I was quite surprised at this book. That it was a Booker prize candidate was a shock. It has a very been-there, done-that feel. See The Giver, by Lois Lowry, The Island, a film of recent vintage in which the subject matter is very close indeed to the underlying concept here. In a closed, prep-school-type setting, a group of young people interact with themselves and their teachers and guardians. It takes no time at all to figure out what their role is, and in fact the ease of that made me wonder if this was not originally meant to be a young adult book. It could be except for some sexuality towards the latter parts of the book. I was amazed at the overall lack of curiosity of Ishiguro’s characters. While this may reflect the extant reality of people sheepishly going along with whatever nonsense is handed out by the powers of the day, it makes for questionable fiction. One character, a queen-bee sort named Ruth, shows that flare for knowledge, mixed in with her rather massive character flaws. Kathy is our narrator, an every-girl, eager to gain the attention of the exciting Ruth, kind to the bumbling, victimized Tommy. There are a few mysteries as the characters age. What is the Gallery? Why are some teachers afraid of them? Why do these children so passively accept that they were born, cloned, so that they could be a source for organ donation? It all seems ok with them. Doesn’t anyone try to escape? The outside world is as characterless as the world of the characters’ institutional lives. Weird. I was greatly disappointed in this, by the author of Remains of the Day. So we know he has better stuff in him. This was extremely derivative, almost cribbed in some ways. Been there-done that. This is what happens when you let your grad students write your books for you. There is no need to go there or do that again here.

Я думала, мені буде боляче, я чекала, що книга мене зворушить і я литиму сльози над несправедливим життям героїв. Але автор навіть не намагався так дешево мене купити. Насправді, мені було страшно, і не за персонажів, а за себе, бо це перша антиутопія яка стала такою близькою, що здавалося все почнеться найближчим часом. Книга з безліччю етичних і моральних питань, але яка далеко виходить за їх межі і просто перевертає твій світ! І так, переклад та оформлення прекрасні.

Overall boring and not really enjoyable. The entire thing is just so juvenile and pedestrian. Even Ishiguro's trademark amazing prose is completely absent from this work. You don't care for the characters who themselves are insults to cardboard cutouts. Definitely Ishiguro's worst book. The man who wrote "The Remains of the Day" and "The Unconsoled" is dead, this novel is but an afterthought in a bibliography of solid works.

Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro's Examination of Science and Morality

It was a warm spring afternoon, late in the semester. The windows of Ten Hoor Hall were open. The swarms of honey bees could be heard, hard at work in white blooms bursting from the hedge of abelia that ran across the front of a concrete and brick neo-classical building that housed the history, philosophy, and speech departments on the Campus of the University of Alabama.

That was the day I determined not to pursue my intended career as a teacher of history, the cause of more than one day of regret through many years. Dr. Robert Johnston was rushing to the close of the second semester session of Western Civilization. The day's lecture concerned the end of World War II. Behind me the sonorous snore of a campus athlete vibrated through my skull. At the base of the lecture hall, Dr. Johnston was emphatically explaining the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. It was at that moment I decided to pursue another field of endeavor where those I sought to serve did not sleep through the performance of my service. My ego has shrunk by several sizes since that day. There are definitely those times when I wished my clientele would nap while I accomplished my job.

But, even as I had decided to steer a different academic course, something happened to make me lean forward, watching Dr. Johnston's reaction to another student's question, who had dared interrupt his lecture. One simply didn't do that. Dr. Johnston was the flood of knowledge. Our job was simply to sit there as sponges and absorb the wisdom he imparted.

"Dr. Johnston?" A timid voice tremulously floated through the hall.

"And...What's that?" Johnston's prominent adam's apple bobbled above his regimental striped bow tie. It was blue, gold, with distinctly white diagonal lines dividing the broader bands of color. Dr. Johnston was retired United States Navy. His specialty was United States Naval History. Actually, he was a legend in the academic field.

"It's me, Dr. Johnston!"

"I see that. What is your question, young woman?" His dark eyes seemed to penetrate the petite speaker.

"I was just wondering?"

"Yes. Get on with it. Get on with it. Speak up, young woman. So the rest of this class that is awake can hear the discussion that grows from this interruption."

"Sir, do you think it was morally right that President Truman made the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?"

I watched Dr. Johnston's chest expand as he swallowed a mouthful of air. His lips pursed. His hands dropped from the lectern to his sides. His shoulders slumped. He appeared to grow smaller as his usual ramrod straight posture seemed to collapse upon itself. He appeared to be looking at his notes, but he wasn't. The answer wasn't in his notes.

He raised one hand, fingers touching shirt front, tie, and eyeglass frame, as he formed his response.

"Morality. Was it moral? Was it right, in other words?" His words trailed off. His stare was at the exit doors to the hall. He was somewhere else. He was perfectly still until I noticed the slightest sway of movement. For Dr. Johnston was no longer in 1971, he had returned to September, 1945. Dr. Johnston had assumed his sea legs stance on the unsteady deck of a naval ship.

"I was on a troopship, a transport, carrying hundreds...hundreds of American boys, some of them younger than any of you in this room. We were bound for Honshu. We were headed for the home islands of Japan when we heard the war was over. Over at last. I would never carry another mother's son to die on some God forsaken piece of dirt that had no strategic or tactical value. God, the Marines. The Marines. Peleliu, Tarawa, Iwo, Okinawa. Moral? Ask the dead. If you can find them, ask the living that were on those troop transports. I can't answer your question. Each of us has to answer it. This class is dismissed."

Dr. Johnston's response is one I've heard from many sources on many issues regarding the morality of a particular decision of historical import. It is the ethical principle of utilitarianism. We can thank the likes of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill for the principle of the greatest happiness theory. It's been ages since Philosophy 101, but those names ring a distinct bell.

Yet, I also think of another professor, this one of Law. Jay Murphy was my favorite professor, though he only taught me one course--Labor Law. Professor Murphy was a Buddhist. One day he had traffic blocked on University Boulevard, bent over, hands palm out, as he looked intently down at some small object on the asphalt. It was a caterpillar. The Buddhist professor was adamant that the caterpillar would get safely where it intended to go. Even the life of a bug was precious to him. After all, given time, that caterpillar turns into a butterfly. There are two sides to every question.

So, that brings us to Kazuo Ishiguro and his acclaimed novel Never Let Me Go short listed for the Booker Prize in 2005. Turn the last page, and if you're not too stunned by the power of Ishiguro's words, you'll find that the author was born in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1954. Although it's impossible to know the origin of an author's work, unless he has directly addressed the subject, I had to wonder if this magnificent book was Ishiguro's response to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If not that, Ishiguro does directly raise the issue of the potential of science to cross over the boundaries of morality. Or, on its most simple level, Ishiguro simply decided to turn the genre of science fiction on its ear, showing what might be accomplished in an over laden field of books, many of which should never have seen the light of day.

Ishiguro definitely surpasses that simple level. At the minimum, this is a novel that questions the morality of advancements in science and technology. At the optimum, it addresses the very issue of the use of weapons of mass destruction that in fact exist, though sometimes just can't seem to be found anywhere. Further commentary on the second war against Iraq ceases here.

It is especially difficult to review a work of this magnitude without resorting to spoilers. Where necessary, the appropriate alerts will be posted.

Ishiguro's plotting is deceptively simple, using the perspective of Kath H., a student at an exclusive boarding school, Hailsham. In three sections, spanning early student days to young adulthood, Kath tells of life at school, after graduation, and her career choice. Kath focuses on her continuing relationship with two fellow students, Tommy and Ruth.

Hailsham is an environment especially suited to enhancing creativity in their students. Whether it be painting, music, drawing, poetry, or prose, students were encouraged to create works of art. Periodically a woman known to the children only as Madame, comes to Hailsham to select works of art which leads the children to believe their work is placed in a special gallery. To have one's work selected by Madame is a coveted honor. Additionally, the children participate in exchanges of one another's art, vying for what they consider to be the best.

Kath's attention is called to Tommy because of his frequent outburst of temper. Tommy is targeted by other students for his lack of creativity and the fact they know every button to push to launch him into a fit of rage. Tommy confides in Kath, much to her discomfort, for being seen as his friend could affect her own relationship with her fellow students.

But when Tommy's behavior gradually begins to change until he exhibits no further rages, he is no longer the target of bullies. There's no challenge anymore. Tommy provides no reaction other than to shrug and walk away from his would be tormentors. Ishiguro's portrayal of bullying is masterful.

Ruth is the central figure around whom Kath and Tommy revolve. Ruth is a would be leader, a believer that each of them is special and that a special future awaits each of them because of their status as Hailsham students. Ruth is self-centered, selfish, manipulative, and a master at the art of triangulation.

As Kath, Tommy and Ruth move into later adolescence, it is Ruth who will become Tommy's sexual partner, for reasons unrelated to love for Tommy. Kath's normal sexual urges are twisted by Ruth to be evidence of abnormality, and that Tommy, whom she uncouples from, would never view Kath as a partner because of what amounted to sleeping around. Tommy will only consider her a friend, not a mate.

Ishiguro takes his title from an imaginary song, "Never Let Me Go," sung by an imaginary cabaret singer which is on a cassette tape Kath buys at one of the periodic sales held at the school, when the children are allowed to buy things with tokens earned from their creative work. In one instance that becomes central to the question of the nature of Hailsham, Kath dances to the song while holding a pillow against her, as if she were holding her own baby. She turns to find Madame standing in the doorway watching her. Tears stream from Madame's eyes. Madame rapidly turns and departs without explanation, a continuing mystery woman whose comings and goings at the school have no apparent reason to the children.

The growing horror of the fate that awaits the children of Hailsham is created by the simple straightforward delivery of Ishiguro's chosen narrator, Kath. It grows readily apparent that something waits for each student in the future.

Why do no parents ever visit at Hailsham? Why are the teachers called Guardians as opposed to teachers? Why is Hailsham located in a remote area of England with no visible traffic zipping back and forth?

At Hailsham, the children are told their fate, but not in a manner which is understood. The management of Hailsham is a network of deceit, lies and manipulation. The children have no baseline of behavior outside the walls of the school to know otherwise. The language in which the Guardians address the children is reminiscent of Orwell's "double-speak" in 1984.

"Never Let Me Go" is the most appropriate title for the song Kath loves but does not understand. It is Ishiguro's perfect title for this compelling novel. For the forces that drive Hailsham have no intention of any of its students gain freedom. Ever.

The secret of Hailsham is one of ultimate selfishness of which any society should be ashamed. No parents come to the school because each of the children is a clone. They are walking, living organ banks, raised to be donors for others. The identity of the recipient is unknown, although Kath and Tommy learn that it is a practice that is accepted by the populous of the UK. An entire nation has accepted the price of the lives of others on the premise that clones, in fact, are mere shadows of real people. The children of Hailsham were meant to be raised in the shadows. It's a fact that anonymity covers a multitude of sins. Isn't it easier to drop a bomb from an incredible height and never see the destruction on the ground, compared to hand to hand combat? It always has been. It always will. Now, a human sits at a controller, as if simply playing a video game, navigating an unmanned rocket bomb to its intended target. At quitting time, mission over, the gamer goes home to whatever life they live outside the office. Hailsham was actually an experiment to show that clones are as human as any child created from the collision of sperm and egg. That's what society doesn't want to know.

Each of us faces questions on a regular basis. Will we do something simply because we have the ability to do it? Or do we weigh the consequences of the possible against the cost of the act?

I must return to that warm spring afternoon in 1971 as I listened to Dr. Johnson. My beloved Uncle celebrated his 21st birthday at Hickham Field. He never spoke of what he saw that day. He island hopped across the Pacific. He never spoke of what he saw. In September of 1945, he was on a troop ship headed to the home islands of Japan. I've often wondered if Dr. Johnson was an officer on board that transport.

I think of Robert Oppenheimer on the morning of July 16, 1945, at the Trinity Test of the first explosion of the atomic bomb in a desolate area of New Mexico. Afterwards he said he thought of the words from the Bhagavad Gita: "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

With Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro, a man born in Nagasaki, reminds us that any action, no matter the reason, has a price. The question is, "Is it worth it?" Each of us has to answer that question.

For, Robert Johnston, Professor, Department of History, The University of Alabama; Jay Murphy, Professor of Law, The University of Alabama School of Law, Woodrow Gaskin Burke, beloved Uncle, teacher and friend, all of whom had to answer the question in his own way"

you ever finish a book, slowly close it like you're in a trance. Hold it for a second, then stare up at the ceiling contemplating what the point of life even is anymore and why we're even bothering living because that is what I did after finishing this book.

I was gonna review this and I started but it was a trash review that didn't convey MY FEELINGS so I'll try again tomorrow xoxo

I knew a little about this novel before finally picking it up (my first Ishiguro). What I “knew” was close but not quite right - a story about two or three friends growing up in a dystopian world. It turns out that this world is close to our reality with an astounding difference based in medical science. Revealing it would take away from the experience, so if you haven't heard, I will not elaborate too much. I see why this subject, based in the 90's, would remain in Ishiguro's conscience even today. It's a scary concept, one that should have elicited more emotion from me. I expected it to, because many moments in this novel are powerful. The problem lies in the rest of the book. Ishiguro chooses a very understated manner of writing here, not in the format of a diary, but it does emit has that sort of feeling. As Kathy H. looks on the childhood years spent cloistered at a school called Hailsham, we the reader, slowly learn of each child's bleak destiny as an adult. Sounds like it would be emotional, but dare I say it was most often boring instead. Grasping at straws here: maybe that's part of the point, that these characters exude stunted emotion because their life experience has taught them little else. Highlight for me was a truly impassioned ending. Wanted more of that.

Let me start by saying that my review might contain some plot spoilers. However I personally don't think that knowing the plot in advance will in any way diminish the enjoyment of this story. The beauty of this book is not in the plot, but in its execution.

Another friendly warning: Never Let Me Go is for some reason often classified as science fiction. This is why so many readers end up disappointed I think. This novel is literary fiction at its finest. So if you look down on literary fiction and consider books written by authors like Ian McEwan, Margaret Atwood, and Jose Saramago pretentious, this is not a story for you.

Now to the novel itself. Kathy, now 31, is a former student of an English boarding school Hailsham. Hailsham is a school for kids with special purpose. All education in this school is geared towards conditioning its student to accept their "special" destiny as a given. As Kathy is getting ready to make her first donation while being a carer for other donors, she recounts her life in Hailsham and on her own, mostly in a form of anecdotes about herself and her best friends Ruth and Tommy, their rivalries, jealousies, and affection for each other. There is nothing particularly shocking, gruesome, or intense about Kathy's story, and yet it leaves you with a sense of being a part of a nightmare.

After reading quite a few reviews of the book, I can say that I loved the aspects of it that many abhorred. What other readers say about Kathy - her detachment, her lack of fire and rebellion, about broke my heart. What can be more heartbreaking than witnessing human lives wasted? Let me tell you - witnessing lives taken away from people who do not even realize what is being taken away from them, people who do not understand the value of their existence, people who do not know they have a right for more.

There is of course, much more to the story. The novel explores the futility of human life, its un-bargainable eventual "completion" and how we all choose to deal with the inevitable end. But for me personally the pain of Kathy's quiet resignation to her fate was what stood out and touched me the most.

In many ways Never Let Me Go reminded me of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Only Kathy is a step further from Offred. If Offred knows what horrors she is subjected to, but has no strength or will to change her circumstances, Kathy doesn't even know that her life "purpose," her destiny is inhumane. This work is also, to me, very reminiscent of Ian McEwan's Atonement. McEwan is a master of subtle build-up to an almost unbearable, life-shattering moment, but Ishiguro is a master of subtle telling without telling, foreshadowing, and emphasizing the gravity of the unsaid.

What else can I say about this novel? Never Let Me Go is a masterfully written work of fiction which raises questions of what it is to be human, what you choose to do in the face of an impending death and what happens when science is not accompanied by ethics. Subtle, eerie, chilling, and poignant. One of the best books I have read this year.

DIALOGUE:

Imagine a restaurant, London, mid-2003.

Publisher: Hey, K, we need another novel and we need it quick.

K: I know, I know.

Publisher: Another “Remains of the Day”. Something Hollywood can turn into a hit.

K: I’m working on it.

Publisher: Any ideas?

K: Well, I’ve been reading some Jonathan Swift.

Publisher: Who?

K: You know, “Gulliver’s Travels”.

Publisher: Oh, yeah, Jack Black. It's in pre-production.

K: Well, he had a modest proposal about how to stop the children of the poor being a burden…

Publisher: I’m with you, yep, delinquents, sounds good.

K: …he wanted to stop them being a burden to their parents…

Publisher: Yep, with you.

K: … and the Country.

Publisher: Yep, a Thatcherite angle, I think it’s Maggie’s time again.

K: Anyway, he had this idea that you could kill two birds with one stone…you could end the kids’ misery and the poverty of their parents at the same time…

Publisher: Let me guess, you could eat them, ha ha.

K: You’ve read it?

Publisher: No… wait, you’re kidding me, aren’t you?

K: No, that’s the whole point of the story.

Publisher: What, eat your kids?

K: No, not your own kids, other people’s kids.

Publisher: How could anyone do it?

K: He goes into that… stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled…

Publisher: Yuck.

K: He even talks about making them into a fricassee or a ragout.

Publisher: It’s a bit out there, K.

K: I was thinking of updating it a bit.

Publisher: How would you do that?

K: I was thinking I could tell the story from the point of view of a midwife who…

Publisher: Someone who has to care for the kids?

K: Yeah, until they turn 12 months or something...

Publisher: Let me guess, then she hands them over to a child butcher or something?

K: Yeah.

Publisher: Look, I can see where you’re going with this, but it all sounds a bit grotesque.

K: That’s the whole point. It’s an allegory for our times.

Publisher: I just don’t know whether it’s got legs.

K: Legs? You’re kidding me…it’s got every damned limb and organ you can think of.

Publisher: I don’t want to think of it, I can just imagine the reviews. They’ll call it “The Remains of the Meat Tray”.

K: Ha, I hadn’t thought of that, I was going to call it “The Remains of the Creche”.

Publisher: It gets worse.

K: No, honestly, I was thinking of “Never Let Me Grow”.

Publisher: You mean, like…never let me grow up?

K: Yeah.

Publisher: Do you think you could turn the people into pigs or something, you know, like “Animal Farm”?

K: I was sort of hooked on the idea of using people and narrating the story in a really dead pan voice…

Publisher: I don’t know about dead pan, it sounds more frying pan to me.

K: …If it’s dead pan, people won’t be able to tell whether it’s set in the future or the present. They won’t know how close to reality it is.

Publisher: I just don’t know what I think about this eating babies stuff.

K: But it’s like sci-fi, you can do anything in sci-fi.

Publisher: Look, if we let you do this, they won’t be calling it sci-fi, they’ll be calling it sci-fry.

K: If you let me do it, I guarantee we’ll be able to get Helen Mirren to play the midwife.

Publisher: Who?

K: Helen Mirren, you know, the Queen.

Publisher: No, no. Look, if you can tweak it, you know, think about my idea for a second, set it on Animal Farm, make it about cloning pigs, so they can grow body parts for other pigs or something…

K: I know, put some wizard animals in it and call it “Hogparts”?

Publisher: Come on take me seriously, K, just clone it up and tone it down.

K: I’ll think about it.

Publisher: I’ll see if I can get Keira Knightley to voice one of the pigs.

K: She’s hot.

Publisher: You could call it “Never Let Me Go”.

K: What does that mean?

Publisher: It’s a song my mother used to play. Jane Monheit sang it.

K: I could get used to it. Don’t know what I think about the name Monheit though.

Publisher: It does sound a bit German, doesn't it?

K: What would you think if I called her something more English in the book.

Publisher: Like Judy Bridgewater?

K: Who’s Judy Bridgewater?

Publisher: It’s my mother’s maiden name.

K: Sounds good to me.

Publisher: Look, I normally like to respect an artist’s integrity, but hey, you’re the artist, so I guess that makes it OK.

K: Do you think I could get to meet Keira Knightley?

Publisher: I think so… look I’ve been thinking about it, maybe it’s not such a good idea to turn Keira Knightley into a pig.

K: Sometimes you can’t really see the depth of your own characters, until you can imagine who’s going to play them.

Publisher: So, no pigs?

K: No pigs. I don’t mind the cloning bit though.

Original Review: April 16, 2011


CRITIQUE:

Some More Serious Thoughts

I wrote the above dialogue before I even finished the book.
I wanted to read the book before seeing the film, which I will probably do in the next week or so during the holidays.
When I wrote the dialogue, I probably had about 50 pages to finish, but the dialogue had taken shape in my head, and I didn't want to risk losing it.
There might have been a chance that it would be superseded by my final thoughts on the novel itself.
I had high expectations that I would finally get to appreciate the novel more when I had finished it and absorbed the denouement.
Unfortunately, it left me feeling dissatisfied.

Narrative Style

I didn't find the narrative style appropriate or convincing.
It is told in the first person, by way of recollection of three different periods of Kathy's life.
The periods are discussed chronologically, although during each period, there are occasional allusions to each other period.
There is a lot of internal detail about each period, what was going on in Kathy's head.
Dialogue between the characters is infrequent and sparse.
The novel is overwhelmingly an interior monologue.
Occasionally, there are lapses or flaws in Kathy's memory that she self-consciously draws attention to.
Part of me wanted to say to the author, "It's your story, just get it right, you can remember anything you like, because you're making it up anyway."
But then I guess we have to differentiate between Ishiguro and Kathy.
We have to expect some flaws in the glass, rather than a word and memory perfect narrative.
Still I was never really confident who Kathy was talking to, it wasn't just an interior monologue, there were occasional mentions of a "you", a second person to whom she was talking.
If you had sat down to tell this story to someone else, I think you could or would have told the story far more succinctly and selectively.
The detail and the repetition of environment, atmosphere and mood bulk up the painting, but they don't add to the depth.
Each new layer of paint is superimposed on the previous layer, so that while there might be a lot of paint on the canvas, it is physically, rather then metaphorically, deep.

The Geometry of Love

SPOILER ALERT

While Kathy, Ruth and Tommy live in an horrific environment (perhaps a metaphorical equivalent to a concentration camp), the novel deals with the quality of their humanity under these circumstances.
The guardians might have been trying to work out (incidentally) whether they had souls, but ultimately what we learn is that the positive aspects of human nature can survive or prevail despite the circumstances.
It's interesting that the characters' quest for love initially seemed to be motivated by a belief that it would postpone their donations and prolong their lives.
While this belief turns out to be mistaken, Kathy discovers that love is worth seeking in its own right, regardless of any consequences or notions of cause and effect.
Ruth promoted the belief in the life prolonging effect of love.
In effect, Kathy acquiesced in it and never deliberately interfered in or disrupted the relationship between Ruth and Tommy.
However, when she comes to the end of the story, perhaps she realises that she should have been less acquiescent and let herself express her love for Tommy.
So ultimately, "Never Let Me Go" is a love story, a triangular one at that.
Life is short, you just have to get on with it, you have to take your (true?) love wherever you can find it, even if someone else gets hurt in the process.
When we pair up in love, there is always a chance that someone will miss out or get hurt.
Three into two won't go.
Perhaps, this is actually calculus rather than geometry, but you know what I mean.

This book is scary. Not because it’s horror in the common sense of the word. But because it’s terrifying that we might reach a point in society where children and people are so violated and used. And worse, complying. This isn’t a happy book. There’s no rebellion. This is a harsh story from the perspective of someone so okay with how they’re regarded. Not because the characters are stupid but because this is what they’re told and raised to believe.


I recommend this book especially to the fans of The Handmaid's Tale. The narration style is different from the usual but I didn’t mind it. Kathy’s voice was a bit detached telling her story but I believe it was all part of the book and how society shaped her. It was certainly different from anything I read recently. I’m also glad I didn’t consider reading it when I was younger because I would’ve appreciated it less.

Still remains one of my all time favourites.

Know when to hold them and know when to fold them comes to mind when trying to write a review on this novel.
I have been meaning to read this book for so long but something kept me from doing so for many years and sometimes it best to go with your instincts when it comes to books and this is just one of those novels that I couldn’t connect with from the very first page. Having read 50% I felt I have given it ample time to improve.

I purchased my paperback copy in a second hand book shop and I struggled with the characters from the beginning and found the book “dull” reading, I just couldn’t connect with the story or the characters. I found myself reluctant to pick this novel up and after a couple of nights struggling to even get a understand what exactly was happening in the story I realized I didn't really care one way or another and Never Let Me Go was just a confusing read, wasn’t bringing me joy and time for us to part company.

I know I am in the minority on this one and thats fine, but the older I get the wiser I am becoming and realize my reading time is precious and I don't need to finish a book if I am getting nothing from it especially if I have paid for the privilege.

This novel will definitely stay with me for a long time.
I am haunted.

review to come