New Leaf September 2018 Discussion • Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

[darryl]

Originally Posted by Catlady

And if there's going to be a lengthy and annoying information dump, it ought to provide more substance and answer more questions.

Exactly.

Even the information dump itself raised more questions. Why did a society that had no ethical or moral objections to raising sentient intelligent human clones for slaughter draw the line at using similar technology to offer enhanced babies (the Morningdale Scandal)? I would go so far as to say that the undeveloped background world was far more interesting to many readers than the dull confined literary examination of mortality that the author intended and executed.

[fantasyfan]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Yes. This.

When an author chooses something so out-there and so morally questionable as clones created specifically as a donor class, how can a reader not be primed to want details and explanations, even brief ones? A more mundane backdrop would not have been such a distraction.

And if there's going to be a lengthy and annoying information dump, it ought to provide more substance and answer more questions.

I found myself constantly thinking about that horrrible external society that the author implied. And—for me—the lack of any significant details about that dystopian world certainly annoyed me and took from the book.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

I found myself constantly thinking about that horrrible external society that the author implied. And—for me—the lack of any significant details about that dystopian world certainly annoyed me and took from the book.

But isn't it curious how much thought it stirred up? For all that it didn't say, the book does seem to have suggested a lot indirectly so that readers spend rather a lot of time thinking about it. It's a bit like tapping your foot to music you really don't like.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by gmw

But isn't it curious how much thought it stirred up? For all that it didn't say, the book does seem to have suggested a lot indirectly so that readers spend rather a lot of time thinking about it. It's a bit like tapping your foot to music you really don't like.

The only reason I spent time thinking about it was the book club, so I could kvetch about it. It didn't make me think grand thoughts about morality or ethical issues or even mortality. It didn't make me wonder about the world or examine my beliefs. And it didn't satisfy me as entertainment.

[Bookpossum]

I’m getting the impression you didn’t like it!

[darryl]

Originally Posted by Catlady

The only reason I spent time thinking about it was the book club, so I could kvetch about it. It didn't make me think grand thoughts about morality or ethical issues or even mortality. It didn't make me wonder about the world or examine my beliefs. And it didn't satisfy me as entertainment.

Nor me. But for the book club I would almost certainly still have finished the book, following which I would have put it down with a sense of frustration and the lack of desire to bother reading anything by the author again. Which is what I have done anyway, save for my participation in this discussion. I wasn't thinking grand thoughts either when reading the book. I was simply growing more and more frustrated waiting for details of the world which never came. Perhaps if the world was properly drawn it may well have been a catalyst for deeper thinking instead of deeper frustration.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by Catlady

The only reason I spent time thinking about it was the book club, so I could kvetch about it. It didn't make me think grand thoughts about morality or ethical issues or even mortality. It didn't make me wonder about the world or examine my beliefs. And it didn't satisfy me as entertainment.

But compare your reaction to this versus what we're seeing for The House on the Strand - there we are seeing quite a few people that didn't enjoy the book, but the reaction is mostly "meh!", no one seems that upset about it. Whereas Never Let Me Go seems to have actively annoyed those people that that didn't enjoy it, and I find that interesting and suggestive.

[darryl]

Not annoyed. Just frustrated and disappointed.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by gmw

But compare your reaction to this versus what we're seeing for The House on the Strand - there we are seeing quite a few people that didn't enjoy the book, but the reaction is mostly "meh!", no one seems that upset about it. Whereas Never Let Me Go seems to have actively annoyed those people that that didn't enjoy it, and I find that interesting and suggestive.

Never Let Me Go implies larger issues which are successfully or not successfully explored, where no one reads The House on the Strand expecting anything much more than romantic suspense.

[darryl]

Originally Posted by issybird

Never Let Me Go implies larger issues which are successfully or not successfully explored, where no one reads The House on the Strand expecting anything much more than romantic suspense.

Exactly. To me The House on the Strand Works. Never Let Me Go did not.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by issybird

Never Let Me Go implies larger issues which are successfully or not successfully explored, where no one reads The House on the Strand expecting anything much more than romantic suspense.

The House on the Strand also makes me think, at least a little bit, about the pull of the past, whether I would actually want to chuck the present for the past, why or why not. I wouldn't doubt that some readers might have been inspired to read more about the 14th century.

Never Let Me Go gave me nothing to ponder other than its flaws.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by Catlady

The only reason I spent time thinking about it was the book club, so I could kvetch about it. It didn't make me think grand thoughts about morality or ethical issues or even mortality. It didn't make me wonder about the world or examine my beliefs. And it didn't satisfy me as entertainment.

^ this

Has anyone read any of his other books? (Apologies if I've missed any commentary on this, I'm brain dead from too much time commuting. This is really for the V&R thread, but the train driver today "forgot" to stop at my station, adding an extra hour on to my journey home - I also had a 60 mile drive after that debacle). I just wonder if Never Let Me Go is typical or atypical of his output?

[Bookpossum]

I have read a couple of his books, and they really didn’t do anything for me, but I was among the few who did like this one. So if you hated this one, maybe you would like the others. Or maybe not!

What an awful journey home for you. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen again.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

So if you hated this one, maybe you would like the others.

If only life were that simple


I didn't like this one, so I'm not going to bother with others, based on what you've just said. Too many other books I want to read.