Never Let Me Go

It's pretty rare these days for me to find time to read a book...for fun. But, after starting about 4 different novels, i finally started and finished one. Because it was so compelling and well written, I decided that i needed to tell you all about it.

It's called, Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro who also wrote, The Remains of the Day. The book was made into a movie last year, and it was one of maybe three that ted and i managed to escape to see. At the time, i was under the impression that it was a love story, an adventurous love story, and all the other hints and details somehow escaped me. That's usually the way i prefer to see movies, but I had no idea of the emotional atomic bomb that this movie would unleash. The film was beautifully done, but the story was so surprising and powerful that it took me at least three whole days to recover. By the way, if you haven't seen it and plan to, or want to read the book, you may not want to read further, because i'll ruin it for you. That's my official disclaimer, and you've been warned.

First, here's the trailer:

Like i said, i must have had romance goggles on to have completely missed the plot detail that these kids were being raised to become organ donors. Now that i'm a mom, i'm much more sensitive and i'm pretty sure i wouldn't have gone to see the movie if i'd had known. This probably explains why the film didn't get more play or win any awards. It certainly is worthy. Beyond that, however, i think it's one of those films that everyone should see...even though it's hard...because it really makes you think about a lot of things on a moral and societal level, i.e. the idea of cloning humans. I've never been a fan, and this movie brings to light the very reason why: because clones would be treated less than human. I mean let's face it, we can't even treat the humans that we do have equally.

Which brings it down to a more personal level for me. This movie really made me think about how we respect and value life and the lives we are given, the relationships that we are lucky enough to have, whether those are family, friends or significant others. Both the book and the movie did a really good job at exploring the significance of the characters relationships to each other. The movie, of course, played up the love story aspect, but ultimately, it was about the relationship between the three of them and their individual struggles to make their lives meaningful and to mean something to someone.

In the end, the movie leaves you with an important idea. It suggests that the donors and the people they donate for are not really that different. They still have all the same wants, needs and desires. The difference is simply the amount of time that each are given to experience those human traits. How would we live our lives if, instead of a hundred years, we only had twenty five years to live? Would we focus more on the quality? All i know is that afterwards, Ted and i both wanted to run home and hug Una for a real long time.

So like i said, emotional atomic bomb for sure. That's why when Sally got me the novel for Christmas, i let it sit for months. I wasn't even sure i could read it. But i did, and i really enjoyed it. Seeing the movie first didn't even ruin it for me. There's just so much to chew on, and the book was way easier to read than the movie was to watch. I actually had a hard time putting it down, and that's saying something to someone who's sleep deprived and exhausted.