NEVER LET ME GO (Kazuo Ishiguro) - July 26/10

What an obnoxious, dull book. Ishiguro is a good writer, to be sure, but the man just has no idea how to capture and hold the reader's interest. It doesn't help that the entire book is told as a series of stories and recollections by the main character, which ensures that there's absolutely no momentum or dramatic heft. I can't recall a novel where I was only able to read a few pages before becoming so bored that I had to stop. And then there's the illogical nature of the storyline. So they're all clones; why does it not occur to any of them to try and escape? They all submit so willingly to their own deaths. It's absolutely absurd. Why anyone would praise this book is beyond me. (And instead of becoming more interesting as the end nears, the novel gets more and more dull and episodic. I mean, really, WTF.) * out of ****