a.k.a Kelly Actually Read a Real Book
When I told Jenny that I was reading Never Let Me Go she was surprised and exclaimed (over gmail) "You're actually reading a real book! It has won awards and stuff". And really, that isn't fair. I read real books all the time, I just rarely read "good" books. But I did! It is interesting because I don't often read straight fiction books that are very character driven, but when I do, I always enjoy them. Also, this isn't going to be a normal book review because I kind of suck at summing up books, so I'm just going to kind of discuss it.
I decided to read Never Let Me Go because I saw a trailer for the movie and thought it looked good. In fact, it looked good enough that I wanted to read the book before the movie could ruin the plot for me (something I wish I had done for Fight Club). Sadly, the movie is a UK movie and doesn't have a wide release in the US. If I felt like driving 1 1/2 hours to Boston, I could see it, but that seems like way too much work to see a movie. I'll just wait until it gets released on DVD and get it on Netflix. But that is neither here nor there. Anyway, I saw the trailer, looked up the book, saw that the library I work at had it, checked it out. The only thing I knew about it was what I had seen in the trailer, which wasn't much. I sometimes like reading a book that I have no idea what it is about. Sometimes the name/cover/author/recommendation from a friend is enough for me to just jump in without reading the back of the book. I did that with Never Let Me Go. And really, I feel like the trailer and the book cover don't really represent the story well.
What I really liked about Ishiguro's book was the way it was written. It is written in first person, which I happen to always really enjoy, and is mostly a reflection on the past. The timeline of the story is not exactly linear. It is somewhat linear as far as certain eras of the narrator's life, but within the eras the stories are all intertwined. It really is written much like one would reflect on memories...one recollection sparks another that happened prior, which in turn sparks something that happened later. I just didn't worry about the actual timeline too much and was fine.
What I liked most about the book was that fact that I really had no idea what it was building to. There was definitely a question of "why?" hanging over the entire book. Why are the characters at Hailsham? Why hasn't she seen her friends in so long? Why are they giving donations? And I found that I really had no idea what the book was going to ultimately end up being until the end. That doesn't usually happen with me. Usually I can kind of figure out what a twist might be or where the author is taking the character or what the mystery is, but I was kind of lost the whole time. I do have to say, when I got the end of the book, my response was kind of "Huh...well, that was good and interesting...but...well...hmmmm". Which makes it seem like I didn't enjoy the book, which is not true. I really enjoyed reading the book, but the end was just different from what I had been expecting.
One thing I really enjoyed about Never Let Me Go was that it was very different from everything I have been reading lately. It was a nice change to read a character driven plot that wasn't fantasy or a mystery or a teen book. Just a solid adult fiction book. Variety is good and I'm really glad I randomly picked Never Let Me Go up.
**Added later--I just rewatched the trailer and it really kind of shows a lot of the book, though there are definitely some differences. Apparently after I watched the trailer and decided to read the book I forgot everything about the trailer**
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