One of the bad things about being a great writer is that readers will come to expect that writer to reach greatness every time, and so if a work falls just short at very good or merely excellent, this can be a disappointment. This is just what Kazuo Ishiguro’s most recent novel, Never Let Me Go does. Because I have read now all of the works of Ishiguro — who has written great books like The Remains of the Day and An Artist of the Floating World as well as near great books such as A Pale View of Hills and The Unconsoled -- I can say that Never Let Me Go let me down a bit but that is only because I expect more from him than I would other writers. As is, this is a good book but it lacks those moments of great insight as that of his earlier works, and sadly (or happily) were this any other writer I would have begun this review off on a more positive note.

Having said that, Never Let Me Go is told from the first person point of view of a young woman named Kathy, and just as with his other works, Never Let Me Go is a very quiet novel in the sense that it works not only as a “dystopian” novel but also as a presentation of a character, where we learn her inner thoughts and quirks - a technique Ishiguro has developed so successfully in his earlier books. In this novel, it is not that he does not succeed in developing a real and authentic character, it is perhaps the character herself who is not as insightful as his leading narrators in the past.

Just to give an example, there are moments in the book where the narrator tells a bit too much - and by “too much” what I am really saying is that there are times when she drifts into banal revelations that in his previous works would have been laced with keener observations. It also could be that Kathy isn’t as interesting a character as those from his other books, and as I mentioned earlier in this review, because it is nearly impossible to forget what he has accomplished in his other works, as a reader I found it difficult to not make those comparisons.

Many have compared Never Let Me Go to Orwell’s 1984 or Huxley’s Brave New World because the tale involves the breeding of clones, or as they are known in the novel “students.” The students/clones are not viewed on the same level as that of the “guardians” and so the novel — without being preachy or condescending — presents these ideas regarding class and social distinction in a very subtle way.