Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
“I saw a new world coming rapidly. More scientific, efficient, yes. More cures for the old sicknesses. Very good. But a harsh, cruel, world. And I saw a little girl... pleading, never to let her go."
Rating: 7/10
This post contains spoilers.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro is a poignant novel that explores humanity, friendship, and love through the lives of three childhood best friends who grow up in an experimental ‘humane’ school for clones, destined to become organ donors for their “originals.” The story is not about a fight for freedom; the characters accept their fate without dissent. Instead, it uses this dystopian backdrop to delve into intimate moments that evoke quintessential feelings from my childhood as well as each persons path to “becoming” their own individual, despite the altered characters and world.
One of the most powerful scene’s in the novel is when Kathy listens to her vinyl of Never Let Me Go by Judy Bridgewater, hugging her pillow and dancing as if it was her child. Billie Eilish recently released a song called Birds of A Feather. The scene is a permanent mental movie in my mind and together with the song, it drives me to a deeply emotional place.
As I read this novel, I experimented with relaying audio messages to Sofia, Arham, and a few childhood friends who I shared core memories with. It was a wonderful way to experience it.
Highlights
Norfolk - a city of lost things
“Creating” at Hailsham
Tommy’s anger issues; resolved by not being forced to care about art.
Ruth put in so much effort to help Kathy recover the loss of losing her tape. Perhaps not the original song, but the thought counted. It cemented their friendship
The beautiful part of gifts is the ability of a friend or a person to read your mind to see that which you desire which you cannot say
The norms around sex and relationships knowing they would be donors
Kathy’s empathy and social awareness
The possibles theory, similar to how orphans must feel longing to know their biological parents
Kathy classifying the two Ruths wouldn’t merge; that the one I confided in before bed was one I could absolutely trust.
Ruth not outright lying, but encouraging ideas which were not true to build some form of aura and reputation
“We’re modeled from trash. Junkies, prostitutes, winos, tramps. Convicts, maybe, just so long as they aren’t psychos.”
Once Kathy started having sexual urges, she started looking through old porn magazines to try to find her model. To understand why she was the way she was.
The backstory about how Tommy also put in so much effort to find the Never Let Me Go vinyl from Kathy
Kathy’s inaction, running away, when Ruth insulted Tommy’s drawings and twisted her words. The significance of that encounter in a world where forces were already pulling them away.
“But the fact was, I suppose, there were powerful tides tugging us apart by then, and it only needed something like that to finish the task. If we’d understood that back then—who knows?—maybe we’d have kept a tighter hold of one another.”
All Kathy wanted was to be loved, to be forgiven. Exactly like what Siddhartha Mukherjee said in his commencement speech: “I want you to forgive me. I want you to love me” as well as “I love you. I forgive you.”
Ruth apologizing for keeping Kathy and Tommy apart
Kathy’s interpretation of Never Let Me Go by Judy Bridgewater
“Because whatever the song was really about, in my head, when I was dancing, I had my own version. You see, I imagined it was about this woman who’d been told she couldn’t have babies. But then she’d had one, and she was so pleased, and she was holding it ever so tightly to her breast, really afraid something might separate them, and she’s going baby, baby, never let me go. That’s not what the song’s about at all, but that’s what I had in my head that time.”
The reason why Miss Lucy was forced to leave. The anger she felt for not being more explicit with the students about their destiny
The final conversation with Miss Emily and Madame Mary-Claude. The pity in her last words to them as well.
“When I watched you dancing that day, I saw something else. I saw a new world coming rapidly. More scientific, efficient, yes. More cures for the old sicknesses. Very good. But a harsh, cruel world. And I saw a little girl, her eyes tightly closed, holding to her breast the old, kind world, one that she knew in her heart could not remain, and she was holding it and pleading, never to let her go.”
Although the novel is named after Never Let Me Go by Judy Bridgewater, it also reminds me of Total Eclipse of The Heart by Bonnie Tyler.