Never let me go _ Kazuo Ishiguro
Novel notes
Chapter 1
Kathy, 31.tells the story - She is a carer for 12 years -She remembers her school days - Her friends Ruth and Tommy - Her school Hailsham. Tommy is playing football with boys. Kathy and girls watch from pavilion. Kathy is worried tom will dirty his new polo shirt- Boys do not choose Tommy for playing – they leave him- Tommy shouts after them – Kathy approaches Tommy and got slapped accidentally – he doesn’t apologize – Kath tells him about his shirt – he did not bother but his anger came down.
Chapter 2
Kath tells about her school- tells about Tommy getting bullied for his lack of creativity and urge to show it – tells about spring exchange – exchanging products made by students – even poem is sold – tells how bullying of tommy started – his elephant art and the teacher’s praise – the talks and the rooms of the Hailsham - tells how tommy after a few days changed and became confident - she asks him how at lunch – he tells miss Lucy advised him – she doesn’t believe – he promised her to tell everything at the pond.
Chapter 3
Kathy meets tommy at the pond – he tells what ms.Lucy told him – it’s all right to be not creative – that brought the change in him – he says lucy was shaking – she also said the kids were not taught enough – this reminds Kathy of the Gallery – their creations collected by madame every 3 months for the gallery – madame is not very friendly – kathy’s friend says madame was scared of the kids – they want to test her theory – they abruptly appear before madame when she visits the house for the collecting articles – she stood shocked and walked – kathy says something changed permanently in them after the incident
Chapter 4
Token controversy – kath says the things they experienced (tommy and ruth) grew and dominated their lives – Ms.Emily head guardian- her hair tightly tied but strands coming out – token controversy taken to her – Ms.Lucy’s class in library – she says the students will know eventually why madame takes their things for the gallery.
Sales – the van coming with things- noise and excitement – exchanges In hushed tones – assembly with Ms.Emily – Emily’s character – Kath sees Emily when she was talking to no one in class –
Kath remembers her early memory of ruth – at five while playing in sand pit – the at 8 she tells kath to ride her horses – imaginary horses – she rides all horses – when kath brings them to stable ruth is annoyed with her – she asks if she likes Ms.geraldin – if she is her favorite –kath says yes – ruth says she would let her be Ms.Geraldin’s guard.
Chapter 5
Secret guard is group of students led by ruth that protects Ms.Geraldin from being abducted. – Kath says about the forest behind the school– a boy went there and his hands and legs chopped off and died – a girl’s ghost is still lurking – ruth and co feels that is where Ms.G will be kidnapped – two other guardians might be sabotaging against her – Eileen and Roger – ruth maintains that she knows many things about this before anyone came into the secret guard.
Kath thinks ruth is good at chess – she walks over one day and tells a brilliant move – this makes kath wants to learn chess from ruth – she buys the chess board – learns ruth does not really play well – she leaves in anger – next day ruth talking to her secret guards avoiding kath – she was irritated – when kath walks with moira she sees ruth with the guards again – moira was expelled from the guards recently – moira says it’s rubbish this secret guard thing – kath gets angry and shouts she knows a lot about the thing – kaths says she knows about the secret thing personally without ruth saying it – and leaves in anger with moira – not annoyed by ruth now – when she thinks now she does not know why she got angry with moira, her only ally.
Another encounter with ruth a few years later – they are in a small classroom – all are crammed – kath sees a pencil case with ruth – she asks how she got it – other students watch it – ruth says with a smile do not tell anyone – indicating it came from Ms.G – kath was shocked – she did not believe it – no favoritism in school – she decided to find out – she tried to check register at the sale – but decided to bluff – one day she says she saw the last week’s register – ruth was shocked – seeing this kath thinks why did she do this to her best friend – ruth leaves quietly.
Chapter 6
Kath wants to set it right with ruth – she tries to be nice with her – she moves away to allow ruth to walk with Ms.G – she mentions in font of others that if ruth asks miss.G she would say yes - once in the art class when a girl asks where the pencil case was and where it came from kath says it is secret meaning that it came from Ms.G – ruth felt nice – she wants to do something in return.
Kath loses her favorite tape – Ms.Emily teaches counties of England with pictures for each county – except for Norfolk – She says it is in a corner of England – It is a lost corner – this reminds of the lost corner in Hailsham where all the lost and found things would go – they think all the lost and found things of Englan would go to Norfolk – after years kath and tommy found the copy of the same tape kath lost – they say it is the lost corner after all.
Kath wants to talk about her tape – songs of dark by judy bridgwater – she is at the cover with a cigarette – that is why kath keeps the record as a secret – smoking is not allowed in school – even pictures that remind smoking – lectures are often given about the ill effects of smoking – when Ms.Lucy one day lectures about smoking, marge asks her if she smoked – kath and others annoyed since she asjed such a rude question – but Ms,Lucy answered she did – for 2 yrs but stopped since it is bad for health – but it is even worse for them because they are special – they need to keep their insides clean – kath and students heard about donations but never thought about it- students were annoyed why marge asked lucy that question.
About the tape – kath put the cover upside down to hide the cigarette picture – the reason why she likes the cassetee is one song – baby never let me go – she thinks it’s a song by mom who says to her baby never let me go – but the songs is about something else – she plays the song in the dorm over and over – one day she plays it and dances to it having a pillow for child- madame appears – stands quietly and sobs – she leaves sobbing – kath is confused – shares this with tommy after 2 years – he says it because she cannot have children – by now everyone knows no one can have children in Hailsham- but no one takes this seriously – they think they can have sex without getting pregnant – kath asks how madame knew the song was about babies – it was not – it was only that kath thinks that way – tommy replies may be madame can read minds – they feel a chill in their minds.
One day kath loses the tape – she could not find anywhere – she hides her anxiety and quietly enquires – ruth wanted to do something nice for kath ever since the pencil box incident – she went about enquiring students about the lost tape – one day on the hill top ruth gives kath a bag- which contains a tape – not the lost tape – but a different one – though kath does not like the kind of songs she feels very happy – now that ruth is gone she still keeps it as a souvenir though she never listens to it.
Chapter 7
Kath wants to talk about her live from13 to 16 – they were not unhappy but dark – she starts to observe lucy – in English class they talk about electric fences and soldiers killed by it – all students mimic soldiers – lucy says there are no electrical fences in Hailsham- but you get terrible accidents sometimes -
One day during rain the whole class is with lucy – she advises 3 boys who claim to go to US to become actors – she says all students become donors of their vital organs – guardians used to lecture the students about having sex with people outside –they need to be careful.- they can’t have babies- the outsiders take sex seriously – because they can have babies.
One day tommy has a gash at his elbow – this was when he bullied – the boys say if he fold his hand it will unzip and the hand will come off – believing it he kept his hand straight all the time – he even asks kath to put a sling on his hand so he would keep his hand straight during nights – he comes to know he was being cheated –the term unzipping becomes famous – all talk about unzipping their organs – talk of organ donation in a funny way – later tommy said when lucy advised them about organ donation nobody thought about how lucy will face difficulties because of that- he says they were very selfish to think about themselves – this was proved by the incident at room 22
Chapter 8
One day kath goes upstairs since she forgot something – nobody there- she finds lucy scribbling furiously on sheets – she was very angry at something – when she sees kath she raises her head and says what is the matter?-
Tommy walks with his friends one day – at the back of his shirt some dirt – laura and kath walk behind them – Laura calls poo poo on your shirt – tommy turns around and comes back to stare at her – and he leaves without saying anything –
Kath gets a calendar made by a student at the exchange – each month has drawing from Haolsham – some students and guardians in sketch – kath shows this to tommy – he shuffles and becomes moody – he gives back to her –
About sex – kath is confused whether having sex encouraged at Hailsham – they advise about sex – they say it is a beautiful thing – but students can’t find a place to have sex – many pretend to have sex – it seems like since the guardians are normal they still feel having sex is a taboo –
Kath wants have sex – since everyone claims to have sex she decides to do it – she chooses Harry C – she tries to learn about sex in books – not helping – the movies had only few clippings but she could not watch them over and over again –she could not have sex with Harry because tommy and ruth broke up
Chapter 9
Since tommy and ruth broke up one girl suggests to kath that she was the natural successor – kath gets confused by this – she was getting to ready to have sex with harry – now she had her hopes high on tommy – after all she was his best friend – she tells harry she could not have sex with him. – ruth comes to her a request –
Ruth takes her to the dorm – ask her to help to get back tommy – she says kath was his best friend – he would listen
Kath meets tommy in the football field – says he needs to get his things back – he says he was alright – she says he is not – tells him about ruth – but tommy was engrossed in something else. – he helps lucy carry some books to her class – lucy talks to her in an excited manner about how he should become creative – she was sorry she advised him years ago about how it was alright to be not creative – she says his art is important – more than just an evidence – kath asks what is meant by evidence – he does not know – lucy says gallery of madame is important
Kath remembers why she came to him – she tells she needs to get back to ruth – she is his best chance – surprisingly tommy was calm – because we need to go into the real world he says he needs to be slow and not hurry about getting back to ruth – kath thinks her mission not accomplished.
After few days there was news in the air that lucy left hailsham – one of her classes was taken by Emily and she says lucy was absent – during the class she announces lucy left and will not be returning – the word gets around – kath runs to tell tommy – he already knew from his friends – ruth and tommy get back – ruth thanks kath – kath says she did not do any help – ruth would not listen – kath gets into her good books and remains ever after.
Part 2
Chapter 10
Kath and seven of them come to the cottages – keffer is the in charge - they think he is like the guardian – but he is not – he is just care taker – the veterans the seniors can go out of the cottages for two or three days – kath thinks they could do the same in a few days – they spent 2 years there – a lot of reading going on in the cottages – the couple act very matured – reading is like sex in hailsham – everybody pretend like they read everything – ruth makes a big scene of making out with tommy but later realizes it is not the way with the cottages -
Kath finds how the veteran couple adopt things TV programs – they don’t hug each other before parting – the girl nudges the boy in the arm – ruth learns this from them – does the same with tommy – he is bewildered – kath notices this
It is nearly autumn – kath lies down on the grass and reads a novel – ruth comes and sits with her – starts to explain the plot of the novel – she acts as though she read all the books and goes around telling everyone about the book – kath got irritated though she did not enjoy the book – she gets up and asks why she nudges tommy in the arm – like the veterans do – ruth gets annoyed – says kath wants her attention because ruth has friends among veterans – kath tells it is from the tv programs – ruth says it’s not the problem – tommy and her both talked about it and he will understand – she says kath also has some friends among veterans – kath stands up and leaves the place.
Chapter 11
Sex at the cottages is taken in a casual way – the ones that have sex become couple – they also have casual sex without becoming couple – Kath had a few one nighters with a few boys – that is why she got annoyed when ruth said she had a few friends among veterans –but during nights ruth and kath becomes normal friends again and talk like old times – kath tells her about her one nighters – ruth says it’s a bit weired but it will go away – kath asks about the collection she brought from Hailsham – ruth say she brought them in a bag – seeing no veteran maintains the collection she decides to throw it away – she gave it to keffer and he must have kept it somewhere –
Nobody speak much about students leaving the cottages – just a few mentions – likes Steve’s sex magazine – sex magazines are common in the cottages – everyone takes it casually – but ruth says all like it but don’t show it – keffer is religious and does not like sex – he checks for the magazines and takes them away – one day he takes six magazines and forgets outside – kath takes them and goes into the barn to shuffle through them – she does not look at the bodies but the faces – tommy comes there – kath says come join me – tommy says do you see them to have a kick – kath says what’s wrong in it – tommy says he watched her going through a magazine the other day – her face showed not excitement but some kind scare – kath gets irritated and leaves him
Chapter 12
Norfolk trip – possibles – dream future – When Chrisse and Rodney go to Norfolk they claim they saw a possible for ruth at an office – a possible is a person of which the students are models- they are kept for donations – chrisse is tall beautiful – she kept poking you with her finger when she talks – one day ruth tells them of their dream future – what they want to do in future – she wants to work in an office – so chrisse tells the same thing now – she saw a person at Norfolk who works in an office who is a possible for ruth – tommy. Ruth and kath decided to go with them to see if it was true
Chapter 13
On the eve of the day of the trip the car that Rodney booked broke down so he had to book another one – ruth was at first was not very serious about the trip – when she hears about the break down she got disappointed – the next day they all go in the car – the three sat at the back seat with ruth in the middle – she kept talking to Rodney and chirisse at the front hiding the view for the other two –when they stop the car to stretch legs kath says to swap seats with her so she can talk to tommy while ruth talks to the other two – ruth gets angry and says don’t spoil everything – they travel with the same seating arrangement and reach the town
They park the car and walk with Rodney leading – they find a restaurant at the edge of the cliff leading to the seafront – they sit there and have some food – Rodney says martin, a veteran from last year works somewhere in the town – they talk of martin sometime which the other three don’t understand – then the talk turns to deferrals in Hailsham – you can postpone donations for 3 years if you have a partner – the three do not about this –ruth pretends like she knew about this a little – but tommy blurts out he did not a have a clue – Rodney and chrisse say they want to meet martin – kath asks why do they have to meet him -ruth says she wants to see her possible – she stands up whie tommy gets irritated – kath goes to pay the bill while others leave the hotel and look at the sea.
Chapter 14
Rodney and chrisse say they want to buy some birthday cards – all go into a shop –everybody looking in different aisles – chrisse and ruth talking- chrisse asks how come they don’t know who to go to at Hailsham for deferrals – kath listens to them – they leave the shop – outside Rodney points out a woman in a glass window shop – she looks somewhat like ruth – they leave the spot for fear of spotting - ruth says they can go to have a second look –
While waiting the woman comes out –all follow her through various streets – woman goes into a art shop – they go in – look at various arts – woman talks with the silver haired woman for a long time – all 5 waiting and looking pictures – they realize the woman does not look like ruth –woman leaves – the art woman comes and explains about the picture they are watching – they come out and in the high street they say it does not look like ruth – ruth gets upset – tommy says trip was only fun – ruth gets angry with him – Rodney says let’s go meet martin – kath says she does not want to go – they are not supposed to meet a carer – tommy said he will stay with kath – ruth was angry with them – Rodney, chrisse and ruth leave to meet martin.
Chapter 15
Kath and tommy move in the opposite direction with tommy lagging behind – he says while in shop he was looking for the tape kath lost – when she lost it in Hailsham he wanted somehow to find it and give it to her – he is not sure of the name of the tape – kath tells him – he says it is not there – but they can find it elsewhere – they have time – they go in search of second hand shops – in one of the shops kath finds the tape – she is stunned – she tells tommy – he says he will buy it for her – he buys it – kath says it was the memory that still lingers
Outside the shop tommy says about the deferral – why no one knows it in Hailsham – is the Gallery and madame something to do with it – he presents his theory – if a couple applies for deferral madame decides if the couple matches each other by looking at their products from years before – kath asks if tommy managed to get anything into the gallery – he says no – he says he is working on his imaginary animals right now – even ruth does not know about it –kath fears if he will again become a laughing stock –
They reach the car parking and wait for the others to return – tommy asks about her porn magazine incident – why she was interested in looking at the faces of the porn stars? – was she looking for her doubles from the porn magazines? Why would she think that she would become a porn star? – kath hides her tears – she says probably she has too much inclination for sex – she had done it with people she really did not like – tommy says he also has the urge – but that’s normal – kath says he would not understand – tommy had his hand around her shoulder – kath wants to get his hand off before others return – they return – ruth is in a good mood – she wants to make up for how she behaved before departing – in the car she talks everything to kath – occasionaly nudging and kissing tommy – kath things everything was well among the three/
Chapter 16
The Norfolk effect – the five of them don’t talk to anyone of what happened at Norfolk – not even among themselves – this enables kath not to tell ruth about the tape – spring – veterans are leaving for training –
In the gooshouse tommy shows his animal pictures to kath – ruth had already seen it – tommy asks what was she thinking – kath could not say anything – she says what madame would think of it – he says at least they are good enough for madame to consider – he says he is not doing them for the gallery – he likes them –kath says they are really good – he can show it to anyone.
When Hailsham got mentioned ruth just has a straight face as if it was a thing of the past – once when kath mentions Hailsham in front of veterans ruth does not react – on another occasion when kath mentions it she does the same – kath asks what was the matter – she says just get on with the things – why bring hailsham? –
Kath tells ruth about a boy she had sex with – lenny and his funny appearances – they both had a good laugh – while hearing her ruth finds the tape and asks about it – kath says tommy bought it for her – she does not react much and kept the tape in the place.
In the church kath finds both tommy and ruth – ruth says tommy had the theory about the gallery – only he chose to reveal it now – but he had told kath already – ruth says his pictures are not good – she says even kath things the same – tommy is shocked to hear this – kath did not know what to say – she wanted to hug him but did not –she leaves them to their destiny and returns to the cottage.
Chapter 17
Kath had lost interest in writing the essay assigned by Hailsham - After a a few days of the churchyard incident the three talk normally as though nothing happened – but kath could see the distance between tommy and ruth widened now – once in a bus shed kath decides to sort things out with ruth – she says tommy needs her support – ruht agrees – she says may be they may not be couple for a long time – tommy likes kath really well – but he does not like to be her couple because she had sex with too many – kath agrees – she talks about Hailsham and hubarb patches – nobody allowed to walk through it – ruth acts as though she did not know about it –kath got irritated and says don’t pretend you don’t know – ruth says what about it get on with – after this they depart without touching their elbows or shoulders as they normally do - after this they continued to be friends.
Kath decides to undergo training for a carer – she tells this to Keffers – she does not explain her future life with ruth – before realizing she was saying good byes to all
Part 3
Chapter 18
A few years after kath left the cottages – a carer now – solitude is the main thing – she has not seen anyone from the cottages until now – one day she meets laura sitting in her car – they spoke- she says ruth had become a donor – the donation did not go well – she asks why couldn’t kath become her carer – kath said it was difficult – finally they talk about closing of Hailsham – kath knew about it from another student –this reminds her of the balloons she saw one day – one afternoon after a heavy rain and in the sunlight kath sees a clown getting out of a car – he carries a bunch of balloons and walks along the pavement – the ballons had faces drawn on them - kath had to walk in the same way – she looks at the balloons- they were securely fastened –she imagines someone comes with a shear and cuts the strings – the balloons are freed and go in different directions – now they have no relation among them – Haisham students are like that kath thinks – during the talk with Laura, kath decides to become ruth’s carer
Kath goes and meets ruth in the hospital – after 2,3 visits she becomes her carer – they talk.talk for a long time – one day kath comes to visit early – ruth was taking bath in the opposite bath – kath waits – when ruth comes she becomes shocked because she was only with a towel –
Ruth says there was a boat that was deserted – she wants to go see – kath says it’s an hour and half away – ruth insists – she is bored sitting in the hospital – kath says tommy is near – why don’t we visit him – kath comes to know because tommy lives close to the boat ruth wants to visit the boat – kath calls tommy’s place and informs they are visiting
Chapter 19
They first go and pick tommy up – all three go to see the boat – while driving kath talks to tommy – this looks as though they both teamed up against ruth – they reached the boat – they have a talk – they return – tommy talks of a poster – ruth did not notice – kath talks of another poster – it showed the picture of an office – she stops the car to show the banner – she says ruth should have pursued her dream –ruth say she wants to apologize – she also felt like doing it with others even while with tommy – she talks about chrissie being completed (dead?) – she says since she is weak now kath and tommy should get to gether – they should apply for deferral – she gives a crushed paper to tommy – it has madame’s address – whenever they decide they should go there –they leave tommy and return – they don’t speak –but the relation between them gets to normal slowly
Chapter 20
Kath becomes tommy’s carer – she goes to kingsfield and stays with him- they start to have sex –
Tommy starts to draw his animals – he shows them to kath – kath is relieved because she thinks it’s his way of saying he did not mind about what happened in the cottages with the animal pictures – it meant he wants to go for the deferral with kath
Kath returns to kingsfield after so many days – she meets tommy and says how she saw madmae – she did not speak to her – she followed her – she lives in the same address mentioned by ruth – she said now we can go and ask her – tommy asks where would they go live if she accepts to give them the dererral – kath says somewhere anywhere – tommy says he needs to take the animals with them
Chapter 21
Tommy and kath go to meet madame – they spot her outside and follow her to her house – at the doorsteps she meets them – tommy says they need to talk – they go inside –madame asks them to sit – she goes upstairs – they go in and have debate about whether a picture is of Hailsham’s or not – they hear voices upstairs – a man’s voice – madame comes back – she asks them to sit down – tommy says why they came to meet her – madame kept asking questions in a surprising tone and asks “do I go too far?” “do we continue?” – after a certain time kath realizes the question is not for her – it was for someone at the back – kath turns to look who it was – the passage was dark – there was mechanical clincking sound – madame goes past them and brings a person in the wheel chair – at first they could not see who it was – the person is tattered and whethered – by her voice they identify it was Ms.Emily
Chapter 22
Ms.Emily talks in length about Hailsham and why it closed – because of a scam – a scientist in Scotland tries to create intelligent children using genetic engineering – but the world did not like it – he was caught – Hailsham students were always treated better than any others – but this scam caused the closing of the school – about the dererrals the rumors were not true – she was waiting for people to take her furniture from the house – she talks about the gallery – the things in the gallery were a kind of proof that the students from Hailsham possessed souls – that was why they collected the artwork from students – kath and tommy leave – at the front they meet madame – they talk about the when madame saw kath dancing to never let me go – they leave – on the way tommy asks to stop the car – he goes into the forest and screams – kath goes in and finds him – he apologizes – she says now she knows why he was always short tempered at school – he always knew he could not make it to the dererral – that’s why – tommy says that might be true
Chapter 23 Final chapter
Tommy behaves as if to avoid kath – he is among the other donors talking but ignores when kath comes and waits for him – he says kath would understand if she ever becomes a donor – he urges her to become a donor – how long would she be a carer? –
Tommy feels he ought to get different carer –he talks about how he acted when scored a goal those days in Hailsham – he lifts his hands and runs as if he runs on ankle high water – splash splash –
Kath leaves tommy – they talk about ruth –
Tommy is completed (dead) – kath drives to Norfolk – walks through the trees – sees debris – imagines all the things she had lost in her childhood had been washed away at Norfolk – Imagines tommy is coming back – returns to her duty.
End of the novel
I don’t like the novel. The writing style is not good. This is probably because the narrator is a girl who is not much educated or the author might have tried to make her tell the story like a youngster of the present era might tell. The story revolves around three young people, one could say triangle love story. The organ donation as a back drop. But that was never explored. Everybody seems to take it a way of life. May be the author intended to replicate what happens in real life. When I wrote synopsis for each chapter I could see some of them had no sense. The ending was abrupt and the preceding chapters did not lead up to the climax. It comes as a weak surprise.
What I liked about the story was when the narration is in first person singular, the reader is able to observe the mood swings and emotional growth or the lack of it of the narrator by way of her interacting with other characters. One could see she blurts out things and exposes her inner desires and failures. But this aspect of the novel could have been explored more.
All in all I am disappointed that this novel is written by a Nobel laureate.
Someone tell me if my thought process is wrong.
