Oh my word, the best read I've had in a loooooooooooong time. It kicked Little Bee's butt even, it was that good. Of course, I'm a HUGE sucker for a good dystopia novel so take this with that grain of salt.
Never Let Me Go, by British author Kazuo Ishiguro, was recommended by the same coworker who recommended Little Bee (it's not that big a coincidence, actually; we are in the same book club, we're called the "Edgies").
Never Let Me Go is a beautiful novel about children being raised in a British boarding school that eerily focuses on physical health while ensuring their students' knowledge of the outside world remains anemic. The reader soon figures out what isn't right about this boarding school and the narrator's mellow narrative, sometimes infuriatingly calm, tells a horror story with indifference and a resignation to the only normalcy she's ever known.
The book is a science fiction novel robed in praises from critics, stylish prose, and a sophisticated backdrop. Time magazine voted the piece one of the all time 100 novels written since 1923. Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth will be known by next generations as great figures in fiction; they are as hauntingly unforgetable as the story they inhabit.
I can't recommend this book highly enough, though, for those of you like my mother who don't read sad books, there's good news for you. The movie is coming out this fall! I am already singing its praises because 1) Alex Garland, the same screenwriter for 28 Days Later had the screenplay for the movie written in 2005 even before the book came out, 2) Cinematography is by Adam Kimmel wo did Capote and Lars and the Real Girl, 3) it stars Kiera Knightly who is discerning about the films she chooses and Andrew Garfield who is the new "it" import from across the pond. All I can say is get excited. The movie drops September 15, 2010.
Reading next: Brief Encounters with Che Guevara short story collection, People of the Book & The Hummingbird's Daughter
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