them to form couples, learn to drive, and make some minor decisions about their future. 

My Review

Confused?  Yeah, I was too until I was 1/2-way into the book!  I’ve read wonderful reviews of this book where the story-line is carefully avoided and a proper review conducted.  The best review I’ve located on this book is at Books on the Brain and I believe that she liked this book.  SPOIL ALERT:  I’m not going to dance around the story line in this review.  So, if you’d like a review which keeps the storyline well protected for future readers, click on over to Books on the Brain and read Lisa’s review.  Don’t return to mine.  

What I am most disappointed about was the lack of what could have been great content to this story.  Here’s the premise… humans are being “created” in laboratories to serve as organ donors.  As they are created in a lab, it is my impression that they are viewed as non-human and “soul-less.”  After some time had passed, some felt that it was their duty to pull the more “gifted” donors from these labs/farms and raise them in a protected environment in which they could have some semblance of a childhood and young adulthood.  All the while, they would be schooled to the fact of what their life purpose was to be… to be an organ donor for the “real humans” (you know, us, the one with souls!).  Ugh.

Let’s start with what I did like.  The premise of the book is a good one.  It’s highly thought provoking.  I mean, what is it exactly that makes us human?  When does God breathe a soul into us?  What are the characteristics of human nature that reflect that we have souls and aren’t just these electrically charged mechanisms with the ability to have critical thinking?  Another thought… is the life of one worth less than the life of another?  And, then there’s the question of what makes a life complete?  What needs to happen in your life for it to be complete, for your life to be exhausted?

Stay with me.  Here’s why I didn’t like the book.  With such an AMAZING premise, much could have been done with this book.  This book could have been written with such depth.  But, for me, it was BORING.  Perhaps if the reader didn’t have to get 1/2 way into the book to understand what the book was about, it may have meant more while reading it.  To me, this book was “soul-less.”  The characters were too shallow for me and their motives confusing.  The author tries to incorporate a test by which the “guardians” of these donor children of Hailsham would show they actually had souls.  They did this by judging their art and poetry.  What?  So, if I suck at art, I have no soul?  Whatever!

The author gets into details about the donors’ sexuality, but never explains why it is that they can’t have children.  I mean, if they can grow lungs and a spleen, why not an uterus?  Are they “fixed” at birth/creation?  If so, why?  The book never really divulges how these donors derived from their “models,” which I found disappointing.

I think that I could go on for days about what I didn’t like about this book.  For the positives about it… it did have a thought-intriguing story line (once you understood it).  The book was well-written.  Oh… that’s it for me!

On Sher’s “Out of Ten Scale”:

As you can summarize from the review, this book was NOT my cup of tea.  But, one person who reviewed it made a comment on Lisa’s review.  She stated that this seemed to be the type of book where you either loved it or hated it.  I didn’t actually “hate” it.  But, I definitely did not love it.  Let’s just say that I would have rather cleaned out the hall closet than read this book.  And, I despise my hall closet. Strictly from my PERSONAL viewpoint, I am awarding this book for the genre Fiction: (God Knows What SubGenre), a 5 out of 10. 

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