Kazuo Ishiguro
(born 8 November 1954) is an English novelist, screenwriter, and short-story
writer. He was born in Nagasaki, Japan, but his family moved to the UK in 1960
when he was five.
His books have received
four Man Booker Prize nominations, and he
won the award in 1989 for his novel The Remains of the Day. He has won many other
awards including the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017. In 2018 he was knighted
in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Never Let Me Go (2005)
Connie:
Having read other books by him, she had great expectations
but didn’t enjoy this one. She couldn’t see the point of it all, being confused
in the beginning and still confused by the end.
She couldn’t believe the same person wrote Remains of the Day.
Anne:
Not being a fan
of Science Fiction or Dystopia novels, she didn’t really enjoy it. But the
writing was so good she got caught up in trying to work out what the ‘donors’
were all about.
She thought the
whole premise of the book was bizarre.
Tam:
She didn’t think
the author was trying to raise the ethical argument about cloning.
Reading from a
review, she thought it was more a parable about dying. We are all going to die,
but we don’t understand it.
Rosemary:
Having recently
watched the movie version, she thought it portrayed a love story between 2 of
the clones. The idea was to save people from serious disease. They would die
waiting to help others!
Wendy:
Wendy enjoyed
the book although she found the first person narrative sometimes confusing and
didn’t really work.
The children
were brainwashed, compliant and went along with what their purpose was – clones
to donate organs to cure diseases.
The Unconsoled
(1995)
Lesley:
The main
character, Ryder, a highly acclaimed pianist, arrives in a town, with no name,
in a country with no name to give a performance to which he has no recollection
of being invited.
Time is very
fluid, there are many unexplained events and situations and relationships are
confusing. She found it rather tedious to read and managed only about half the
book. That was more than enough.
Diane:
She found it a
strange book, even the written blurb was of little help to understanding the
book. There didn’t seem to be a straight theme through the book.
Maybe it was
about a man whose life had accelerated beyond his control!
When We Were
Orphans (2000)
Jo:
An Englishman,
who is now a successful private investigator, goes back to Shanghai where he
was born and to find out more about his parents who disappeared when he was a young
child.
Jo found it very
confusing although he eventually does learn more about what had happened.
The Buried Giant
(2015)
Pat:
After reading
2/3 of When We Were Orphans and enjoying it, Pat listened to The Buried Giant
as an Audio Book and loved it. It was a very different story, but both books
had the common theme of people and memories.
Judy A:
This is a
fantasy set in early Britain, 6th – 7th century. An
elderly couple set off to look for their lost son. A mist/spell has been cast
over the land by a she dragon. Everyone is losing their memory. Along the way
the couple meet many characters.
Judy thought it
was hugely disappointing and the language was simplistic. She had loved his
other books.
Joan:
Joan loved the
book and found it absorbing. She commented that we all need a bit of fantasy.
She appreciated the simple language, the unfussy general nature of loving and
caring on their journey.
The Remains of
the Day (1989)
Prue:
Prue described
the book as a very English story: the language, the descriptions, the class,
the pomp and ceremony.
The writing is
beautiful, easy to read and the memories are fantastic. It was a sad but true
record of what England was like in the 1950s.
The title comes
from the last few pages when the talk is about evening being the best time of
the day.
Judy J:
In an interview
the author indicated that he chose a butler as the main character, knowing that
people were familiar with the general stereo type of an English butler, stoic
and with a stiff upper lip.
He then could
also be a figure who was afraid of emotion and hides behind his professional
role, like many of us. A butler is also someone who would not question some of
the things he would be asked to do. The power is in the hands of those above us.
Kris:
Kris loved the
book, commenting that the road trip was such an unusual way to tell his story.
By the end of it, he had come to terms with his situation.
She thought it meditative, slow but it flowed
beautifully.
Pamela:
Pamela thought
that Stephens (the butler) was strongly influenced by his father, so much so
that he didn’t even reveal his first name. She found him an unreliable narrator,
he lied to himself and minimalized things.
Later in the
book he had a gradual awakening.
Val:
Val thought that
the writing was so beautiful and moving. It was easy to visualize where he was
and what was happening.
She felt that
towards the end he was tying to find out about a world he had had nothing to do
with.
Judy D:
Judy also loved
the book. It was beautifully written; she could understand the main character
but became frustrated with him for example when he couldn’t or wouldn’t react
to his father dying.
But there were many
funny little bits through the book.
Charis:
The book tells
in the first person the story of a butler who worked in one of the best houses
in Britain between the first and second wars. Following the death of the Lord,
the butler stayed on in the mansion and was taken into the employ of an
American, the new owner. It is a very stiff and formal account of a butler’s attitude
towards his employer and how he sees his duties under both men.
Julia:
Like most other
members, Julia really enjoyed the book, even though she normally doesn’t like
books in the 1st person.
JUNE: our topic for June is
Comedy.
Please choose your own book.
