Never Let Me Go

If Kazuo Ishiguro had set his most recent novel, Never Let Me Go, in the future, it would have seemed liked a cautionary tale about where science is taking us, but we would have been able to dismiss it as science fiction or fantasy. Instead, he sets it in the present (actually, the 1990s), transforming the story into something frighteningly real and current, despite the fact that the science upon which it is based, human cloning, is nowhere near reality here in 2006. Or so we believe.

Beyond what I’ve said already, I can’t tell you what this story is about without giving it away. One of the wonderful aspects of this book is the way Ishiguro feeds us information gradually, just as the characters come to a gradual realization of what their lives are all about. I was drawn in, compelled to continue reading so that I might understand the mystery of their lives.

So you’ll just have to read it yourself, and then we can talk. All I can say is that it’s definitely worth a read. Ishiguro has a way of telling stories that is simultaneously simple and complex, and in the end, very provocative.

After you’ve read it, call me.