(Current fiction and quality fiction of the past.)
‘Never Let Me Go’ (Knopf) by Kazuo Ishiguro is a novel superb in its view of the deeper side of romance and escape, of life itself.
If you like writers in the tradition of Ian McEwan, Marilynne Robinson, Chang-Rae Lee, and Margaret Atwood (who’s “The Handmaid's Tale” creates a different dystopia), you'll be immediately swept into this alternate world where the past is also the future, according to Debbie Lee Wesselmann of Lehigh Valley, Pa. in her review for Amazon.
Examiner classifies this novel as a “romantic escape” because it dwells in the realm of escapism and touches the heart with fabulous moments of insight and fulfillment. It’s definitely not the kissy-kissy view of romance or escape.
As for the romance, you can see that through the eyes of the narrator – it’s not what you might expect, it’s the embrace of humanity. Wrote the School Library Journal: “The elegance of Ishiguro's prose and the pitch-perfect voice of his narrator conspire to usher readers convincingly into the remembered world of Hailsham, a British boarding school for special students. The reminiscence is told from the point of view of Kathy H., now 31, whose evocation of the sheltered estate's sunlit rolling hills, guardians, dormitories, and sports pavilions is imbued with undercurrents of muted tension and foreboding that presage a darker reality. As an adult, Kathy re-engages in lapsed friendships with classmates Ruth and Tommy, examining the details of their shared youth and revisiting with growing awareness the clues and anecdotal evidence apparent to them even as youngsters that they were different from everyone outside. [...] Ishiguro conveys with exquisite sensitivity the emotional texture of the threesome's relationship, their bonds of personal loyalty that overcome fractures of trust, the palpable boundaries of hope, and the human capacity for forgiveness. Highly recommended for literary merit.” Copyright © School Library Journal
As one critic put it, “As in Ishiguro's best-known work, ‘The Remains of the Day,’ only after closing the book do you absorb the magnitude of what his characters endure.” “Never Let Me Go” was published in 2005.
In 1995, Ishiguro received an Order of the British Empire for service to literature, and in 1998 was named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. He lives in London. The novel became a motion picture in 2010 directed by Mark Romanek from a screenplay by Alex Garland.
________________________________________________________________________
EXAMINER’S BEST: How to write your 1st novel
EXAMINER’S NOVELS: Splat! A Light in Polanco
________________________________________________________________________
Comments