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nausicaa83Back with another entry for the Reading Bingo! *cue Bruce Springsteen's I'm On Fire*
For the "A Book That Became A Movie" square I chose Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, a 2005 book that my cousin and her boyfriend bought for me last summer. I haven't seen the movie, and I don't really plan on doing it (more on this later), but it fits the square nicely, especially because my edition has this huge "now a major motion picture" tagline on its cover.
On to the actual review! Now, this is tricky. The book is written so that you don't know what it actually is about until 100 pages in, and the full truth only settles in later on. So here's my review without really going into plot territory. Short version, it's an incredibly beautiful book, and I highly recommend it. It's masterfully written, in a way that I've never read anything quite like it. It's science fiction in the way, say, 1984 is science fiction. It's about our world, with one crucial aspect tweaked, and for the first time in this genre we see that approached from an inner circle's point of view, instead of the usual one. But most of all, it's a book about a childhood, teenage years, and the friendships and little things and big things and everything that sticks in one's mind when one's older. You're sitting there reading it, and all the while Kath is sitting there by your side reminiscing her life and the persons who were important to her, and everything's normal, like you actually belong in that world. It's most of all a story about memory. Not a universal story, but a very personal one, like a friend telling you about her life.
I've seen it described as dystopian fiction, but I disagree. It would be dystopian if it was told from an external point of view, but being Kath's story, being a story from inside the dystopia, it all becomes normal. When I finished it it took me a while to remember I hadn't just read an autobiography, but a work of fiction. It's a book that stays with you, and there's no higher praise.
About the movie, I won't see it because the experience of reading this story feels so intimate and personal it would be weird to see another person's approach to it. Really weird. (Plus how come they only chose white actors when there isn't a single physical description of them, and it's set in England in the late 90s? In my mind Ruth was black and Kath was asian, and I was never contradicted by the book!)
In conclusion I'm going to cheat and copy something written on the book's sleeve:
"Never Let Me Go is a vision of the way we live already, transposed to an invented-realm. It's peculiarly pure fiction in this way, abstract, uncluttered by reference, claiming no great knowledge other than of the heart." The Evening Standard
For the "A Book That Became A Movie" square I chose Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, a 2005 book that my cousin and her boyfriend bought for me last summer. I haven't seen the movie, and I don't really plan on doing it (more on this later), but it fits the square nicely, especially because my edition has this huge "now a major motion picture" tagline on its cover.On to the actual review! Now, this is tricky. The book is written so that you don't know what it actually is about until 100 pages in, and the full truth only settles in later on. So here's my review without really going into plot territory. Short version, it's an incredibly beautiful book, and I highly recommend it. It's masterfully written, in a way that I've never read anything quite like it. It's science fiction in the way, say, 1984 is science fiction. It's about our world, with one crucial aspect tweaked, and for the first time in this genre we see that approached from an inner circle's point of view, instead of the usual one. But most of all, it's a book about a childhood, teenage years, and the friendships and little things and big things and everything that sticks in one's mind when one's older. You're sitting there reading it, and all the while Kath is sitting there by your side reminiscing her life and the persons who were important to her, and everything's normal, like you actually belong in that world. It's most of all a story about memory. Not a universal story, but a very personal one, like a friend telling you about her life.
I've seen it described as dystopian fiction, but I disagree. It would be dystopian if it was told from an external point of view, but being Kath's story, being a story from inside the dystopia, it all becomes normal. When I finished it it took me a while to remember I hadn't just read an autobiography, but a work of fiction. It's a book that stays with you, and there's no higher praise.
About the movie, I won't see it because the experience of reading this story feels so intimate and personal it would be weird to see another person's approach to it. Really weird. (
In conclusion I'm going to cheat and copy something written on the book's sleeve:
"Never Let Me Go is a vision of the way we live already, transposed to an invented-realm. It's peculiarly pure fiction in this way, abstract, uncluttered by reference, claiming no great knowledge other than of the heart." The Evening Standard
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no subject
Date: 2014-01-24 10:42 am (UTC)Il mio parere e il tuo coincidono alla perfezione, tra l'altro! Non avevo mai letto niente di questo autore prima d'allora, e ne sono rimasta piacevolmente sorpresa.
La stessa persona che mi ha prestato il libro è stata così gentile da darmi anche il dvd del film relativo (che mi ha descritto come "ancora più bello, vedrai"). Appena riesco a metterci le mani - anzi, gli occhi - ti faccio sapere!
no subject
Date: 2014-01-24 11:04 am (UTC)Ho appena dato un'occhiata sul tuo blog, e ho visto che hai aggiornato la tua tabella nel vecchio post. Potresti di tanto in tanto fare un post nuovo, magari ogni cinque letture, se non ti scoccia troppo? Così mi terrei aggiornata sulla tua lista! *________*
no subject
Date: 2014-01-25 02:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-25 07:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-25 07:52 am (UTC)'gna faròòò maiiiii ^^;;;;;
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Date: 2014-01-25 10:48 am (UTC)