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Within the past week, I made good on eliminating an item from my to-read queue that had been hanging on there for quite a while. The book? Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

I’m going to go on ahead and assume that the book, published about five years ago, will be in a lot of peoples’ hands once the release of its same-named theatrical adaptation draws nearer. For now, Fox Searchlight has September 15th circled.

I was pretty much blown away by Never Let Me Go, Ishiguro’s sixth novel in a professional writing career that dates back all the way to 1982. The author was exemplary at revealing little details along the way – usually satisfying, but never exposing the “big picture (a la Lost) – to keep readers much like myself invested in the story and where it was headed (and maybe more importantly, where it would end).

In an effort to reveal as little as possible – trust me, it’s one of those – Never Let Me Go is a dystopian work mostly set at what can best be described as a boarding school for boys and girls. Largely a book of flashbacks, the novel is a first-person narrative written (or spoken) by a character named Kathy H., a respectable young girl who comes to realize along with her circle of friends that the world she lives in isn’t exactly as it seems.

Again, to not give too much away here, the boarding school is tended to by Guardians, the “students” incessantly make things that they hope will one day be deemed creative enough for the Gallery and, when the female students have sex, they can never, ever have babies.

Even though Never Let Me Go is set in 1990s England, it certainly isn’t the 1990s England we’re used to.

Extremely satisfied with the novel at least, I did a little research on the movie adaptation and have concluded that between success and failure, Never Let Me Go will be a success, both on the creative front and with the people who see it. Here’s why:

It’s short and fairly simple

Perhaps one of my least important points (but at the same time, one of the most practical), Never Let Me Go is a breezy 288 pages. Split into three distinct parts, the book moves along at a brisk pace and can easily be completed in a day or two (if not a single rainy afternoon). This bodes well for the project’s writers and editors, who I’d assume used the delete key significantly less times than the people behind, say, any of the Harry Potter adaptations.

Along these lines, the story is also a simple one, but not in the way you’re probably thinking. What I mean by simple is that Ishiguro’s language is easy to understand, even if the book’s subject matter is strictly for mature audiences and its themes will require some time to digest.

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