Written from scratch by Junic Andy So – Meston Ecoa
No assistance was received from any form of Artificial Intelligence.
No assistance was received from any grammar or vocabulary enhancing software.
One Paragraph Review
contains no spoilers
This book is like Brie cheese. It’s more plain and subtle than cheddar or mozzarella, less complicated than the stinky ones. Kazuo Ishiguro seems to demonstrate that his way of delivering a refined taste is not through the explicitly explosive events, but by plain narration. His art of dropping bombs is one of a kind. Taking that word literally, imagine having to visualize the scene of the Little Boy. In one video, a stressful music is playing, showing the nervous looks on the pilots and the sweat running down their face. In another frame it would zoom in on the expressions of politicians in the US and the Imperial Japan. Eventually, a general says something the equivalent of “Avengers! … … Assemble” and a bomb is dropped. In Ishiguro’s video, it is showing an aerial birds eye view of the sky and its clouds. Land is visible in spots where there are no clouds. In that static window, an aircraft would appear from the bottom left corner. As it flies diagonally, and reaches the center of the screen, a black object would appear. The jet would exit through the top right corner and the black object gets smaller and smaller. After some time, the scene would get swallowed by the eye of the mushroom cloud. No sound, no music. Ishiguro maintains this way of depiction throughout the book as if he has profound trust in his readers. It’s a book that needs patience and proactive thinking. Devices will have different meaning on the second read. It is a glass and a mirror.
Recommended Reader
contains no spoilers
If you …
• Do not have much experience reading English text — the vocabulary is not challenging
• Like novels where the setting has something fictional, but is still relatable to current times
• Are thinking about the value of life, or the meaningfulness of life’s achievements
• Prefer to be actively engaged in the process of understanding the fictional world
• Have seen the movie and want to read the book
• Are patient
This book may be a good read.
One Paragraph Summary
contains spoilers
Kathy reminisce her time in Hailsham. She has been a carer for 11 years. In a couple of months she will finish her term and become a donor, until she is finally completed. Most of her peers from childhood have completed already. Kathy, Tommy, Ruth along with others have been raised together, since babies. They are clones who have been sterilized and grown for the harvesting of organs. Raised among each other without having family, nor a last name, the facility is not quite like the conventional school. The curriculum is barely elementary and heavily weighted towards arts. Children produce art, the most novel of which gets picked out and taken to the Gallery run by the Madam. Since they were young they have been injected with truths regarding their existence, programming them to be subservient to their fate. Talk of their destiny or alternate possibilities is naturally developed, but taboo. It is said that the only thing that would delay their destiny is to find true love. Post Hailsham is the Cottage days. There are no guardians, and clones are let to live on the grounds until they begin their lives as a carer or a donor. This path applies the same to Kathy, Tommy and Ruth. While Kathy and Tommy always had a thing for each other, Ruth steps in the way, becoming a couple with him. Later in their lives, they reconvene, and realize that if it is anyone, it would be Kathy and Tommy who are truly in love and would be eligible for the postponement. The two of them would find Madam and Miss Emily, the principal in the facility at Hailsham, to ask for their deferral. However, Madam explains that there was never such a thing. Hailsham, had been a movement to better the rights of clones, providing a more humane life before their completion. However the initiative died down. With more peers including Ruth and Tommy completing left and right, Kathy drives off to “wherever it was I was supposed to be”, feeling the futility of her existence.
Source
• book cover photo: shot myself
