"Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro
This is now a movie. I'd like to see it eventually, but the book made me sad enough that I'm not in a huge hurry. It's a societal SF novel as opposed to a scientific SF novel, about specially bred children whose whole purpose is to serve as organ donors. The narrator, Kathy H, has been a "carer" for 12 years, her task being to support donors going through their surgeries until they "complete", that being the euphemism for "die".
The story follows her and her friends Ruth and Tommy from their days at Hailsham, the school where they live, to adulthood and donation. The focus on the story is on how they keep their own human identity and dignity.
We don't learn much about the England in which they live because the characters themselves don't know much about it. Their world is perhaps a little more self-contained than is realistic, and at the end of the book I wasn't sure what a "carer" actually *did* beyond visit donors. We hear that Kathy has been allowed to work as a carer for so long because she's so good at it, but never get a feel for what qualities make her so.
The book raises more questions than it answers, but the way the characters do their best to be "normal", even if it means copying mannerisms from television, has its own poignancy. Not a long read, not completely satisfying, but still one I'd recommend.
The story follows her and her friends Ruth and Tommy from their days at Hailsham, the school where they live, to adulthood and donation. The focus on the story is on how they keep their own human identity and dignity.
We don't learn much about the England in which they live because the characters themselves don't know much about it. Their world is perhaps a little more self-contained than is realistic, and at the end of the book I wasn't sure what a "carer" actually *did* beyond visit donors. We hear that Kathy has been allowed to work as a carer for so long because she's so good at it, but never get a feel for what qualities make her so.
The book raises more questions than it answers, but the way the characters do their best to be "normal", even if it means copying mannerisms from television, has its own poignancy. Not a long read, not completely satisfying, but still one I'd recommend.