Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro was a great book. Ishiguro creates a world where the scourge of cancer and other human diseases are eliminated by establishing a race of human clones,  clones raised solely to be organ donors. A clone herself,  she meticulously describes the reality created at the school where she and her classmates grow up, and we follow her through her many years there. Obviously, their education  presents many dilemmas for the teachers and we are interested to follow her through these years. The book becomes interesting as the ways in which the the clones are carefully raised to meet their fate with such solemn resignation are slowly unveiled.

I read the book on the recommendation of a good friend of mine and to be honest, I struggled with it early on. When I say struggled, what I mean is that I would never have gotten past the first three pages if my friend had not recommended the book. It wasn't especially interesting for me, this ethical examination of organ donation. It initially seemed contrived and heavy handed and I was immediately bored. The opening made it seem like a book written for Middle Schoolers. But my friend is a pretty smart cookie and I quite like her so I didn't follow my instincts to toss the book aside.

I was glad I stuck with it once Ishiguro develops  the character of Ruth, the narrator's best friend and confidant. The character of Ruth is so masterfully portrayed, so elegantly constructed, so rich, vibrant and ultimately intriguing, that she steps out of the novel and becomes a placard arguing against cloning. Ruth is a bully and a demon. She behaves deplorably but yet she is completely likable. She becomes the centerpiece of the novel and ultimately it is her intriguing character that gives  the book the last word on the evils of cloning humans for their organs. 

It is the strength of the character of Ruth the makes Ishiguro's novel a great book. Her complexity, her need to fit in, her desperation to bring meaning to her existence, her everyday struggle becomes the ultimate argument against human cloning. Ishiguro's masterful character portrayal make Never Let Me Go not only worth reading, but quite possibly the definitive anti- human cloning novel.