’50 Novels’ Never Let Me Go: Afterthoughts

I confess to not reading much fiction in my lifetime, but when I was a kid I did read quite a lot of children’s novels (my favourites being Just William and The Famous Five). The opening to Never Let Me Go instantly propelled me back to those junior years, with the setting, the characters and Mr. Ishiguro’s style of prose being wholly reminiscent of the English-esque adventures of Enid Blyton’s famous quintet. However any resemblance to anything I’d read before quickly dispelled as the story unfolded, and I realised that Halisham, the ‘boarding school’ that the first part of the story was solely centred on, was a place that could never be found in an Enid Blyton story; that Halisham was a school with a difference.

This is not to say that Mr. Ishiguro comes right out and tells the reader that Halisham is far from norm, instead he slips strange, and seemingly out-of-context nouns into the narrative, such as ‘donations’, ‘guardians’, ‘possibles’ etc., to get the reader’s mind thinking. He also increases the ambiguity of the story by describing unusual activities, such as the regular visitations to Halisham by the mysterious Madame, and her quest to find art additions for the ‘gallery’.

Ambiguous is probably the perfect word to describe the feeling one gets when reading the bulk of this novel. In the latter chapters all, or at least most, of the obscurity is cleared up, but for the most part the reader is left very much ‘in the dark’ about what exactly is going on. This sounds like a bad thing, but it’s not really. Mr. Ishiguro injects just the right amount of intrigue into the story, to instill the reader with enough curiosity to make him/her read on – which is pure genius on Mr. Ishiguro’s part.

Friendship and trust emerge as the most important themes in Never Let Me Go. Given that the ‘students’ are related by a common bond, and live mainly as an isolated collective, it’s not surprising to see these themes explored so fully. However the point of note is how well Mr. Ishiguro treats these humanistic themes, especially through his main characters – Kath, Ruth and Tommy. Not surprisingly, given that the focus of part of the novel occurs during puberty, sexual exploration is another theme explored to some extent. However Mr. Ishiguro treats the theme quite eloquently, never going into graphic detail, but making it clear how important, and indeed sanctified, sexual exploration is to the characters.

So do I consider Never Let Me Go to be a good novel, worthy of its 2005 Booker Prize ‘shortlisting’? Ultimately I’d say yes, definitely; the story may not have been one I expected (no bad thing), but it was one that I enjoyed. I wouldn’t consider it to be one of the best novels I’ve read so far, but neither would I consider it to be one of the worst either. Mr. Ishiguro’s skill in characterisation is clearly evident, as is his ability to interweave different time-frames into a story. For those reasons alone Never Let Me Go is, in my opinion, a worthy read. Just be prepared to spend a lot of your time reading this at first, in a state of bewildered puzzlement.

Rating:

Favourite quote: “I’d grabbed a pillow to stand in for the baby, and I was doing this slow dance, my eyes closed, singing along softly each times those lines came around again: “Oh baby, baby, never let me go…” ”
Favourite scene: When Miss Lucy reveals to her students at the pavilion that none of them will ever realise their personal ambitions as adults. It’s probably from this point that the novel’s fog of ambiguity begins to slowly lift.
What this novel has taught me about writing: That the reader does not always have to be kept completely ‘in the picture’ from the outset i.e. having everything explained to him/her as and when  required.  A level of obscurity, if well implemented, can enhance a story, raising curiosity and preparing the way for an epiphanic ending.