Ishiguro’s work might first be understood in the context of his other novels, including his most notable,
The Remains of the Day. In that book, a narrating protagonist, a butler named Stevens, describes his life after the death of his master. Ishiguro demonstrates throughout an ability to channel the voice of this butler—a man who does not seem to comprehend his friend Miss Kenton’s affection for him—and by the end of the work, the reader has gained a sharper understanding of that character’s emotional state.
Never Let Me Go operates similarly, on a technical level, as Kathy H. reveals to the reader the facts of “clone life” in England, and the harsh reality of her predetermined fate.
Never Let Me Go also contains elements recognizable to readers of 20th-century fiction, especially novels of “dystopias,” or future environments characterized by brutal political realities. In this way,
Never Let Me Go shares the “novelistic DNA” of such works as George Orwell’s
1984 and Aldous Huxley’s
A Brave New World, both of which deal with the difficulties of life under repressive, all-knowing regimes, capable of determining the small details of humans’ lives. The notion of specially-reared children in a controlled environment also echoes Lois Lowry’s
The Giver, a 1993 young-adult novel about a boy who “receives” and retains the “memories” that have been sapped from large portions of society. Though Ishiguro's novel is notable within the dystopian genre in that his oppressed characters never seek, or even consider, rebelling against the status quo.