Review: Never Let Me Go

Over the weekend, I just finished Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro.  Oh, what a sad, devastating, just utterly wretching story. 

Kath was the stone-cold narrator, reminiscing about her friends and her school Hailsham, as she neared the end of her tenure as a carer.  She cared for those clones whose organs were harvested because they were less than human, not so possessive of a soul.  Though these beings demonstrate their humanity in every aspect, exhibiting jealousy and anger and resentment and friendship and love.  The ethics of the issues involved are compelling and difficult, though no one can doubt the inevitable right to live these individuals possess.  It was sad and bittersweet and how brave and strong and ultimately weak and passive Ruth, Tommy, and Kathy were when it came to their ultimate fate.

This is one of those tales that just linger with you.  There was some trashy commercial from some soft drink with a blathering girlfriend, and the narrator of the ad suggested that you could just clone yourself so you wouldn't have to listen.  And I was sort of outraged by that--clone yourself, give that individual a task you don't want to do? How thoughtless. I was thinking about all of them, and I was glad that the tragic tale ended before Kathy's "completion."  That would have been too much to bear.