Science Fiction

Not being a science fiction fan, had I noticed some of the comments from reviewers of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never let Me Go such as "alien worlds," "an inadvertent science fiction classic," and "science gone awry," I probably wouldn't have bothered to read it. I would have missed a wonderful book.

Yes, Never let Me Go is about science gone awry but you hardly notice that it is anything but real, the story is so touching and so simply and beautifully written. Only a few pages into the book you will know that the characters are clones. The story is told from the point of view of Kathy, now a "carer," looking back on her early life growing up at a boarding school type of complex with friends Ruth and Tommy. The story follows the three as they move on to their young adult lives.

In many ways the children's growing up is "normal." But as you read on, little by little, you find that they know just who they are and what life holds for them. Like the people around them, we find the tragic dimension in knowing that they have been created for one purpose, for donations - transplants to others - and that their lives will be short, and we feel this dreadful sadness for them. ("Oh, you poor poor things.") And yet they seem to accept their lot in life with a quiet resignation and a sense of purpose. Perhaps this is how it would be for human clones. I wonder.

Anyway, Ishiguro makes it believable, just as if they had grown up in any other kind of life. For example, had they grown up in a slum perhaps, knowing no other kind of life, it might be reasonable to have low expectations and be resigned to a life of hardships with few perks. Or if you grew up in an orphanage it would be reasonable that a great deal of your "education" would come from other children, although of course guardians would be present. Parallels abound: the children as they grow up turn to their peers for comfort and knowledge; they often pick up wrong information from their peers and interpret it incorrectly; rumour and myth are as much present as fact. In their teens sex becomes an outlet for closeness and belonging.

Although they do know in a general sort of way what their future holds there are bits of hope - hope that one day one of them may have a career or that the inevitable will be delayed for those who are in love. These kinds of ideas are fueled by rumour and wishful thinking: in one very touching sequence the group goes in search of Ruth's "possible," the person from whom she was cloned. A woman in an office has been picked out and this seems likely as Ruth has talked about her dream career of being an office worker. Of course nothing (except disappointment) comes of the match.

Dimly, the children recognize that art and creativity have something to do with making them real - or, in some way reveal to others their "souls." This is a crucial point in the novel and, of course, is the big dilemma, morally and religiously speaking, about human cloning. Would cloned individuals have a soul?