May 31, 2013

“Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro – The Early Trials of Life

As children, we all probably remember at least one of our teachers, at one point or another, telling us how special and full of potential we were… and it wasn’t exactly inaccurate. It is something every child needs to hear in order to have the motivation to move onwards in life and make something out of their potential.

However, in Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro, the “special” kids who live at the mysterious boarding school of Haisham in countryside England are more than your regular type of special… however, none of them knew how or why.

Once they lived through all the strange rules and mysterious occurrences, three friends from that school, Kathy, Ruth and Tommy, reunite once again and begin to discover what made them worth keeping in that school in the first place.

As much as it seems like some kind of clichéd horror or mystery adventure, I see Never Let Me Go as being more of a dramatic coming-of-age novel. More precisely, it is vehicle for the author to recount, re-experience and re-analyze her childhood and its many actors.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (Book cover)
It deals with a large number of important topics some of us may have experience with, such as self-sacrifice, illness, and a severe lack of freedom. He makes her characters go through the same trials as she did in one way or another, and despite their heft, they serve to turn the characters into the people they become at the end.

Of course, this is all “below the surface” stuff, and when it comes to the technical aspects, Ishiguro still manages to shine bright. Though the events themselves which touch the characters may be quite emotionally-heavy, it is offset by the somewhat dry and logical narration of the protagonist.

Though some authors wouldn’t be able to pull this off, with Ishiguro it feels like we are getting the best of both worlds, having a detailed perspective from both emotional and logical points of view.

All in all, this is a book that will fully impact you only once you are done reading and start digesting it, and if you like dramatic stories with heavy moral implications, this will certainly be a nice ride for you.



Kazuo Ishiguro (Author)

Kazuo Ishiguro


Kazuo Ishiguro is a British novelist born in Japan. He has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Kent, as well as a Master’s from the University of East Anglia in creative writing.

He is a widely-celebrated author, having been nominated for the Man Booker Prize four times, and having earned the award in 1989 for The Remains of the Day.


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