Nevr Let Me Go - Part 2 - Revelation and Realisation

I've decided that as the book is split into parts I might as well do the reviews in the same parts as well... that and the fact that I DON'T WANT TO READ THIS ANY SLOWER!! I am really enjoying this book, and I really want to see the film now!

Ok so Part 2 details the couple of years spent after Hailsham. The students leave at the age of 17 and are shipped off in small groups to sort of private accommodation. Ruth, Kathy and Tommy, along with a few other people from their year, are sent off to a place called The Cottages. It was quite strange reading this, as I could really relate to their situation, having just started University last September. I can really empathise with their strange feeling of independence and dislocation. In their case, they don't come to learn or anything, but they do have to just fend for themsleves. It seemed a bit pointless really, as they literally weren't doing anything: they had nothing they had to accomplish, no job, nothing. By now we know that their lives aren't going to last long once they leave The Cottages, so maybe it's just a way for them to relax or come to terms with the future. Maybe it's something worse: maybe it's just waiting for their bodies to become fully developed so they can start donating.

Kathy describes how the group from Hailsham are viewed as being luckier than others, but in a way that they don't quite understand. It's not until later that we find out why, and I'll get to that in a bit. There is a large mix of people at The Cottages, the older ones called The Veterans (which I thought was kind of strange, as they're only like 19), and Kathy tells us how Ruth is like enamoured of them: she copies their gestures, sucks up to them, laughs at their jokes etc. You know how I feel about Ruth, so this just got me even more annoyed - especially when she would laugh at Tommy in front them. In fact I've noticed that she's actually quite mean to him - and Kathy for that matter - WHY DO THEY STAY FRIENDS WITH HER?? She seems to be a leader, she's very authoritative, and I suppose when she's nice it must be great to be around her. But is she really worth it? Maybe it's simply because they've known each other all their lives that they feel they can't ditch her.

Anyway Ruth is being all sychophantic and getting very annoying, but the most important thing that comes in Part 2 is the introduction of the "possibles". It is here that we find out that these students are in fact clones. They've known this for years, which is another example of the narrative style: Kathy assumes we know so doesn't feel the need to tell us. So these "possibles" are basically the people who could have given DNA or whatever to make the donors. They should look like them and, I thought this was intensely sad, the students seem to think that if they can find their possible they will see what their life could be like if they try. They always seem to cling onto hope, even when they know that there's no way they will be able to live normally.

Two other characters Chrissie and Rodney saw this possible for Ruth in Norfolk, and them, Ruth, Kathy and Tommy take a road trip there. Before they find the possible though, they bring up something which explains why the Veterans think Hailsham students so lucky. There's a rumour that if two donors are completely in love, they can apply to Hailsham for a deferral of their donations. If they can prove that they're truly in love, they can have a few more years together. Excuse me while I curl up in my sock drawer and cry. Seriously that is so sad. I mean, I know that it's good they can get a few more years, but for one thing how do you prove that you're in love, and for another, there'd always be a reminder, hanging over you that this wouldn't last. SOB :((. Anyway, R, K and T have never heard this rumour (which did surprise me, as there were so many flying about when they were at Hailsham) and the matter is kind of forgotten when they find Ruth's possible. It turns out that it really isn't 'Ruth', and I have to admit, I did feel really sorry for her. Her dejection afterwards suggests she thought something monumental might happen, maybe that she would be accepted as a kind of daughter, I don't know. But her upset was evident.

Everything after this seems shadow of these revelations about possibles and the rumour, however we do find something out: the possibles are not normally 'normal' people, but tramps, prostitutes, that kind of thing, and it really affected Kathy when she's confronted with this fact. Maybe it's because they've all been made from "the gutter" (I think that's what it says in the book, not 100% sure) that she feels she's not considered equal to the 'normal' people.

Anyway things carry on and Ruth's being horrible again and then Tommy reveals something that I never picked up on. When they were at Hailsham they were encouraged to do Art. Like seriously encouraged. Tommy wasn't very good and stopped, but later one guardian told him that it was incredibly important to keep it up. So he starts again at the Cottages, and reveals to Kathy that he believes this is how they decide if you're in love or not. By looking at your Artwork and comparing each persons they can see if they're compatible or not. I quite like this idea, however I'm not completely convinced that it would work. I mean, can you really tell what someone's like from their art? Yeah ok, maybe you can, but can you tell if two people are in love because of it? I don't know, but Tommy and Kathy seem to agree, and I'll admit it's certainly possible.

Eventually, after a huge argument with Ruth, Kathy decides she's finally ready to leave the Cottages and become a Carer. This is someone who looks after the donors, it's what the present Kathy, the one narrating, is still doing. Part 2 ends with Kathy's life at the Cottages, and this section seemed to be a big one for revelation and realising that what they were told at Hailsham wasn't the entire truth.

Ok I realise this was an insanely long entry - hopefully the next one will be a bit shorter! I'll do that in a few days, so ttfn :]

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro - Chapters 7-9 Awful revelations

I didn't mean to go this long without another blog post! I really need to do it more often, I forget how much I enjoy writing it! Ok so this 'review' is of chapters seven to nine - I have read further than that, but the book is split into parts, so chapter ten was a good place to stop this post, as the next chapter is in part 2.

You know I said last time how we didn't really know exactly what these people were? Well the beginning of Chapter Seven explains all. The explanation comes in the form of Miss Lucy: a guardian who seems passionate about treating these children properly, especially when 'normal' people seem to feel a great aversion to them. We find out through her something really awful: these children were made especially to be donors for other people when they're older. This means that whenever 'normal' people like us need an operation/transplant or something, a perfect match can be found in one of these people. Their aim in life is to die. Not only did this get me thinking about Harry Potter again (I'll get bakc to that in a bit), but it reminded me of My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. That book (which I loved) was about a girl who was born to be the perfect match for her sister, so that she could help give the blood/kidney etc to keep the other alive. This doesn't seem exactly ethical and I'm undecided about how I feel towards it, however doing it on this scale, 'creating' masses of children just so they can die seems really horrible.

Bringing Harry Potter into it, there's been this huge debate since the last book came out, and we discovered what Harry had to do in order to truly defeat Voldemort, about whether Dumbledore raised Harry as 'a pig for slaughter': whether he knew all along that he was going to die (if you want more depthful discussions I'd suggest listening to MuggleCast, an awesome podcast). To do that to one person is bad enough but to that many? Miss Lucy tells  them that they will never grow up properly, won't be able to get jobs, travel, have families or anything because their only point is to give their bodies to others. Just that thought is pretty grim: to know that your life is only going to be about 30 years long and that you can't do what you want with it must be awful.

Despite this terrible truth hanging over them, the students of Hailsham don't seem to think about it much. These chapters detail the characters between the ages of 15 and 17, and I find it strange how Kathy, our narrator and personal connection with this strange world, reveals less and less about herself. It's not like she's being secretive, more that the focus of her story is on other people: namely Ruth and Tommy. She of course tells us things about her, but not many of her feelings. For example, Ruth and Tommy get together as a couple (which, by the way, I was surprised at, I thought it would be Kathy and Tommy) and Kathy tells us all about their relationship, but very little about her actual feelings towards it. Also, she suggests that she has a thing with one of the other boys in her year, but we don't here mentin of it except for a couple of lines. This is a bit like The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford, in which we don't find out the narrator's name until very far on in the book, despite the fact that it's written from her perspective, and when he gets married it's literally a couple of lines: the whole story is focused on her cousin Linda instead of her.

Anyway, life goes on, and Kathy retains this personal relationship with us - I wonder if this is deliberate: her job is to be a carer, in which she talks a lot to her patients to comfort them, and maybe she is so in the habit of it that she does it for us too. Ruth and Tommy split up, and she mentions how people expected her to be the "natural successor" but never tells us her feelings about it. Again that's another example of her not focusing on herself.

I don't understand how Kathy puts up with Ruth - she's so controlling, stubborn and manipulative I wouldn't be able to stand her! She seems to take their friendship for granted - I might be proved wrong later but that's what it seems like to me. Something strange also happens: Miss Lucy tells Tommy that the art they do at Hailsham (there's a hige focus on art) is incerdibly important, much more so than they could imagine. I'm not sure of the significance of this yet, but I'm sure we'll find out more about it...