Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
Never Let Me Go is a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, the author of Klara and the Sun I read recently. Like Klara and the Sun, Never Let Me Go is also a dystopian novel narrated through the quiet, reflective voice and written from the character’s point of view. In this case, the character is Kathy H., a carer who looks after donors and reflects on her childhood in Hailsham, a commune for future donors or clones who were created to be donors for humans to cure various diseases and conditions. The novel is thus a moral discussion of a society focused on creating clones to exploit them, and exploitation is normalised through the fear of others, as humans fear clones and dehumanise them, seeing them as creatures without souls.
Never Let Me Go is a story of childhood memories. Kathy narrates her childhood in Hailsham, where children are raised emphasizing creativity and health, and are subtly told they are special and different, and that their future is in donation, but this was never fully explained or justified, as to why this would be the case. Children also produce art for the mysterious Gallery that a woman called Madame collects. Kathy H. tells us the story of her childhood, focused on health and producing art, and friendships with Ruth and Tommy, who have different personalities. Ruth is focused on control and belonging, whilst Tommy has anger issues. Kathy is the calm and rational one, but also the one who shows quiet empathy to others. Childhood in Hailsham is the main part of the novel, and we learn right from the beginning that the book does not have a happy ending and that Kathy becomes a carer for Rith and Tommy when they become donors, which happens before her invitation to donate organs comes. We also learn that she realises that, despite having no hope for a regular life, Hailsham was a lucky occurrence for those who grew up there because at least they had childhood and art to look up to at the time of painful donations and near the end of their lives (called ‘completion’).
After Hailsham, children were moved to a place called the Cottages, where they awaited the start of their training as carers and where they learn to live independently and without the so-called Guardians that Hailsham had. Ruth and Tommy are still a couple, which started at Hailsham, and despite the closeness between Kathy and Tommy, Ruth is not letting go. In Cottages, rumours circulate that Hailsham students can obtain a deferral from their life purpose as donors if they can prove they are truly in love.
Eventually, the truth is revealed to students that students are clones created and raised solely to provide organ donations to other people. This is obvious right from the start of the novel, but Kathy, as a narrator, tells a story of how they figured it out. Hailsham turns out to be an experiment to treat clones more humanely and give them an inner life, with activists hoping to prove that clones have souls. But public sentiment, as volatile as it historically has always been, turns against Hailsham, and it ends up shut down, with society accepting organ donations and medical and science advances as more relevant, thus clones have no escape. The no escape is also revealed to Hailsham children early on in the novel, when two boys get scolded for dreaming about their future careers.
Ruth dies after completing just two donations, but before her death, she apologises to Kathy and Tommy for keeping them apart and urges them to seek deferral by giving them the address of Madame, who used to collect their art. Tommy hopes that art will prove they have a soul and can be genuinely in love, so he starts creating more art to make up for not doing enough as a child. Kathy and Tommy visit Madame to seek a deferral, only to learn that it was only a myth and there is no recognition of the clone’s love. This is not a spoiler because Kathy, early in the book, tells us that she was caring for Ruth and Tommy, and it is obvious they died. As readers, we just wait to understand how it happened and what Hailsham truly was. Tommy completes his fourth donation and his life. Kathy seems to be the last one standing…
The novel tackles humanity and the soul, asking whether creativity, memory, love, and longing are evidence of a soul or whether these characteristics can be ignored to justify exploitation, thus humanity pretty much being reduced to biology and the ability to reproduce (something Kathy explores as the main difference between Hailsham students and people outside). Another theme of the book is the ethics of scientific progress; thus, the author explores cloning, power, and dehumanisation, which is accepted in exchange for medical benefits and extending and saving the lives of biological humans. In addition to these themes, the novel explores memory, nostalgia, and loss because Kathy describes Hailsham nostalgically, and those memories give her purpose and comfort her even if she lost too many of her friends and peers to donations and completions. Finally, and this is most fascinating, is the compliance of clones with the inevitability of their fate because of the way they are raised, to hope for acceptance but not to demand it, thus, clones never try to escape and forcibly change things, which is also due to limited education and knowledge of the world for Hailsham only gave them education but not much understanding of life outside of their commune. Other clones were also raised in far more inhuman conditions than Hailsham students, also not conducive to rebellion.
Never Let Me Go from the title is a reference to a poignant moment when Kathy, as a little girl, dances with a pillow pretending the pillow is a baby, and Madame sees her and ends up sobbing, seeing a little girl playing unknowingly of what future awaits her.
A masterfully written novel, even if depressing and sad, but certainly worth reading.
Thank you for reading!