Never Let Me Go

Chapters 22-23 (End)

Dec 01, 2023

You are reading my weekly review of our November read-through of Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. If you would like to join in future readings, subscribe to my newsletter and make sure to select “Books and Brews” from the manage subscription page.

Warning: spoilers abound, death

In case you missed it, read Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four here.

Recap

Here we finally have it: the answers to all the riddles.

Kathy realises quickly during Miss Emily’s rambling talk, there are no deferrals and never have been.

“We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all.”

Miss Emily explains that Hailsham was built as a reaction against the inhumane treatment of clones and to prove that clones were also fully human. They chose to call the children “students” instead of “clones” to humanise them. At first, the wider world supported such work, but after a couple incidents, such as a scandal involving a scientist attempting to create “superhumans.” This scared society by bringing up the possibility that clones could potentially become superior, leading to the eventual shut down of all establishments like Hailsham.

At this point in time, society had gone back to ignoring the existence of clones, shutting their eyes to where organ donations came from. People could no longer return to a time before these clones saved lives and those of their loved ones.

How can you ask a world that has come to regard cancer as curable, how can you ask such a world to put away that cure, to go back to the dark days? There was no going back. However uncomfortable people were about your existence, their overwhelming concern was that their own children, their spouses, their parents, their friends, did not die from cancer, motor neuron disease, heart disease. So for a long time you were kept in the shadows, and people did their best not to think about you. And if they did, they tried to convince themselves you weren’t really like us. That you were less than human, so it didn’t matter. And that was how things stood until our little movement came alone.”

Miss Emily defends her choice to shield the students from the full reality of what they are. She says she sheltered them, gave them their childhoods, extending that protection even past their time at Hailsham.

As the conversation draws to a close, Kathy tells Miss Emily that Madame has never liked them, that she’s always been afraid. Miss Emily replies that of course Madame is afraid; they are all afraid of the clones, but that did not stop them from fighting for what they believed was right.

As Kathy and Tommy leave, Kathy speaks with Madame about the time she danced with the pillow and saw Madame watching her and weeping. Madame tells her she wept because she saw in her “ a new world coming rapidly. More scientific, efficient, yes. More cures for the old sicknesses. Very good. But a harsh, cruel world. And I saw a little girl … holding to her breast the old king world, one that she knew in her heart could not remain, and she was holding it and pleading, never to let her go.”

On the drive back, Tommy says Miss Lucy was right, not Miss Emily. A little while later, he gets out of the car. He starts screaming. The kind of raging he’d done as a child: throwing his limbs, kicking, screaming. Kathy runs to him and they just hold each other in the dark.

After this visit, Tommy starts withdrawing more and more from Kathy, identifying more with other donors. The divide between them grows as Tommy prepares for his fourth donation. Kathy’s bothered by this, and it leads to a few quibbles, until Tommy finally requests Kathy not be his carer anymore. He doesn’t want her to see him “like that.”

Kathy hears of Tommy completing sometime later and drives to Norfolk. There, she comes to field where she imagines everything she’s lost washing up, imagines Tommy in the distance come toward her, if only she just waits long enough.

My Thoughts

“Why did we do all of that work in the first place? Why train us, encourage us, make us produce all of that (art)? If we’re just going to give donations anyway, then die, why all those lessons? Why all those books and discussions?”

What a loaded question—one Ishiguro encourages us to ponder. If we are going to die anyway, why bother with anything?

What does it mean to be human? What is it with humans’ desperate existential need to create meaning of our lives? It’s true of all of us; we’re going to die anyway, so why bother?

Miss Emily believes she was in the right to keep the clones in the dark. She kept them from having to face the grim reality of their lives and fates. Was she right to do so? Tommy doesn’t think so. He avers that Miss Lucy had the right idea, that they should have been told.

Even now, I’m not entirely sure. I grew up at a young age because life required it of me. Sometimes I wish I’d had a more innocent, carefree childhood. Yet at the same time, not existing in the blissful bubble I saw many of my peers in, gave me a greater appreciation for those I loved. I’m less willing to let chances slip through my fingers or words go unsaid, and I believe that was largely due to always feeling like death was close at my heels. On the other hand, living with such anxiety did no favours for my fragile mental health.

So what is the answer? I don’t know. Is it even possible to achieve balance with such a thing?

Madame’s reflection on the new world being more efficient yet crueler is one worth pondering over. With technology advancing at an unprecedented speed in our current world, we’re promised easier, better lives. But at what cost? I think of the way we’re constantly inundated with news; we’re more aware of what’s happening in the world, but that can paralyse and overwhelm us. I think of the way the internet connects us yet leaves many lonelier than ever.

It also raises an interesting question: what are we willing to sacrifice in order to save our loved ones? For the original humans in this story, they will set aside morality and ethics, sacrifice generations of clones to prolong their lives for a few more years. One can easily look at society and condemn them for such actions, but given the choice, I’m not sure I’d have the willpower to say no to saving a dying loved one.

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Even Miss Emily, though she works to give the clones in her care a better life, she doesn’t fight against their fate. I was struck by her blink-and-you’ll-miss-it statement when she first greets Tommy and Kathy: “I’m hoping this contraption isn’t a permanent fixture,” referring to her wheelchair. Though never confirmed explicitly, I took this to imply she will soon be a recipient of someone’s donation as well.

With all this talk of giving clones humane conditions to live in, there is no real desire to end the donation system entirely. Miss Emily talks to them almost dismissively, more concerned with selling her cabinet. Reading this passage again, I felt like that was almost how she saw the students, as objects.

Kathy’s response to this is apt: “It might be just some trend that came and went. But for us, it’s our life.”

The relatively stoic way the clones accept their fate is what makes this book so tragic. It never occurs to them that they can escape it. Kathy and Tommy go to such lengths to find Madame, simply to gain a couple more years together. However, in the end, a deferral is only that: a delay in the inevitable.

In a similar vein, we humans fight and war against death, trying to prolong life for a year, two years, ten years—when we know there is no real escape. Ironically, even the “real” humans whose lives are saved by these organ donations, will die one day as well.

But to lie down and accept defeat is also not what Ishiguro suggests we do. Back when Tommy had the conversation with Miss Lucy, the guardian told him that if he really wanted to, he could find out things about the world and his place in it.

The book’s beginning is set around the 1990s, in a world just similar enough for its differences to be jarring. I get an overall feeling of unrest when I read this book. I find the way Ishiguro writes in his understated, subtle way unsettling. There is an undercurrent of urgency amidst a seemingly innocuous setting. That reflects the pressing matter of how short life really is, and the scary way we go on living as though we have all the time in the world left.

While there is some commentary on the ethical practices of cloning and organ harvesting, what this book really concerns itself with is what we do with the knowledge of our mortality.

The answer is in the very title: never let me 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’s too strong. They’ve got to let go, drift apart. That’s how I think it is with us. It’s a shame, because we’ve loved each other all our lives. But in the end, we can’t stay together forever.

Death and loss touches each of us, sooner or later. The great error, Ishiguro warns, is in focusing on the trivial. The clones’ lives are mirrors of ours. Kathy’s lifespan, though short, is what most lives look like, even if they live to a hundred years old. It doesn’t matter how many years we live; the time we have with the ones we love will never feel like enough. When we realise time is running out, what would we do differently, and why aren’t we doing it now?

Discussion

Do you think Miss Emily was right, or was Miss Lucy? Why?
What are your overall thoughts on this book?

Next Up

Thanks for joining me on this slow read-through! I really enjoyed it and still got some new insights this time around, even though I’ve read this book several times already. It’s truly a timeless book. Despite knowing everything and how it’s going to end, my heart still aches every time I read it.

I would love to do another slow-read with you, though I can’t decide which book to cover next. Maybe I will do Lord of the Rings next, since that is my great literary love and I read it annually. Maybe you will enjoy reading it along with me.

Other options include The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde), Franny and Zooey (J. D. Salinger), Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë), or East of Eden (John Steinbeck).

If you are interested in reading any of these books together, let me know in the comments!