Never Let Me Go
In writing To Hover Over Waters, I wanted to craft a realistic fantasy. Magical realism. Life reflected with a hint of strange. Grounded stories that take the readers away from normal, just enough, to get an outside-in perspective. Inspired greatly by works like Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (2005 book and 2010 film). The book and its faithful film adaptation are both underrated.
Kathy H is a “career,” a caretaker of living organ donors. She reflects on her childhood at a secluded boarding school in England, Hailsham. Kathy and her friends, Tommy and Ruth, live by strict rules with little knowledge as to why. Only when a rebellious teacher tells more than she is supposed to do the children begin to understand their situation. The kids are clones made to serve as organ donors. This is the purpose of their entire existence: grow to maturity and then donate until “completion.”
I drew inspiration for my young characters and their mysterious circumstances from Never Let Me Go. It explores how we view the world, where do the rules to live by come from, and when do we begin to question things. The book could be interpreted as a horror in that the reader is more aware of the implications than the children. They passively accept their lives, living like otherwise normal kids within the restraints and on the dreadful path. They focus instead on games. Friends. Crushes. Hobbies. They paint as a part of a “gallery” for the school. Kathy and Tommy begin to like each other. But the more dominant Ruth forces herself between them and takes Tommy for herself.
As teenagers, the three friends move from Hailsham to the cottages. This is their first experience with the world outside of the school. The culture shock is enough to push them to finally reevaluate their fate and begin to look for a way out. They each have their theory as to how they can avoid their fate of completion. Can the donations be deterred or postponed? Could they prove that they are “special” enough to save? Could they find the people they were made to save? There is even a rumor that couples that prove they are in love can avoid the severe donations.
The concept of clones who don’t know they are clones has been played out. But it is almost always for the easy action genre. Michael Bay’s The Island (2005) or that Will Smith movie where he fights his clone. Or that Schwarzenegger movie where he fights his clone. Or that Tom Cruise movie where he fights his clone. Clone fight! What sets Never Let Me Go apart, with just a few others (Most notably. Sam Rockwell’s criminally underrated film Moon (2009)!!) is that it takes it seriously. The science fiction is so subtle. The focus is instead on the very real characters, relationships, and desires. It is a human drama first. This strength is probably also why it is underrated, forgotten, unseen, or unread. It is not a happy book or film. It feels almost too real to be comfortable. But I appreciate when science fiction or fantasy genres can toe the line so well.
Favorite section. Kathy H travels to the countryside and reflects on her troubled life and what she is fighting for. “I come here and imagine that this is the spot where everything I’ve lost since my childhood is washed up...(spoilers redacted)…What I’m not sure about is if our lives have been so different from the lives of the people we save. We all complete. Maybe none of us really understand what we’ve lived through or feel we’ve had enough time.” Not trying to give too much away, but I absolutely loved this line. It emphasized what I am talking about—the thin edge between science-fiction and reality.
