Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

Judging this book totally by its cover, 

it progressed on to be something beyond my imagination.

What started off as a narrative of a girl in a warped, institutionalized-like boarding school where art was the utmost importance, grew into something much more substantial and out-of-the-world.

Throughout the early part of the book, i kept questioning why art seemed to be the priority in this school known as Hailsham and why subjects like Math and Science were never brought up once. Something else also piqued my curiosity, the fact that Hailsham was very particular about the health of its students. And by particular, i mean, completely and obscenely particular.

It soon became clear, that the reason was because Hailsham was a school that sheltered clones. These clones were meant to grow up and donate their organs for the benefit of humans. 

It took me a while to get the insinuation that they were putting forward, because the characters were shaped with emotions and thoughts and curiosity, something that doesnt go hand-in-hand with our traditional impression of clones.

I wouldnt want to spoil the ending for you (even though this book was not particularly written for its climax or its shocking ending), but I have to tell you that towards its last pages, it made me realize how selfish human beings really are.

Of course, our selfishness is a known fact. But reading this book that is supposedly written from the perspective of a clone, it made me see that us being selfish might have originated from fear. Or possibly from wanting too much of everything.

'Never Let Me Go' was separated into three parts. The first revolved around Hailsham itself and how the main character observed other students as well as the behaviour of the guardians in the school. The second part was when they entered adulthood and went out into the real world before they went on to become donors. The last part focuses mainly on experiences of these clones as they donate their organs compliantly and how their lives progress from then on.

For me, it wasnt really a brilliant masterpiece, though it did provide me more than a few things to ponder on. Try it out! You might discover something new about yourself from this piece of literature. :)

p/s : this book was shortlisted for THE Man BOOKER PRIZE 2005

Prozac Nation - Elizabeth Wurtzel

I started reading this book in the middle of my examination week,

you know, as a getaway from my studying dilemma.

Wrong move.

This book is a memoir, so it lacks the whole uprise-climax-shocking ending graph that are usually seen in fiction works.

Wurtzel basically delves into her depression, all book long.

It is informative as a reference if you are writing a paper on clinical depression and frequently used anti-depressants, but other than that, i think it just makes you more depressed.

She talks about her feelings and how knowing the source of her depression didn't help her find a solution. And that the depression simply gets worse with time. She even felt like turning to suicide just so people will understand how bad her depression is. A cry for help, she said.

I am generally a happy person.

But somehow, each time i close the book, i end up feeling agitated.

I dont know if it's Wurtzel's constant reference of Sylvia Plath and Bruce Springsteen that kept me going, or perhaps it is because i was hoping she would snap out of her depression and ditch her Lithium Prozac Xanax and give me a happy ending i deserve.

Anyway, i finished the book.

And i didnt feel any better.

If anything, it just made me scared to try and read More, Now, Again (also by Wurtzel) because it is also a memoir and the synopsis pretty much told me that it is another Prozac Nation, with a simple alteration of characters and geographical location.

I guess the book will be collecting dust on my bookshelf.

Cuz i sure as hell wont be reading that anytime soon.

But to be fair, it did make me feel so much more grateful for being free from depression. :)

p/s : i also have a personal vendetta against Ms. Wurtzel because she said this :

...with all the troubles in the world, with the terrible things that the Chinese do in Tibet, and do to their own citizens; with the horrors of genocide committed in Darfur by Sudanese Muslims; with all the bad things that Arab governments in the Middle East visit upon their own people — no need for Israel to have a perfectly horrible time — still, the focus is on what the Jews may or may not be doing wrong in Gaza. And it makes people angry and vehement as nothing else does. The vitriol it inspires is downright weird