Back to the future

Nothing is as it seems in Kazuo Ishiguros first novel in five years, Never Let Me Go. Using the sci-fi framework of cloning 8212; the book is as far from genetic re-engineering as the Booker-winning The Remains of the Day is from butlering 8212; Ishiguro spins a yarn of love and loss with devastating effect. It8217;s a story about Kathy and her best pal Ruth and their love for the hot-headed, soft-hearted Tommy. Only, like Stevens in Remains, you can8217;t help but feel hopeless about the trio8217;s terribly wasted lives. For, Kathy and her friends are being nurtured with such good care so that they may grow up and give up parts of their selves so that others may live.

So, innocuous words like carer, donor, completion, deferral take on wholly different meanings, leading us to a point of no return. Our understanding of each of these words will unravel the life of Kathy H. and her peers.

As Kathy tells us, she is 31 years old and has been a 8220;carer8221; for 11 years and that the donors under her care tend to do much better than expected 8220;even before fourth donation8221;. Then, she allows us to peek at her past. The first signs that something was not quite right about their childhood comes from a brush-in with Madame, the lady who came to collect their best works of self-expression 8212; be it a painting or a poem 8212; for her Gallery another loaded word. 8220;I can still see it now, the shudder she seemed to be suppressing, the real dread that one of us would accidentally brush against her8230; she was afraid of us in the same way someone might be afraid of spiders.8221;

Further doubts about their true selves are sown by their teacher Miss 8216;Conscience8217; Lucy. 8220;The problem, as I see it,8221; she tells her pupils, 8220;is that you8217;ve been told and not told. Your lives are set out for you8230; you8217;re not like the actors you watch on your videos, you8217;re not even like me. You were brought into this world for a purpose, and your futures have been decided.8221; Needless to say, Miss Lucy soon leaves Hailsham in a flurry of tears.

At 16, Kathy, Ruth and Tommy will leave school, more confused than ever about what lies in store. For a brief while, they will roam the country trying to lead normal lives, look in at the world outside and even be mistaken for art students 8212; all this before the inexorably dark climax plays out.

It is Ishiguro8217;s darkest book yet. None of his earlier novels, not even The Unconsoled, quite has such a desolate streak. But the trademark Ishiguro understatement is in place. Even as Kathy and her friends realise how truly short and fragile life is, there is no rage, only a quiet sense of understanding. Remember what transpires between Stevens and Miss Kenton in Remains just before she boards the bus that will take her away from him forever? Even as Miss Kenton admits she may have made a terrible mistake with her life and Stevens8217; heart is breaking at the thought of what could have been, he turns to her and says quietly: 8220;As you say, it8217;s too late to turn back the clock. We must each of us be grateful for what we do have.8221; Kathy8217;s predicament is worse. What can she and her friends be grateful for? They don8217;t even have the dignity of being real people.

Like all of Ishiguro8217;s earlier books, Never Let Me Go is elegantly written, the pared down prose deceptively simple. As always, what lingers is what remains unsaid 8212; his minimalist style keeps back more than it gives away.