Tolog Review: Never Let Me Go

Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro
reviewed by Julieanna Gonzalez

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, is a sentimentally woven tale with a devastating heart, about the loss of innocence, complex friendships and the heartbreaking discoveries that the characters make as they go through life together. This devastating and beautifully crafted work of speculative fiction is full of unexpected turns, deep settled emotions, and pensive questions which make the reader think. Kathy the main protagonist, reminisces on her carefree childhood spent at the tucked away boarding school, Hailsham with her best friends Tommy and Ruth. Hailsham was the only place the three had ever known, but during the time they spent there, they never questioned why their guardians were highly secretive and why certain things were restricted, like any sort of knowledge or element of the outside world. Kathy, Tommy and Ruth spent their childhood years under blissful oblivion, enveloped in their own world together, with the only knowledge that they possess a gift, unlike anyone else. As the trio grows older, they begin to drift apart as they gain newfound knowledge that comes with growing adolescence and the realizations of deep rooted feelings. The relationship between them is constantly being tested as their emotions grow and they find out more about themselves and each other. Now an adult, Kathy reunites with her former friends, and they start to unearth the heartbreaking truth behind their years at Hailsham. As the three of them suffer the bitter loss of oblivion, rising tension in their friendships, they are forced to come to term with dark realizations of their purpose, before their time together runs out. Ishiguro adds an unsettling twist to the question, “can we live if we were born to die”? and pulls the reader under in the rising tension and sudden shifts of his deceivingly sweet yet shocking novel. 

Kathy now works at a donations facility around the place where she once grew up, but doesn’t ponder too much on her experiences at Hailsham until her former friends reenter her life. As a young girl, Kathy is well meaning, curious and slightly naïve. She is very protective of the out-casted Tommy, and has secret affections for him. Kathy creates a friendship with the headstrong Ruth, whose actions often test their relationship and trust for one another. As she becomes older, Kathy realizes her feelings for Tommy have grown further, though she had many intimate relationships with other boys. Kathy comes off a bit immature as she wants to be like the others and experience what she thinks is love, but as she starts discovering who she is, she becomes more mature and in tune with her emotions. Ishiguro is excellent at creating a sense of an idyllic world in the first few chapters of his novel, by describing the carefree and unconventional way the children live and perceive their world. As the characters start to grow older, he slowly starts revealing the dark truth in small portions, signifying the loss of oblivion and innocence in the three friends. His style of storytelling is heartbreaking and he is especially keen at creating deep emotions inside and between the characters. Ishiguro’s highly controlled writing abilities allow him to weave a story that is sweet, yet devastating and seamlessly makes explicit and taboo material, become almost desensitized and a part of the regular of the character’s lives. 

I very much did enjoy and personally recommend Never Let Me Go, to those who enjoy an unconventional approach to a genre because it is a fresh yet poignant take on this category of literature. Readers will enjoy Ishiguro’s masterful use emotional tension, unsettlingly idyllic and tightly controlled writing style, dotted with suspense and melancholy emotions. This novel does take a bit of patience at first, but the rising tension will enrapture the mind once the characters start peer into the obscurity of their past to unravel devastating secrets about each other and their existence. There are a few uncomfortable topics in the novel, but these create an out of touch, yet realistic feel that the novel distinctly carries.