Bookclub Kazuo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go
Jan 3, 2021
Kazuo Ishiguro, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, discusses his novel Never Let Me Go with James Naughtie and a group of readers. They explore themes of life's fragility, the disturbing metaphor of cloned organ donors, the choice of narrator, the significance of the title song, and the characters' acceptance and creativity in the face of their fate.
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Cloning As A Metaphor For Mortality
- Ishiguro frames the clones' fate as a metaphor for our limited human lifespan and shared mortality.
- The story asks how we choose love, friendship and meaning against an inevitable clock.
Dolly Sparked The Book's Scientific Premise
- Ishiguro chose cloning after Dolly the Sheep made biotechnology plausible as a thought experiment.
- He uses that plausibility to ask whether society could contain a useful but morally fraught technology.
Kathy Chosen For Her Central Position
- Ishiguro auditioned narrators and picked Kathy because she sits between friendship and love conflicts.
- Kathy's position lets the book explore both emotional loyalties central to the story.