Auprès de moi toujours

The disturbing premise of the novel is revealed quickly, but daily life just continues. It creates a tension that lasts all through the story. Although there's no need for a big reveal, the journey becomes heartbreaking.

Although the novel's premise could be called science fiction, it's a character-driven literary work.

I’m not sure how I feel after reading this. I loved The Remains of the Day a ton, and I expected to like this one even more because of the added sci-fi layer to Ishiguro’s writing. Instead, I feel a little cheated and let down; while the writing and story were certainly very good, it just didn’t hit the same way for me as The Remains of the Day did.

Briefly (as there’s many other much longer reviews here to peruse for detailed plot points), the story is written from two points: Kathy later in life as a “carer”, and Kathy early in life as a student at Hailsham boarding school. From the beginning hints are dropped from both points in time that something off-kilter is going on with the kids at Hailsham, and whatever that something is followed these students even after they left the school. We follow Kathy as she reminisces about her time at Hailsham and after, about the relationships she developed primarily between Tommy, Ruth, and herself, and how they developed and changed over the years, shadowed the entire way by the “something” hanging over them all.

I liked the first third of the book the best, when the kids were still at Hailsham and it felt like a reader-driven detective story in figuring out what all the hints dropped by the author meant. It honestly didn’t take much, there’s enough dropped to basically put the puzzle together fairly quickly, but I was led along the way in how the characters would react when they figured it out, and what would happen as a result. This was where I was primarily let down, and was also one of my biggest annoyances about the book: none of the players in this story felt like they had emotions at all about what they were revealing along the way. No curiosity, no “huh, that’s weird”, no real drive to learn more. Mild ending feeling spoilers (no details): even when the author finally gets around to “the big reveal” far later in the book than felt necessary, the characters accepted it, talked about it briefly, and then the book ends. It felt incredibly anticlimactic.

It’s a fine book and I can see why people rated it how they did, but ultimately it felt like a miss to me. Certainly interesting discussion questions are raised, but there’s so much detachment felt by the main characters that it’s hard for me as a reader to really get invested in questions that won’t be answered or addressed.

I shouldn't be surprised that this book absolutely blew me away. Ishiguro's "The Buried Giant" was my favorite read of last year. But despite this being completely different in tone, it was just as powerful and thought provoking. I couldn't help but feel like the plot was a solid contemporary fiction story in a horrific sci fi, almost dystopian setting. I've never felt such rising despondence in my heart as pieces of these students' lives are revealed bit by bit. But while, in many ways, it was heartbreaking, the story is one of friendship, forgiveness, and love. This is truly masterful storytelling from beginning to end.

I'm glad this is over. The concept has so much potential to be something I really like, but in the end, I struggled to remain interested.

There are some writers I always meant to read but somehow never got around to. This is the first Kazuo Ishiguro novel I've read, and boy am I glad I did. Brilliant, oppressive and disturbing.

Totally blown away, I could not put this book down. I started reading this book not knowing anything about it, and that's the way I would recommend starting it.

Ik las Never Let Me Go door Kazuo Ishiguro. PAS OP: dit stukje beval spoilers. Nou ja, de grote onthulling zit al op een derde van het boek, dus zo groot is de spoiler ook weer niet, maar toch.

In een wereld die heel erg lijkt op de onze, volgens we een groepje tieners die opgroeien op een soort internaat. Tussen hun lessen door volgen we de relatieperikelen en stubbelingen van twee meisjes en een jongen. De ruzies en vriendschappen worden in groot detail beschreven. Hun opleiding lijkt voor het grootste deel uit culturele vorming te bestaan en na hun examen komen met weer andere jongeren op een soort vervallen boerderij te wonen. Het lijkt allemaal wat doelloos, tot duidelijk wordt wat dit voor jongeren zijn: het zijn klonen, voorbestemd om hun organen te doneren aan ‘gewone’ mensen die dat nodig hebben. De enige zinnige opleiding die ze krijgen, is die tot ziekenverzorger, om voor hun lotgenoten te kunnen zorgen die met hun donaties zijn begonnen.

Een interessante premisse: een groep mensen die als een soort hoogwaardig vee wordt gehouden om organen te kunnen oogsten. Er wordt alleen vrij weinig mee gedaan. Het gaat alleen maar over de moeizame vriendschap en liefde tussen de drie hoofdpersonen. Het wordt ook volledig verteld vanuit het perspectief van één van hen, die op 31-jarige leeftijd terugkijkt op hun jeugd. De andere twee zijn dan al overleden, klaar met doneren zoals dat heet. Dat is op zich nog wel mooi, hoe het perfide systeem zo echt van binnenuit wordt beschreven, niet door rebellen, maar door mensen die zo zijn opgevoed dat ze zich helemaal in hun lot schikken. Maar het is wat vrijblijvend. Zo’n interessante ethische kwestie, en dan gebruik je het alleen maar als achtergrond voor een suf liefdesverhaal.

Want dat liefdesverhaal kon me eigenlijk niet zo veel boeien. Stel dat eigenlijk voor elkaar gemaakt is, maar hij eindigt min of meer per ongeluk met haar beste vriendin, die vrij wispelturig en dominant is. Het soort drama wat gewoon niet aan mij besteed is. Het boek sleepte zich dan ook eindeloos voort. De grote emotionele ontknoping aan het eind, waarin dan toch nog wat achtergrond over het donorsysteem zat, was dan wat mij betreft ook too little, too late.

Ik begin na eerder When We Were Orphans, waar ik ook weinig aan vond, en nu dit boek toch te geloven dat Ishiguru gewoon niet mijn schrijver is.

The 2016 Nobel Prize taught us that writing doesn't have to be unreadable to be literature and 'Never Let Me Go' reinforces that message. It is a book that grasps you and draws you along with the enfolding story whilst simultaneously dropping little ideas into your head questioning our society which I'm sure will be giving me pause for thought for the coming time. The craftsmanship is remarkable, with Ishiguro dropping hints about what is coming in such a way as to create an expectation but still with uncertainty and a quantum of suspense remaining to keep the pages turning. Wonderful literary science-fiction!

"Non Lasciarmi" è un romanzo che piega i generi letterari a proprio piacimento, lo si può leggere come un romanzo di formazione, come una distopia o, come fa lo scrittore americano Ramsey Campbell, come un horror. Possiamo essere d'accordo con una qualunque di queste categorizzazioni, ma l'autore riesce comunque a trascenderle tutte rendendo la sua opera qualcosa di diverso.
Nonostante la complessità della sua collocazione, "Non Lasciarmi" può essere considerato romanzo facile, da divorare in un paio di notti di lettura compulsiva, ma quando il lettore abbasserà il libro dopo averne letto l'ultima riga, non potrà fare altro che fissare il vuoto per qualche minuto scuotendo lentamente la testa, turbato a vita.

Someone took a science fiction premise and surrounded it with relationships, feelings and things that aren't from a dystopia society and really made me interested in the story. Make no mistake, the science fiction part of "Never Let Me Go" is a slow burn, but there is enough story to keep you going that you forget what kind of book you are reading. The answers aren't laid out in the beginning and through reminiscing on memories you receive little nuggets of detail about the world this book takes place in. If you find yourself wondering what the point of Hailsham or Guardians are, that's only natural feeling and soon you'll get all the details you need.

This is a different take on science fiction, and for a while I wasn't even sure there was any in this book but it's presented neatly in an all around pleasant story.

I love Ishiguro's trick of unabashedly tantalizing you with the next part of the story at the end of the preceding part. It made this book hard to put down.

I really couldn't stand the way the characters never communicated openly with each other, but that's part of what made the story so effective and tragic.

Ok, so I just put this book down after finishing it, then rereading the first chapter. I'm really not sure what I can say about it. I loved it even though it made me furious. The story was suspenseful, emotionally engaging (which is an understatement), and intellectually fascinating. Really, if there was ever a text to read post-financial crisis, this is the one. Not that this book is about living under capitalism directly, it just lends itself to that interpretation nicely.

I normally stay pretty cool to contemporary prize finalists (I don't know why... guess I feel like they need to stand the test of time. I don't like getting swept up in hysterical illusions) but I whole-heartily recommend this book. It's a pretty fast read (so fast you could miss a lot of its subtleties) and the characters have a way of inhabiting your inner world; though, having only just finished reading it, I can't say how long they'll stick around, only that it seems I'll be thinking about them for a while.