Reviews
it’s all about the love man !! about humanity !! and the love is always there there will always be love !! such a character driven novel but i really loved it. definitely weird !! i love some gothic scifi !! anyway gonna go think about norfolk now
really got me thinking towards the end but it took me 3 weeks to get thru the book (maybe im just not a fan of the writing style)
Spoke to me in a deeply spiritual way. Does yearning very well and tackles so many great themes without the heavy handiness of many "speculative fiction" novels. Heart wrenching in a great way. Will be thinking about this for a long time.
this type of writing style, stream of consciousness writing, is what i appreciate the most. my most favorite writing style. i adore the writing in this book so much because to wrap a story beautifully in this way is so difficult.
however, although i liked the way the story, the passages and the imagery, were stitched together even as it moves back and forth, i wanted something more to happen given the plot is something so big. but maybe that wasn’t the point of the book at all, maybe the point of the book is just to simply explore humanness (i think this was, in fact, the point). however, there were critical conversations, turning points in the story, that i felt should have been explored more.
I read “The Buried Giant” a couple years ago and I learned that it was Ishiguro’s only book in 3rd person, so I thought to myself, ‘his other books must be better.’ This one wasn’t. Ishiguro writes incredibly staggered, with this quiet cadence I could not latch onto at all. His characters read like poor imitations of Wes Anderson creations, flat dialogue and no emotion (which was strange for a book lauded to be tender and all about relationships!). I liked Madam’s spider-vision, I liked Madam watching Kathy dance, what I did not like, and I’ll tell you soon what that is, was how every couple paragraphs out narrator would preface that they were about to say something and then say that thing. It happened far too often to be enjoyable, maybe once is enough but even that is pushing it. Klara and the Sun has such a pretty, red cover I want to read it next but now I’m scared!
Subtle and devastating novel that straddles coming-of-age confusion and horrifying dystopia. Set in two periods - late 80s and late 90s - in rural England, the story follows a group of friends in boarding school that reconnect "later" in life. The dialogue, conflicts and confusion are ostensibly banal and kiddish...until the small hints and intentional vagueness reveal a terrifying truth that our protagonist and her friends are in-fact clones being raised for organ harvesting. Their idyllic and beloved boarding school is actually a liberal endeavor to provide these children with a semblance of humanity before their demise. The build is slow and clues sparse except for a feeling that something is off. In the end, the normality and inevitability of their fates is the most upsetting. Slow and banal for large portions but ultimately worth the ride.
Never written a review till now. This was my first Kazuo Ishiguro book and I was really moved towards the end of the book. I was so absorbed into the bleak, enclosed life, yet dotted with rays of happiness of the students as described by Kathy that the overarching themes of sci-fi and dystopia never really occured to me other than just hanging in the background. I have not read anything quite like this before, where the story just kind of flows with a lot of emphasis on mood and atmosphere rather than a clear plotline. By the end I was really attached to majority of the characters. I an sure to read more books by him in the future. "I was thinking about the rubbish, the flapping plastic in the branches, the shore-line of odd stuff caught along the fencing, and I half-closed my eyes and imagined this was the spot where everything I'd ever lost since my childhood had washed up, and I was now standing here in front of it, and if I waited long enough, a tiny figure would appear on the horizon across and the field, and gradually get larger until I'd see it was Tommy, and he'd wave maybe even call. The fantasy never got beyond that - I didn't let it - and though the tears rolled down my face, I wasn't sobbing or out of control. I just waited a bit, then turned back to the car, to drive off to wherever it was I was supposed to be. "
4.25. Ishiguro's style is quiet, subtle devastation. I enjoyed the confined exploration of what identity, friendship, and community mean for these clones at a seemingly posh boarding school. But at times, it can feel a little dry and slow. Though it takes patience to make it to the payoff, the themes are worth the exploration.
damn good plot. i like his writing style too. i was pretty stumped for a solid 2 days after reading this. would definitely read more of his works.
i went into this blindly, and i genuinely think it would be a complete miss if i went searching for specific things about the book. the point of this book lies elsewhere, and not where you’d think if you went into it with expectations i have just finished it and i feel crushed. not in an overly dramatic way, but in a more suppressed, empty kind of way. the sort of sadness you feel about something that "could have been". what a book. I was so bored so many times(if not throughout). it was very slow paced, but by the end I think even that boredom served a purpose in this story. all the childish pettiness, all the fights, the delicacy of human relationships from childhood to adulthood, the simplicity of life, the complexity of it all at the end of the day. the contrast between the mundane and the tragic. everything worked its way up towards delivering a question to us in a subtle yet very clear way. the reason why i gave this 4 stars and not 5, is because the narration felt a bit barren and detached. I understand the passivity of Kathy serves a purpose too for the overall tragedy of the story, but i would have liked a more colorful and sentimental description of the past, which i believe would serve well in the book for the dark reality to hit all the more harder. just because the events are mundane doesn't mean the characters have to be written in a boring way. all in all, i love this book, and i’ll definitely read more books from the author.
i went into this novel not knowing what it was about. i wanted to experience it blindly, so i didn’t read the synopsis or any reviews before. and i only plan on reading the reviews after i am done with my own.
at first, i was kind of confused, a lot of new terminology and concepts that weren’t at first explained at all. honestly, i actually loved it like that. it kept me interested and on the edge, to find out what was actually going on at hailsham and what was going to happen to all these students after their time at the school, and what were the donations all about.
i liked how slow the pacing was, it fit the story well and i got so immersed into this world and i loved kathy’s voice and how she explained and reminisced about her life and her time from hailsham to the cottages to her work as a carer. it felt really raw, and it made me emotional more often than not.
it’s really thought provoking, emotional & beautifully written. one of my favourites for sure; i now want to read more of ishiguro’s works.
I'm not sure I loved this book, but I found it interesting and captivating enough to keep me reading it until the very end.
No plot, no meaning, just empty, hollow and dumb. Hated every character so it's not a character driven book and there's literatly no moving foward in terms of "plot" so it's not a plot book either, so what even is it? It's not a mystery, it's got like 0.00003% touch of emotion in it, which I guess is the point of the book, but it was so meaningless, it felt so useless. Genuinely I do not understand how anyone could like this book? It's just so boring. It's so stale and reminds me of eating cardboard really. Would not recommened ever.
I rate this book a 2.8. This is one of the rare occasions where the movie is better than the book. I initially saw the movie first and fell in love with the story, and had high expectations for the book to meet the same standards; which unfortunately it didn't. The dialogue Ishiguro uses as with the character makes it hard to concentrate. It feels more like diary entries than a flow. There's constant back and forth between events from the past and present, and much more unnecessary bits where she drags on about a lake or a tree; and even then, it isn't done nicely. The only part I truly enjoyed was Part 3, where the suspense kicks in and we are given background on why the students came to be.
This felt incredibly slow. The style is there but at times it felt a bit like it would never end.
Honestly I don’t even know how to describe this book. For most of it, I was utterly confused, but I realized it may have been because the main character has been a child and also unsure about what was really going on.
little spoiler ahead but I need to get this off my chest: I hate the right-person-not-enough-time-trope. I needed more of their love story!
I still don’t know how I feel about this whole premise of that donor thing. I mean what if this is already happening right now somewhere - the technology is certainly there - a crazy thought, I know. Even if we could cure all the incurable diseases, how can a whole human race morally accept cloning people for the sole purpose of harvesting their organs and not even letting them life a nice life.
slow at first, but the set up and getting familiar with the characters is absolutely worth it. you start with a lot of questions and put the pieces together bit by bit as more is revealed and when it clicks, i think everything hits like a brick. my favorite part about this read was how expressive and emotional the characters are; there's a lot to think about regarding the human condition. it's melancholic and thought-provoking and a lot of instances made me pause and think about the dialogue, or the meaning behind interactions as i got deeper into the book. just... a beautiful, but tragic read.
It took me a while before I got into the story, but as it moved along the mystery of it all drew me in. It left me feeling empty but in a fulfilling way because of how powerfully nuanced the whole story was.
The movie does no justice for this book. While the movie emphasized on romance, the book felt more of a soul searching vibe. Loved the book, I can see why it won a Nobel prize.
this was a really good book. i loved the characters and the theme and the story was very touching, but also creepy because of the whole dystopian factor. it starts out slow, but definitely worth the read. a really sad, but amazing book.
This story was not at all what I thought it would be. However, it was still as beautiful and strange as people suggested. It just leaves you feeling very sad in a good kind of way.
The cover reviews were right: this book is definitely beautifully disquieting. Nothing about this book is what you'd think it is. Ishiguro's style is clear and accessible; he doesn't rely on stylistic gimmicks to grab your attention (not that those are bad—just not prevalent here). Transitions are smooth; sometimes they feel forced because he uses the same transition every time, but truthfully it works either way. I found them helpful and they kept me reading. The characters are complex and sympathetic, the narrator's voice intimate. Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth all have this childlike quality to them that makes the story so nostalgic and endearing. I couldn't stop thinking about this book as I was reading it. Most of all, the dissonance between the moral dilemma at large and the intricacies of adolescence will tug at your heartstrings.
Highlights
“It might be just some trend that came and went,” I said. “But for us, it’s our life.”
“I think of my pile of old paperbacks, their pages gone wobbly, like they’d once belonged to the sea. I think about how I read them, lying on my front in the grass on warm afternoons, my hair—which I was growing long then—always falling across my vision.”
Of course, the moment she was giving it to me, I didn’t know what sort of music it was, but I did know it wasn’t anything like Judy Bridgewater. Then again, almost immediately, I saw how Ruth wasn’t to know that—how to Ruth, who didn’t know the first thing about music, this tape might easily make up for the one I’d lost. And suddenly I felt the disappointment ebbing away and being replaced by a real happiness. We didn’t do things like hug each other much at Hailsham. But I squeezed one of her hands in both mine when I thanked her. She said: “I found it at the last Sale. I just thought it’s the sort of thing you’d like.” And I said that, yes, it was exactly the sort of thing.
“when we lost something precious, and we’d looked and looked and still couldn’t find it, then we didn’t have to be completely heartbroken. We still had that last bit of comfort, thinking one day, when we were grown up, and we were free to travel around the country, we could always go and find it again in Norfolk.”
Because maybe, in a way, we didn't leave it behind nearva much as we might once have thought. Because somewhe underneath, a part of us stayed like that: fearful of the wotla around us, and - no matter how much we despised our selves for it - unable quite to let each other go.
“I keep thinking about this river somewhere, with the water moving really fast. And these two people in the water trying to hold onto each other. Holding on as hard as they can. But in the end, it’s just too much. The current is too strong. They’ve got to let go; drift apart. That’s how I think it is with us.”
that there are people out there, like Madame, who dominate our lives. don't hate you or wish you any harm, but who nevertheless shudder at the very thought of you - of how you were brought into this world and why - and who dread the idea of your hand brushing against theirs. The first time you glimpse yourself through the eyes of a person like that, is a cold moment. It's like walking past a mirror you've walked past every day of your life, and suddenly it shows you something else, something troubling and strange.
REAL
It was like when you make a move in chess and just as you take your finger off the piece, you see the mistake you've made, and there's this panic because you don't know yet the scale of disaster you've left yourself open to
I think of my pile of old paperbacks, their pages gone wobbly, like they'd once belonged to the sea.
So you're waiting, even if you don't quite know it, waiting for the moment when you realise that you really are different to them; that there are people out there, like Madame, who don't hate you or wish you any harm, but who nevertheless shudder at the very thought of you - of how you were brought into this world and why - and who dread the idea of your hand brushing against theirs. The first time you glimpse yourself through the eyes of a person like that, it's a cold moment. It's like walking past a mirror you've walked past every day of your life, and suddenly it shows you something else, something troubling and strange.
Most importantly, we demonstrated to the world that if students were reared in humane, cultivated environments, it was possible for them to grow to be as sensitive and intelligent as any ordinary human being.
But then again, when I think about it, there's a sense in which that picture of us on that first day, huddled together in front of the farmhouse, isn't so incongruous after all. Because maybe, in a way, we didn't leave it behind nearly as much as we might once have thought. Because somewhere underneath, a part of us stayed like that: fearful of the world around us, and—no matter how much we despised ourselves for it—unable quite to let each other go.
Maybe all of us at Hailsham had little secrets like that—little private nooks created out of thin air where we could go off alone with our fears and longings. But the very fact that we had such needs would have felt wrong to us at the time—like somehow we were letting the side down.