This is the third of Ishiguro's novels that I've read, and like the other two (The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans), it's impressed me a lot - not only in that I admire how well it's written and put together, but also in the sense that it's made an impression on me in a whole number of ways.
The difficulty that's posed by unpicking exactly how that impression is made is an indication of how neatly Never Let Me Go is put together...it's a combination of three main threads: (1) the description of the tangled relationship between Kathy, Ruth and Tommy and the costs of their actions; (2) the science fiction high concept of the donations and the mystery surrounding its details, unveiled for the reader in much the same way that the characters themselves learn those truths; and (3) the heightening effect of the predetermined foreshortening of all of their lives - and how deftly they're woven together, all mutually supporting.
There's something about Ishiguro's voice, in this one and in his others; his novels touch on a human level, while at the same time having always a sense of estrangement to them. I still don't know whether that latter is deliberate, a function of the damaged, pained characters through which he tells his stories, but regardless, it works.
The difficulty that's posed by unpicking exactly how that impression is made is an indication of how neatly Never Let Me Go is put together...it's a combination of three main threads: (1) the description of the tangled relationship between Kathy, Ruth and Tommy and the costs of their actions; (2) the science fiction high concept of the donations and the mystery surrounding its details, unveiled for the reader in much the same way that the characters themselves learn those truths; and (3) the heightening effect of the predetermined foreshortening of all of their lives - and how deftly they're woven together, all mutually supporting.
There's something about Ishiguro's voice, in this one and in his others; his novels touch on a human level, while at the same time having always a sense of estrangement to them. I still don't know whether that latter is deliberate, a function of the damaged, pained characters through which he tells his stories, but regardless, it works.
