[The first half of my review will not contain any spoilers. I will most likely begin to delve into the novel more in the second half, but I will put another spoiler alert warning before that.]
Grade: B+
Before I begin discussing the book, I first want to tell you a little bit about the writing style of this author. First of all, Kazuo Ishiguro is a he. I did not know this the entire time I read the book. He wrote narrating as a woman for the entire novel and I never thought twice that the author was a genuine female. He nailed it. All the catty things that girls do to each other when they're adolescent--perfect! Not so much catty maybe, but just... I can't put it any other way than girl-things. He understood that girls have a mutual understanding about certain things with each other. Just like that time Kathy and Ruth got in a fight about the chess game. But I'll get to that in a minute.
Okay, see what I just did there? I talked about something that none of you know about, and told you how it fits perfectly into what I'm trying to say, but I told you I'd tell you about it later. This is how this ENTIRE book goes. At first I hated it. It felt like one of those literary devices that we learned in 4th grade for the TAAS writing test. It's the equivalent of starting a paper with a question. "Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be the chosen one to kill Voldemort? Well Harry Potter knows, and I'm going to tell you about Harry Potter in this paper." Just... lame-o. BUT--it grew on me. Mostly because, I let myself believe that this was less Kazuo Ishiguro's writing style (although after reading some reviews, I'm not so sure) and more Kathy H.'s narrating style. Real storytellers don't tell stories perfectly. Not when they're looking back on early events of their lives. I thought about myself and the incredible tangents I often go on. At least they break up the book into sections within the chapters--this really helps you to block off certain bits of time and remember that we're only discussing one facet of a particular story. So, that being said...
The story is narrated by Kathy H. It's set in the late 1990s. That's all you really get when you first open the book and start reading. She tells you stories of her life at Hailsham, the boarding school she and her friends attended until adulthood. At first it seems nothing more than a typical coming-of-age novel revolving around this boarding school and the kids that live there. I knew there had to be more to it, but couldn't put my finger on what I thought it was. It wasn't until somewhere between 75-100 pages that you start to realize that there's something funnnnky going on. Now, don't get me wrong, you kind of get the feeling that not everything's... kosher... early on, but like I said, you really can't put your finger on what the heck is so weird about this place. This has a lot to do with, again, either the writer's writing style or Kathy H.'s narrating style. The reader is slowly given more bits and pieces of information and the knowledge that you gain from this begins to make everything make a whole lot of more sense. It definitely fits the story for what it is. For this reason, I'm pretty curious to read Mr. Ishiguro's first novel, "The Remains of the Day," which looks like it was a pretty good one.
Anyway, this definitely is a type of coming-of-age novel, with a twist--I'll go ahead and say, a slightly science fiction twist, but don't let that lead you astray! No aliens or anything, but there's definitely a twist... unfortunately I kind of ruined it for myself. I was looking at the back of the title page (where it gives you the copyright and all that info) because I was wondering if they listed a suggested reading level for this book. I think I read something that seemed particularly racy, especially when you consider that before that part, the book had been fairly tame. Well my eyes floated across words that they listed as main themes of the novel. One word is a dead giveaway. I wish I hadn't read it, because, I think when I saw it, a light clicked in my head and I thought to myself, "Well duh, that's obvs," but it might not have been that obvs, because I think I was still sliiiightly surprised.
That being said, science fiction twist and all--it's amazing how much this novel still manages to seem so realistic. I could see the characters in my head. I could see them talking in a big field near a pond. I could see them huddled in a dark corner of a room trying to have a private conversation. Part of the reason this was probably so easy for me to see has a lot to do with the fact that this book has already been turned into a movie starring Carey Mulligan, Kiera Knightley and my recent crush, Andrew Garfield. Maybe that is why I love Tommy (Garfield's character in novel).
I initially intended on writing a separate section in which I could dive deeper into the novel and discuss key plot points, but I find that I am not wanting to do that now. I don't want someone who's 1% considering to read the book, reading what I write, and choosing not to because they feel the jig is up and there's no mystery to be solved. No, I'll just leave saying that I find that I did thoroughly enjoy this book. At some points it was a hard read, mostly because they talked slightly funny and I felt like I still didn't know what the HELL was going on... but overall, it meant something to me. I don't know if I know what yet, but I did feel something. And if I can't pinpoint what I feel now, does it matter? As long as it made me feel something to begin with?
I'm sorry if this review seemed like a whole lot of nothing. It's been awhile since I've written one of these (Umm, FEBRUARY?!?!?! HOW?!?!?!) How did I spend all summer not reading a book? Granted, I have re-read all the Harry Potters, but I'm not about to review THOSE. All it would be is me saying how awesome they were. Anyway... with the holidays approaching, I'm sure I'll be reading more often, my biggest reading months seem to be December, January, and February. (This is just from looking back at my blogs when when I was book blog-crazy). I am currently reading Jane Dunn's "Mary & Elizabeth" but I don't know if that's going to be something I read and write a review for. I may write some blogs here and there, but I think works of nonfiction are much more difficult to write reviews on. What am I going to talk about? I don't know, we'll see. I need to look for my copy of Mitch Albom's "For One More Day" or... something like that. I know I have it, but I can't seem to find it. I know I brought it on my last trip to Boston with Buddy... so maybe it's in a suitcase somewhere. Or worse, maybe it's stuck in the Comfort Inn... or... whatever hotel we stayed at :) I might start Sense & Sensibility. Or Dracula. Or any of the number of books I've bought and haven't read yet. Although... a part of me wants to go ahead and start Half Blood Prince again. After all, it was the first HP book I re-read (this was, of course before 7 came out) and that was in the summer of '07. I know you're all just sitting at the edge of your seats waiting to know what book I'll be talking about next. You'll just have to wait until I get home. Unfortunately I finished Never Let Me Go yesterday and didn't have the foresight to bring a second book! Le sigh...
Now... how do I get my hands on the movie?
Grade: C+ or B (depending on how you look at it)
