Picture Book: At this Very Moment
12 years ago
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Never Let Me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro's new book, Never Let Me Go, is an undercover masterpiece of horror. Kathy H. is a 31 year old caregiver living in England, and this book follows the nostalgic reminisces of her childhood spent in an English boarding school. Slowly, we come to realize that Kathy's comfortable life is not at all what we assumed from the first half of the book; our initial assumptions are terribly wrong. By the middle of the book, I wanted to shout a warning to Kathy the child, and to shake Kathy the adult out of her inculcated apathy. The complete shocking horror of this book lies in the characters' inaction when faced with a fate worse (although including) certain death. Reading Never Let Me Go is rather like watching a lobster boil to death in a pot of water, hardly noticing as you turn up the heat. I'm trying not to give too much away, because really, you should read this book and give yourself the worst halloween nightmares ever.
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2 comments:
I bought this at the airport to read when our team went to fight in Japan. But I'd been wanting to read it for a while, so I'd already looked it up in the library, where it was checked out. Problem was, when I looked it up, the subject headings that the book was listed under completely gave away the surprise in the book, so I read it all knowing exactly what the truth about the characters was, which I think made it a much less nightmarish experience, since it took away the feeling of slow dreadful realisation.
oh, don't you fucking hate those now it all cataloguers. That would have truly sucked. But really, i've never thought of their conundrum before. Imagine being caught between the professional obligation to accurately organize information, vs. the urge to let innocent readers enjoy a surprising and touching story by NOT BLABBING SPOILERS ALL OVER THE CATALOGUE!!!! Wow, I guess some tech services librarian somewhere at LC is having nightmares about this book still. Glad you read it though. If you liked the premise, check out the very cool YA series by Scott Westerfield, Uglies, Pretties and Specials.
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