Never Let Me Go

My summer reading has progressed a little slower than I’d like. I thought that I would be able to keep up the classic 1 book for every 2 days like most summers, but I feel like I’m way busier than I have been in the past. So my reading has become sporadic at best. Sometimes I can read a book every 2 days, sometimes it takes me 2 weeks. And in the case of The Odyssey, it’s going to be a full summer project, reading 1 chapter whenever I get a spare moment at home. That thing is effing heavy and my purse protests the weight.

My pace may have slowed, but I’ve still managed to squeeze in some time for awesome reads (often at the expense of having a social life). For instance, I read Half of a Yellow Sun at the beginning of the summer and it’s probably one of my favorite books ever. So while I’m not reading as much, I’m probably reading better material than before (Move aside, yearly reading of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series!). Which brings us to the last book I read, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

So, I’m fibbing a little bit. This was not the last book I read. The last book I finished was Bossypants by Tina Fey. I delayed writing this blog because I wanted to watch the film version of Never Let Me Go so that I would be able to compare the film and the novel. In order to do that, I had to wait for the weekend to rent the film (I should probably look into getting Netflix). In the meantime, I read Tina Fey’s book. For those interested, Bossypants is hilarious and made me laugh out loud while doing the banking for my place of employment. Embarrassing, and worth it.

Never Let Me Go sounds like a crazy story when you try to lay it all out for someone. It’s about a woman named Kathy H who is looking back on her time at a British boarding school called Hailsham and the implications of her time spent there. Gradually, throughout the course of the novel, you come to understand that Kathy H is a clone and that the purpose of Hailsham is to raise child clones to later be used for organ donation.

This tends to be the part where people look at you weird and lose all interest in reading this book. Which is a shame, because it’s really quite a lovely read. Kathy and her friend Tommy have this beautifully developed relationship throughout the narrative, but he is dating Kathy’s best friend Ruth. While they eventually end up together, it’s not really under perfect terms and their struggle to gain footing despite their fates is truly heartbreaking.

In terms of the actual writing, Ishiguro is amazing. It’s beautifully written, and poetic without actually being flowery. There’s something really artistic about the simplicity of his writing. And while the story sounds a little far-fetched when I try to explain it to people, Ishiguro has a way of making you accept all of the craziness that he presents. Which I will get to later.

After I read the novel, I watched the movie. I was really excited about the film because the trailers looked really good and it has a stellar cast. Kathy H is played by Carey Mulligan, Ruth is played by Keira Knightley and Tommy is played by the gorgeous Andrew Garfield of recent Social Network fame. He is effing attractive.

What I will say about the film is that it is beautifully shot. The lighting, the landscape, everything came together to present this gorgeous picture that conveyed the tones of the film overall. The cinematography is probably the best thing the film has going for it. While Mulligan, Knightley and Garfield weren’t exactly what I imagined while reading the novel, they all did good jobs. Especially Garfield, whose subtle portrayal was the strongest of them all. While I didn’t imagine Tommy to be as Garfield portrayed him, I think I prefer Garfield’s performance to my own expectations.

This wasn’t a bad movie. But, like all movies that are based off books, things had to be changed for it to work as a film and as always, chunks of the story are sacrificed as a result. Whether it is slight changes, or additions, or leaving things out entirely, I am never a fan. Usually, what I find most irksome about novel-turned-movies is when sections of dialogue are taken from the original text and plopped into the film. It always makes me feel awkward and it reminds me that I’m watching something that isn’t real. However, this film had none of that nonsense, which I appreciated. So while the movie was not as good as the novel, it wasn’t the worst adaptation I’ve ever seen (Twilight).

My favorite part of Never Let Me Go (the novel) is that it really made me think. And I was surprised that as I was reading and enjoying the book, I was also picking up on things and asking questions about the text. I love it when texts encourage thought like that. After I put this book down, I thought to myself “I’d really like to write a paper about the parallel between the way education at Hailsham is portrayed and the way that Kathy’s narration educates the reader”. Which I feel is really saying something, because who thinks to themselves “Hey, I WANT to write a paper!”?! The answer is no one. So I say congrats Ishiguro, for inspiring that desire in me.

I know it’s about clones, but I still think everyone should read it. It’s an incredibly sensitive, artistic and beautiful text that really isn’t so much about cloning at all. And if you’re into books about clones, then stop complaining!