Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro Detailed summary

 PART ONE

 

CHAPTER ONE

Never Let Me Go is set in England in the late 1990s. It is narrated by a thirty one-year-old woman named Kathy H. At the outset of the novel, Kathy announces that she has been a ‘‘carer’’ for eleven years, working with ‘‘donors.’’ She does not explain what she means by these terms, but she says that through being a carer she has been able to reconnect with two of her friends, Ruth and Tommy, with whom she went to school. The school was a private school in the English countryside called Hailsham. Kathy’s reminiscences of the time she spent at Hailsham form a substantial part of the novel. In this chapter she recalls some incidents when she was about twelve or thirteen. Tommy was mercilessly teased by the other children. When he was not selected by the other boys to play soccer with them, he would lose his temper. The other students would make fun of him as he expressed his rage.

 

CHAPTER TWO

Kathy looks back at how she took an interest in Tommy over the few weeks following that incident. There were more such kinds of emotional outbursts and incidents involving pranks played upon him. The children think Tommy is lazy and he he fails to contribute anything to the quarterly exhibition and sale in which students trade little items they have made themselves. Kathy relates that she has spoken to Tommy recently about his troubles at the school, and he says it started when Miss Geraldine, one of the ‘‘guardians’’ (the term they use instead of teacher), praised some poor painting he had done, and this aroused the resentment of the other students.

 

Kathy resumes her reminiscence, saying that after a while the teasing of Tommy stopped. He told her it was due to something that Miss Lucy, another guardian, had said to him.

 

CHAPTER THREE

Tommy explains to Kathy what Miss Lucy had said to him. She said it did not matter if he was not creative, and he was not to worry about it or about what others were saying. Miss Lucy told him he was a good student. As she said this, she was shaking with rage and frustrated, but Tommy did not know why she was angry. Tommy is helped by her comments, and his attitude changes, because he knows that what happens with the other students is not his fault. He also tells Kathy that Miss Lucy told him she believed the students should be told more about ‘‘donations,’’ and Kathy seems to understand what is meant by this, but she does not explain it for the reader.

 

Kathy reminisces about a woman known as Madame, who comes to the school several times a year and takes the students’ best artwork. The students think she puts the artwork in what they call the Gallery, but no one knows for sure what happens to it or why Madame takes it. Madame does not talk to the students, and Ruth thinks she is afraid of them.

 One day, a group of students surprises Madame after she has gotten out of her car, and Madame reacts with a suppressed shudder, and the students take this as confirmation that she is afraid of them. Looking back, Kathy says that even at a young age the children must have been aware at some level that they were not like other people, and that others might be afraid of them because of how they were created and what their purpose was.

 

CHAPTER FOUR

Kathy looks back to a time she calls the ‘‘tokens controversy,’’ when the children were about ten. The students thought they should be compensated with tokens when Madame took something of theirs. A boy called Roy J. suggests it to Miss Emily, the head guardian, and eventually the idea is adopted. A girl called Polly T. asks Miss Lucy why Madame takes their work in the first place, but Miss Lucy does not explain.

 

Kathy then reminisces about the Sales, where the children bought with their tokens items such as toys and clothes. The items for sale were delivered in boxes by van every month. Kathy then thinks back to the early days of her friendship with Ruth, which started when they were seven or eight and they ride imaginary horses together.

 

CHAPTER FIVE

Kathy reports that as adults, when she was ‘‘caring’’ for Ruth in Dover, they discussed how Ruth had been the leader of the ‘‘secret guards’’ who protected their favorite guardian, Miss Geraldine. Kathy became one of them. She recalls how they protected Miss Geraldine from what they were convinced was a plot to kidnap her planned by some of the other guardians. Kathy and Ruth have a quarrel, and Kathy is excluded from the secret guard, but she still remains loyal to Ruth.

 

About three years later, Ruth implies that a pencil case she has acquired was given to her by Miss Geraldine. Guardians are not allowed to show favouritism or give gifts.

 

CHAPTER SIX

Troubled by what she has done to damage her friendship with Ruth, Kathy finds a way of making it up to her. Ruth appreciates it and looks for some way of being nice to Kathy in return. The opportunity arises over a cassette tape of songs by a popular singer, Judy Bridgewater. Before Kathy explains what happens, she digresses, commenting on how smoking was forbidden at the school.

Miss Lucy tells them that she once smoked herself, but it was far worse if the children were to smoke than it ever had been for her, although she does not explain why. Going back to the tape, Kathy says that her favorite song had a line, ‘‘Baby, never let me go.’’ She imagines that it refers to a woman who has been told she could not have babies but really wants one and has one anyway.

 

One day, she is dancing to the music in her dorm, holding a pillow to her chest as an imaginary baby. Madame comes by the half-open door and sees her. Madame says nothing but leaves sobbing. A couple of years later, Kathy discusses the incident with Tommy; they both know by then none of the students at Hailsham are able to have children. The tape was lost a short while after the incident with Madame. Ruth takes the trouble to replace it for her with a tape of ballroom dancing music.

 

CHAPTER SEVEN

When Kathy is thirteen, Miss Lucy decides to tell them all the truth. They will not be able to do what they want to do in life. Their futures are all determined. They have been created in order that, when they become adults, they will be required to donate their vital organs for others. The children do not react much; it seems that they already know this in a vague kind of way. They have sex education classes, in which they are told they must avoid disease, but sex will be different for them than for normal people because they are unable to have babies. The children discuss the future ‘‘donations’’ in a light-hearted way; in fact, it becomes a sort of running joke about what awaits them. This changes when they are fifteen; they talk more seriously about it.

 

CHAPTER EIGHT

At age sixteen, the topic of sex often comes up among the students. They receive contradictory messages from the guardians. The guardians tell them that sex is not something to be ashamed of, but at the same time they set rules that make it difficult for the students to engage in it. Kathy thinks there is less sexual activity among the students than many of the students like to think, although she knows Ruth and Tommy have done it. She herself has held back, but she decides she wants to experiment and chooses a boy named Harry C. She starts dropping hints to him that she is interested in him, but then Ruth and Tommy split up, and this puts her in a different position.

 

CHAPTER NINE

After Tommy and Ruth split up, a couple of girls mention to Kathy that they expect her to become a couple with Tommy. This surprises her, but she stops trying to start something with Harry. Then Ruth asks Kathy to help her get back together with Tommy. Kathy agrees. When Kathy talks to Tommy, he tells her about something Miss Lucy has told him. She said she had been wrong to tell him earlier that it did not matter that he was not creative. The art the students produced was important, she says, partly because it is ‘‘evidence.’’ She does not explain what she means but encourages him to work again at his art. Kathy then mentions that Ruth wants them to get back together, but Tommy seems reluctant. The next day the students learn that Miss Lucy has left Hailsham, and Tommy and Ruth get back together.