Why is Kazuo Ishiguro’s writing so incredibly realistic?

            Ishiguro’s writing is strikingly different from that of a typical fiction novel. I think that his writing feels incredibly realistic and is somehow told so that it rings true. While there are a number of devices that help his writing stand apart, from the use of first person to making it relatable to telling the story as a memory; I think the most prominent and poignant aspect of his writing is how artfully he captures the experience of daily living.

            Never Let Me Go is told in first person and from the start draws the reader in by addressing the reader directly and being relatable. The start of the novel Kathy, the narrator, addresses the reader, saying “I can understand how you might get resentful” (2) and going on to say that she is sure you have heard rumors about Hailsham students (2). This is a very powerful move that immediately makes the reading personal. Furthermore, the world she goes on to describe is not that dissimilar from the present-day reader’s. Hailsham is rather like a fancy boarding school and the classes and social groups Kathy describes all seem very relatable. Not only is what Kathy describes important, but how she describes carries its own significance.

            The whole book is relayed as a memory. This makes the somewhat disjointed, rambling style of the book relatable. When one remembers, one does not go in a linear progression but rather is drawn from memory to memory by logic that is entirely beyond chronological order. In telling this book as a recollection, Ishiguro makes the crucial and ingenious distinction between his work and others. Most authors try to tell a story by relaying information in seemingly “real-time” and inevitably fall flat as human experience and process a staggering amount of information and stimuli as new events occur. Yet, by telling the story as a person recalling memories, Ishiguro is able to get away with not revealing every detail of an experience; when someone is telling a story about something that has already happened they have had the time to process the events and select which elements are worth sharing and which elements are trivial background noise. Thus, the story seems exceptionally real as a recollection of the past, a stroke of pure genius on Ishiguro’s part. Yet, it is not only how Kathy is telling the story that makes it realistic but what she recalls.

            The inclusion of those random everyday thoughts and experiences that run only through one’s head and that are not publicly shared makes  Never Let Me Go ring so true. The text is riddled with such experiences, but one towards the end of the novel was particularly striking to me. Kathy sees an old black and white photo of what Tommy’s recovery center’s parking lot used to be, a pool with a diving board, and has a sudden moment of realization that you can still see the metal structure of the diving board (218-219). This event is so specific and gives the writing such a personal and relatable touch, that the work transcends common levels or realistic writing and achieves a much greater integration of the reader into the story.