Review: “Never Let Me Go” – Kazuo Ishiguro

PODCAST:

S4E2B – Never Let Me Go (book)*

SHOW NOTES:

Wherein returning guest Daniel Gonzalez (“The Martian” (S2E10) and NDIOS voice-over announcer Margret O’Reilly join me in a discussion of melancholy and ill-fated love juxtaposed against a subtle horrifying dystopian reality. We discuss the author’s cross-cultural biography, its probable influence on the temporal themes explored in this novel. Dan pointed out how different this novel is for the themes and genres it touches upon when compared to recent coming of age dystopian books like the YA works “Divergent” (S2E3) and “Hunger Games.” This work goes in a different direction of somber reflection and acceptance rather than revolution. As we got into the various character motivations and muted tensions underlying the narrative structure we all came up with a deeper appreciation for the work despite our general agreement that it starts slow and we began reading (for right or wrong) with preconceived notions that the conflicts would resolve in more typical action-based resolutions. All this is cast against a lively ambient soundscape of city noises recorded high above the traffic nightlife in a Chicago skyscraper–safely towered away from the terrors of “cloning” and “donations” and the desperate quest for “deferments” which abound in the English countryside of fictional Hailsham.

-Ryan

 

Dan, Margret, and Ryan set in their tower above chi-town’s nightlife.

 

WRITTEN BOOK REVIEWS:

Never Let Me Go (2005)” by Kazuo Ishiguro (book)

Ryan: 4 1/2 Stars “…A touching wail uttered into the emotional void that dwells between those frayed wires which hold together the complex relationship between the individual, community, and society…”

Dan: 3 Stars “…In hindsight, I appreciate that it was a dystopian world, however the author was trying to show us a different side…the mundane, the banal, the everyday life–to what it feels like to live in this world…”

Margret: 3.85 Star “…Overall it spoke to the constructs of realizing one’s fate and accepting one’s fate…there was kind of a melancholic resoluteness…it was more of a metaphor for reality…”

(Click the links to read full written reviews on Goodreads.com)

FUN FACTOIDS:

Beautiful and the Just

Our guest Dan Gonzalez is a musician and some of his more notable musical projects are the now defunct groups “Sisero,” and “Beautiful and the Just.” You can check out some music by the latter on Soundcloud here: https://soundcloud.com/beautifulandthejust?fbclid=IwAR306SoFcwXDNJnU16oLLAljetusQBGog98Fhy4w-FCrJPV_2w1ymulKehQ.

On the show we talked about how the author received a Nobel Prize for Literature (see Vox article “The 2017 Nobel Prize in literature goes to Kazuo Ishiguro, author of Never Let Me Go”  at: https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/10/5/16428754/2017-nobel-prize-literature-kazuo-ishiguro-never-let-me-go-remains-of-the-day). However, he was noted as a talented writer early on  in his career and included in a 1983 list of writers to watch by editor Bill Buford: Granta’s “Twenty under forty.”  This 2013 Guardian article “Then and now: Granta’s best young British novelists” from takes a thirty year look back at those authors and includes a reprint of the old press photo which includes a young Kazuo Ishiguro: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/apr/06/then-now-granta-best-novelists. For further reference, here is webpage from the British Council which provides a brief biography of the author, a bibliography, and a list of awards: https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/kazuo-ishiguro.

Also, our guest Margret O’Reilly occasionally expresses her creative side through the fine arts. Some of these are posted on our instagram account (@nueroart). Check out this painting which seems fitted to our subject topic on this episode:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BuJ_6UWHQ2R/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

 

* DISCLAIMER: Please be advised that the views and opinions of the hosts and guests of NDIOS are completely their own and do not necessarily reflect the views and beliefs of the other hosts and guests or that of NDIOS.