Dystopic Love

I have to be completely honest. If it wasn't for Keira Knightley, I never would have come across this novel. I'm such a Knightley junkie, and I happened across Never Let Me Go on her IMDB page. Due to my read-a-holic nature, I refuse to watch the movie before reading the book. It was easily the greatest decision I have ever made (almost as good as Pip's decision to start this blog).

Kazuo Ishigiro published this novel in 2005, when it made Time's Book of the Year and subsequently its Top 100 Books from 1923-2005 list. The novel in itself is a beautiful tale full of human suffering and beauty. It is about three students- Tommy, Ruth, and Katy- who attend a "special" school in England, where they learn that they are mere clones who must keep themselves healthy. When they reach the age of 19, they will begin a process called "donation". This is when they are forced to give up their vital organs for "normal" humans, and effectively dying. Death, to them, is known as "completion": they have completed their purpose in life and are no longer useful. The headmistress of their school, Hailsham, is very interested in art and constantly collects the artwork of her students where she inspects them and stores them. During their school years, the three friends develop a close relationship. Ruth and Tommy develop a sexual relationship, and they soon discover that students are given a reprieve of three years before they must begin donation. However, only people who can prove that they are truly in love through their portrayal of emotion through art.

Because I'm the coolest reviewer ever, I won't spoil the rest of the story. Instead, let's talk about how the book functions as social commentary. In reading the entirety of the novel, I couldn't help but marvel at how Ishigiro is using puppy love to draw the sympathies of the readers in regards to human trafficking. Bluntly put, this is a criticism of human slavery and people placed in servitude, and the dehumanization that stems from such statures in life. Children being raised for the sole purpose of donating their organs to other people, whom they will never even meet, is a more dramatic method of conveying the author's repulsion at today's human treatment, but surely its importance cannot be denied. The novel also toys with the concept of Ruth as the anti-heroine, but I won't reveal too much of how and why. You'll have to read for that!

All in all, this novel is on my re-read list simply because of how beautifully written it is. Ishigiro has such a graceful way of writing and although the concepts of his novel as certainly difficult to grasp, the smooth, transitional narration makes it seem as though I was cutting through butter with a warm knife. Definitely pick up this book, and I vehemently recommend you watch the film adaptation, because director Mark Romanek (director of music videos featuring Madonna, Michael Jackson, Lenny Kravitz,  Jay Z, and Johnny Cash) did such an applaudable job of translating Ishigiro's words into pictures that such a transition it itself ought to be considered art.