Never Let Me Go

After I finished the novel, I Googled the title to see what sort of info I could get on the book. Apparently a movie is being made that is based on the novel, with Keira Knightley as Ruth (I think that's just awesome). I also found a video on Youtube in which Kazuo Ishiguro discusses Never Let Me Go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SmuYqKeTTs

In the video, Ishiguro states "the book is really about how we face that knowledge that our time is limited." Personally, I didn't see "life is short" as a major theme when I read the book but then I thought, what is the theme then? I even felt that the cloning business wasn't such a major theme until later in book and even then, it was only in specific sections (ex. the meeting with Miss Emily and Madame in chapters 21 and 22).

The more I thought about it, I think to me the book was more about figuring out your purpose in life and just trying to find a place where you belong. The "students" had their life purposes set out for them and it was very clear to them where they belonged in the beginning. I think with the main characters, they might have started out thinking that they had a different calling in life. Ruth for example, had her dreams of working in an office someday. But in the end, all the characters accept the roles they were made to fulfill.

The one section in the book that strikes me as facing the knowledge that our time is limited is towards the end after Ruth had "completed" and Tommy and Kathy were together. Kathy says that her and Tommy would silently think how their relationship had started later than they would have wanted, but tried to ignore that nagging idea.