I feel like Sherlock Holmes, but apparently he has been banned for smoking?

The reason I feel like Sherlock Holmes is because the novel, Never Let Me Go, reads like a mystery might. As I read I follow Kath's flashbacks, trying to pay attention to each detail so that I might discover the answers to the mystery before the author, Kazuo Ishiguro, expects me to. While I read the first seven chapters of the novel, I paid close attention to character.

The novel is narrated in first person and so far consists mostly of flashbacks. As I read I see the world through the eyes of Kath, the main character. There are two main ways that she characterizes the people around her, the personalities of her friends are revealed slowly as she describes her childhood. The actions and dialog that Kath describes reveal her friends' personalities. For example, she describes the temper of one of her best friends, Tommy, "Tommy burst into thunderous bellowing, and the boys, now laughing openly, started to run off. Tommy took a few strides after them-it was hard to say whether his instinct was to give angry chase or if he was panicked at being left behind"(8). The descriptive language allows me to clearly imagine the scene, and empathize with Tommy. The fact that Kath is not, in fact, omniscient lets me pay attention to later details and determine for myself that Tommy probably wasn't intending to chase the boys and that he was afraid of being left alone. Tommy is a sweet boy, who isn't always socially sure of himself.

Tommy's character also shows how observant and caring Kath is as a character. She watches him and understands his struggles with fitting in and being creative.  She doesn't tease him like the other children do and feels bad for him because she understands how he feels. Kath even comforts him during his tantrum, starting to "drift over towards him, even when (she) heard Ruth's urgent whisper to (her) to come back"(9). This shows the reader how observant and kind Kath is, she seems to be more mature than her classmates, although perhaps this is simply because the novel is told from her point of view.

Details about Ruth, another of Kath's best friends, are revealed in a similar manner. Because of Kath's questionable memory, its mentioned at least every other page how hazy her memories are, while I'm reading I feel like I have to watch closely for each and every detail Kath lets slip. This is part of the charm of Never Let Me Go. So far I have decerned that Ruth is the chief of the group. She leads their imaginative adventures, and she enjoys determining who is 'in' and who isn't.

While it is easy to see how Ruth is rather rough, bossy and, if I'm honest, a bit of a bully, Kath also reveals Ruth's softer, more loyal side as she describes how Ruth tried to help her after she'd lost her favorite tape. Ruth says, "'Kath, it's not your one. The one you lost. I tried to find it for you, but it's really gone.' I saw how, to Ruth, this tape might easily make up for the one I'd lost. We didn't do things like hug each other much at Hailsham. But I squeezed one of her hands in both of mine"(68). This passage demonstrates how Ruth wanted to make her friend happy and help Kath at her own expense. This scene also reveals how carefully Kath reveals details about Hailsham, her home, where you don't hug people. The details are thrown in casually, like the details about her friends, they are never introduced formally or made to look important, just mentioned in Kath's narrative as she recounts her childhood directly to the reader.

However, this type of casual description isn't used for all the characters. Adults are characterized differently than Kath's friends. Each time that a new guardian is introduced there is very straightforward characterization, like when Kath describes Miss Geraldine. "Miss Geraldine was everyone's favorite guardian when we were that age. She was gentle, soft-spoken, and always comforted you when you needed it, even when you'd done something bad"(18).  Here it is clear exactly who the character is and how they act. Another important guardian is Miss Lucy, who is introduced and described as being 'the most sporting of the guardians' though she doesn't look it. Miss Lucy helps Tommy as he struggles with his creativity, and from Kath's hints, it appears that Miss Lucy is close to losing her cool and revealing some big secrets.

The straightforward description of the guardians adds to the informal feel of the book, Kath assumes the reader is more familiar with her friends and doesn't bother describing them because they appear naturally in her memory and she is more familiar with them. But Kath feels the need to describe the guardians because they are a part of her past, and authority figures. Of course, this is just my opinion because it is still unclear where the novel is heading, but I am doing my best to take note of the foreshadowing and take guesses as to what sort of dystopian society will soon be revealed.