never let me go

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did anyone read it without knowing what is was about beforehand? i just finished it (two days) and the way ishiguro slowly and euphemistically let everything on was downright chilling, and i've known what its was about for some time. i need to reread it to really get into it but i'm curious about how ishiguro's reticence affected the reading.

― lf (lfam), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 01:54 (eighteen years ago) link

reading the thread on the old ilb, i don't think i have ever seen someone so completely "not get" a book (or an author, even) as jed.

― lf (lfam), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 02:23 (eighteen years ago) link

it's so bad i couldnt' finish the thread

― lf (lfam), Wednesday, 29 November 2006 02:24 (eighteen years ago) link

at least i explained to you people why the book was so bad - you should be thanking me instead of insulting me.

― jed_, Thursday, 30 November 2006 01:31 (eighteen years ago) link

I didn't have a very detailed idea, even though I'd read reviews, because I read and forget a lot of reviews, and all I could remember, other than "I want to read this," was that it was set in an alternative "sci-fi" reality. I loved the pace of it, the slow unspooling. Not that it's "slow." Anyone who isn't sucked in by the first few sentences is brain-damaged.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Thursday, 30 November 2006 01:49 (eighteen years ago) link

i should be thanking you, but i don't suppose i am. calling ishiguro out on plot holes and uncertain, unreliable narration is like calling the sky blue. and to then criticize him as making "the crucial mistake of telling you what the [cassette/dance] scene is about" and for lacking subtlety...

he's a bit like robert frost at novel length

― lf (lfam), Thursday, 30 November 2006 02:04 (eighteen years ago) link

i don't what you mean by that since i don't know frost well.

actually my "you should be thanking me" reponse was intended as a joke but then i actually did get annoyed so i was rude. i don't mind, it's cool if people enjoyed the book but i don't think my take was wrong. it's actually not the worst book i've read this year.

― jed_, Thursday, 30 November 2006 20:30 (eighteen years ago) link

four weeks pass...

I was one who read the book blind. I had only read the general accolades, had a friend who enjoyed Ishiguro's previous works, and so bought it. I have to so the way it unfolded was horrifically effective. Very chilling.

I do not esteem the novel the way most do but it certainly had its very good points.

― Arethusa (Arethusa), Friday, 29 December 2006 05:40 (seventeen years ago) link

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