Comments on: Never Let Me Go

By: Karthik

Karthik — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 14:53:26 +0000

Do tell me if you liked Transmission – I can’t seem to decide how I feel about the book. Great writing, though – Kunzru is pretty cool in that respect.

By: DoZ

DoZ — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 14:47:01 +0000

I want to read On Beauty myself. I hear it’s very like Howard’s End. I haven’t read that one either, but have watched the Merchant-Ivory version a zillion times. I haven’t read any of the other authors on the short list. The year that Blind Assassin won, I think I read every one of the books on the short list & had a whale of a time. I don’t find myself desperate to read Sebastian Barry, but Julian Barnes & both the Smiths look interesting. At the moment, am reading Transmission, my first Kunzru.

By: Karthik

Karthik — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 06:28:07 +0000

This is my first book on the shortlist – On Beauty is next. I can’t seem to find Saturday here, but I might be in the US in late October, so maybe I’ll get it then.

You know, you are the third person to find that going back thing irritating. I didn’t think too much about it – it seems to be in line with the way we all think – we think of an event, and then go back in time to trace the things that led to it.

If not for the ending, I thought it was a really good book. Definitely not in the Blind Assasin league, but good enough to justify being shortlisted.

By: DoZ

DoZ — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 19:36:15 +0000

Glad you got to read the book. I admit I found all the going back & forth irritating, especially when Kathy takes such pain (too much pain) to go into the details – “it was 3 days, no 6 days before x happened” or something in similar vein. I normally love chronologically un-straight narratives (the Blind Assassin is one of my all time favorites), but frankly, I felt weary of it in Never Let me Go. Too many writers appear to be doing it, and even if Ishiguro is a master, it is starting to get boring. What other Booker noms have you read?