12.21.2005
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
So, it's a clone novel.
I write this sentence as if "clone novel" represents a genre of note, the mere mention of which sets a classroom of graduate students to nodding. I have nothing against clones, Philip K. Dick, or conspiracy theorists and moral compasses the world over. I do, however, get irritated by anything I consider to be a cheap literary conceit. In this case, Ishiguro doesn't reveal that the narrator working through her adolescence is a clone. The word doesn't appear until two-thirds of the book has been read. You could imagine, I think, that you were reading Prep or something like it until vaguaries like "student," "donor" and "programme, " once explained, take on a new, horrible meaning. After that point, reading this novel harks back to how I felt when I watched episodes of V. as a child.
It's a good, well-written read, but I wish the gloves had come off earlier in the game. After all, this brave new word business is where the money is, right?
I write this sentence as if "clone novel" represents a genre of note, the mere mention of which sets a classroom of graduate students to nodding. I have nothing against clones, Philip K. Dick, or conspiracy theorists and moral compasses the world over. I do, however, get irritated by anything I consider to be a cheap literary conceit. In this case, Ishiguro doesn't reveal that the narrator working through her adolescence is a clone. The word doesn't appear until two-thirds of the book has been read. You could imagine, I think, that you were reading Prep or something like it until vaguaries like "student," "donor" and "programme, " once explained, take on a new, horrible meaning. After that point, reading this novel harks back to how I felt when I watched episodes of V. as a child.
It's a good, well-written read, but I wish the gloves had come off earlier in the game. After all, this brave new word business is where the money is, right?
