Reading Well: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Remains of the Day is Kazuo Ishiguro‘s best known novel; Never Let Me Go published in 2005, was his sixth novel, followed by a seventh in 2015.

It’s an odd book. Ishiguro’s voice and craft are incredible: poised, restrained, full of both life and clarity. The novel is set in an alternative England, covering a period roughly from the 1980’s into the 1990’s–the time is marked by the emergence of the Walkman, of the first whispers of the onrushing information age. But, immediately, it is clear that something, and something vital to the core of the novel, is different.

Ishiguro’s plot runs in a series of spirals: events are foreshadowed and referenced and returned to, and the details of the exact circumstance of the main characters is only revealed gradually, with some details never fully explained. As such, to not spoil the tension of the novel, it is enough to say that it follows a set of friends through their life at a specially created, somewhat bucolic, private school in the English countryside and then into the wider world. The purpose of the school, the relation of the students to the teachers (called guardians), and their later roles in society are all slowly peeled away as Kathy (the narrator), Ruth, and Tommy grow up.

There is a love triangle, and there are some interesting observations along the way about creativity, sex, and, ultimately, the intersection of technology and civilized society.

All that sounds a bit mysterious, but it’s neither a mystery book nor a thriller. Instead, it has the feel of a Gothic work, where the atmosphere is draped over everything, and the meaning behind it only apparent at the end.

Ishiguro’s skill makes it a worthwhile experience. As I read, I kept thinking how it should be adapted for film: turns out it already was, a 2010 motion picture was released to critical praise, but little commercial success. I have not seen it, but plan to.

#WhatIWishICouldDo

Ishiguro’s prose is just so controlled. It lets him combine musings on the motivations of other characters with very direct statements of intent and anticipation in a way that, if it were less skillfully handled, would feel forced and wooden. But, it never does. Writing interiority like that is pretty amazing.