Friday Wish List: Never Let Me Go

Recently a new PhD student moved into our little college town. At church, the Sunday she moved in, the few book lovers in our small congregation descended on her like ravenous wolves (pounced really).

She pursuing a PhD in English ... or more importantly to us, she's pursuing a degree only a book lover would go for.

So, we threw all inhibition aside and surrounded her. It was quite comical. I said something like "We are so excited to see you here!"

She looked confused and asked if I was in the same program. Sadly no. I am merely a lover of the written word who teaches herself at home amidst the screaming and wailing of her four wonderful children.

But I'm not above entering a discussion with those more educated than myself (believe it or not housewives are capable of intellectual conversation!).

I began this poor girl's interrogation that very evening around the game table. Immediately I found a new book to read.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

This novel falls into the category of dystopian literature (roughly meaning--life sucks and then you die literature). It is the story of two girls growing up in Britain only to discover that they are really clones waiting to be used as organ donors (think The Island).

"Kathy and her classmates were taught to think of themselves as supremely lucky for having gone to Hailsham. It was the best, the most privileged of schools. Still, we can hear off notes. The place was run by ''guardians,'' who come across like nuns devoted to a faith other than religion. Both maternally protective and weirdly distant, these women prevented students from leaving the campus, and had them screened each week by a doctor. And they kept the kids busy with art projects that seemed freighted with meaning, as if a child's creative output might hold a clue to her fate. ''Thinking back now,'' Kathy says, ''I can see we were just at that age when we knew a few things about ourselves -- about who we were, how we were different from our guardians, from the people outside -- but hadn't yet understood what any of it meant.'' Slowly, we're led to see that she and her classmates are clones, reared in isolation at a special school, pampered and sheltered and encouraged to feel like children for as long as possible but trained for a mean postgraduate destiny." -New York Times Reviewer Sarah Kerr

Okay, so this book reminds me subtly of the work of John Steinbeck--dark, depressing, hopeless.

I hate Steinbeck passionately (I could really go off about that, but I won't).

I'm, however, curious. The 'new' girl swears it's a great book and I've seen it on top 100 lists before.

So should I read it? Probably.

Will I read it? If I can find it, I most likely will try.

Have you read it? What did you think?

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Books: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Other Authors Mentioned: John Steinbeck

Movies Mentioned: The Island