N is for Never Let Me Go: Kazuo Ishiguro

This was a beautifully written, dark and despairing love story, and I enjoyed it.

I could have given up early on in the story because it was difficult to get engaged when I knew nothing of the world Katy lived in. I was confused about the setting, but when I got to the end, I realized how much I liked the way Ishiguro slowly revealed the world to his readers as the story went on. Kathy shared the world at her pace, and that worked really well for the novel.

There were so many times when I wanted to shake the book and yell at Kathy, which makes for a good read. I was engaged in what I was reading, and I could tell that by how angry I got when Kathy didn't do something because she was so meek and quiet. I wish so much that she had stood up for herself more.

Ruth was a difficult character. I understand why she's in the story, but I didn't like her one bit. She was frustrating and annoying and petty and rude, and I could never understand why Kathy didn't just let her go. I know Ruth was an important part of Kathy's story, and I know she was necessary for Ishiguro's plot, but she was not necessary in my mind.

I think the world Ishiguro created is a fascinating world. Terrible, but fascinating. His ideas are insane but real enough to be frightening. Is this something that could happen to our world? Probably.

The way Ishiguro told the story was interesting and kept me reading. Just when he was about to reveal something big, he'd jump back to Kathy's narration and pull us back out of the story. I had a hard time taking breaks from reading because each time a chapter ended, it was in a place that I knew the next chapter would keep going and something bigger would be revealed. It was a nice way to keep me in the story.

There were several highlight-worthy lines in this novel, and I'll share my favorite one:

“I keep thinking about this river somewhere, with the water moving really fast. And these two people in the water, trying to hold onto each other, holding on as hard as they can, but in the end it’s just too much. The current’s too strong. They’ve got to let go, drift apart. That’s how I think it is with us. It’s a shame, Kath, because we’ve loved each other all our lives. But in the end, we can’t stay together forever.”