I read *Never Let Me Go* by Kazuo Ishiguro about two months ago. The more I think about it, the more I am confused as to why this book is lauded as a modern classic. At many intervals, I found it downright boring. Yes, Ishiguro can write some beautiful sections. Yes, I think there is an interesting idea for a novel here.
Yet, for about 80% of this book, we are dealing with adolescent bickering and drama between Kathy and Ruth! Is the subtext that their anxiety about being harvested for organs makes them cagey and confrontational? Aren’t all kids cagey and confrontational at times though? Does that make the sub-subtext that we are all being harvested for our organs as we turn from children to adults??
I think my criticism revolves around the fact that I am simply not interested in manufactured teenage drama. This book brought a lot of interesting issues/ideas to the fore—but in my opinion, failed to deliver for the sake of chronicling high schooler angstiness.
by ollieollieoxygenfree
1 Comment
I think you’ve really pinpointed the key elements of the book – I enjoyed how Ishiguro used teenage circumstances as a metaphor for our potential future, playing on the sense of growing awareness in his main characters as they discover what will eventually become of their lives.