Never Let Me Go

My favorite movie poster of the year, by far:

This poster not only captures the aesthetics and mood of the movie, but also the aesthetics and mood of the book as well.  I first read Never Let Me Go in February 2007 when I was living In Farnham, Surrey doing my MA program.  Since I was usually bored out of my mind, I took to raiding the Uni library, as well as the local Oxfam book shop, for anything that looked remotely interesting and well written. Having previously read The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans, I figured I was in for another gorgeous, sentimental (in a good way), and nostalgic Ishiguro novel.  Instead, I found myself drawn into an alternate reality that deeply and profoundly affected me and haunted my dreams, literally. I had not been so deeply affected by a book since I had first read Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass when I was 12.

I have just re-read Never Let Me Go after seeing the movie, which notably captured the color and light palettes that I had seen in my mind's eye when I first read the book. It is a testament to Ishiguro's writing that an aesthetic could manifest itself so strongly as to show through not only in the mind of a reader, but also of a director and cinematographer. Ishiguro doesn't even give much actual detail on things like color or light, so for those elements to shine through in the same way for multiple people seems quite amazing to me. I can't think of many other movies based on books that depicted things so closely to how I had pictured them in my head.  

On this second reading, I had a very different reaction to the book. While I still found it deeply moving, it did not grab my core with an unshakeable vice grip as it had done previously. Perhaps this is because that original feeling is still within me any time I think of the book, or perhaps it is because I already know the story and thus it's secrets are no longer surprising in any way. However, it could also be that I am now at such a different point in my life than I was three and a half years ago. I revisited my journals to see what I had written about the book when I had finished reading it, yet I found that I had hardly written anything about it other than to mention that I had read it and had very odd dreams because of it. At the time, it was difficult for me to face and examine what this book really meant to me and why it affected me so strongly.

Now that I have perspective not only on the book, but also on my own life, I am able to examine it from a greater distance.  Upon reflection, I realized that Never Let Me Go and Golden Compass actually share several themes, and it is these themes which stir my core and provoke my mind. Both books examine destiny, what it means to have a soul, the ethics related to this question, and how children take part in and interact with their world while facing, examining, and resolving extremely adult issues. While Lyra Belacqua and Kathy H. are two disperate personalities, their struggles are similar in that they must both sacrifice love to live the life for which they are destined. Now that I have found this common thread, I understand why these books mean so much to me.  There are few questions greater than what the soul is and what it means to have one; as these two girls seek answers for themselves, I find it impossible not to be deeply moved by their journeys and look for answers of my own.