Never Let Me Go

[bekah]

Thanks,  David.   I've read Never Let Me Go and although I found it 
less satisfying than you did but it was quite a  good novel and you 
described it wonderfully.  Ishiguro is a master story-teller and a 
beautiful stylist.   I can see how it would be a nice set-up to ATD. 
I did not do myself such a favor but rather read "Moscow to the End 
of the Line" (Venedikt Erofeev)  just prior to "the tome"  and  I 
don't advise this.   I highly recommend the book,  but suggest a 
little lighter fare prior to ATD.

Bekah

At 9:05 PM -0800 12/4/06, David Casseres wrote:
>So, last night I finished Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, one of the
>saddest stories I've ever read.  Today has been a hiatus; tomorrow I
>expect to start Against the Day.
>
>Never Let Me Go is the perfect thing to read before starting a new
>Pynchon novel, because it's the opposite of a Pynchon novel.  It's
>short, it's minimalist, it centers on a small group of characters who
>exist outside of history.
>
>Its language is a pure first-person narrative by a simple character,
>Kathy H., who has no tricks and who tells the story in straight
>chronological order (oh wait, there's a few careful exceptions to
>that), in short episodes.  At the end of each episode Kathy announces
>what the next one will be about.  One after another.
>
>Everything depends on what is withheld in the narrative, which is
>driven entirely by the characters, who are in turn entirely driven by
>their simple circumstance: they are clones, bred to supply organ
>transplants.  They are all going to die in their twenties, they all
>know it, and they have been carefully brought up in special creches to
>accept this.  Only the most transgressive character, Ruth, even hopes
>for the possibility of an "extension."  I found that I cared deeply
>about these people, felt like I knew them.
>
>Meanwhile, everybody else's world -- England in the 1990's -- is
>exactly the same as the one we all know about.  That's not what the
>story is about, it's only about Kathy and Ruth and Tommy and maybe two
>or three others.
>
>
>
>Reading this before diving into AtD is kind of like chewing the bit of
>French bread and sipping the water before tasting the 30-year-old
>Chateau La Tour.  Clears the palate.  But you know, it's very good
>French bread and it's pure, clear water.