Never Let Me Go

I really liked this book and I'm not sure why. The characters are not well-developed. The plot leaves a lot to be desired. Ishiguro is a bit gimmicky in how he gets the reader to keep wanting to progress through the book. Ultimately, though, it works. Ishiguro is a really good writer and despite knowing how he's making me want to read on, I did very much want to read on.

The unfortunate part of this book is that I can't really tell anything about the story without telling the story and ruining it. It takes place in Britain although for some reason (maybe because of Ishiguro's heritage?) I pictured the characters as Asian. There is very little in the way of physical description of the characters which enabled me to envision them as I wanted. It follows some children in a special boarding school and their relationships.

As much as I don't like reading books with messages or hidden meanings, this definitely had some political/religious connotations. Or at least I could parallel the story with some issues.

Haruki Murakami called this the best book of the last fifty years but he's too kind. This doesn't measure up to anything Murakami has written. I liked it enough to give it one star, though, and it is a very quick read because of Ishiguro's ability to force you on.