I don't want to figure it out--yet

Knowing what's going to happen in a book, movie, or tv show is a fine, acquired art. I've been able to perfect that art over the years, and now reading or watching anything is a constant race with myself to know what's going to happen before I'm supposed to find out (thank you, years of Agatha Christie books).

Some of my favorite books and movies are the ones that I didn't figure out until everyone else did. Sure, like you figured out the whole Maximilian/Rebecca plot twist. And that seriously amazing scene in that movie where suddenly every single piece of everything makes sense (and if you think I just referenced Memento, I'm feeling unspeakable pain for you--I really hate that movie.)

Recently, the figuring stuff out has become a little boring. When you read classics, you already know the ending simply because you've had to have basic knowledge of the book previously. Movies clearly have been unable to come up with anything slightly convincing in the past few years. And you can barely get on any entertainment website without finding out what happened in your favorite TV show before you get a chance to watch it.

I finished Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go about two weeks ago. I had wanted to read it,especially before the movie came out--I can't abide movie book covers. The book was voted as best novel of 2005 by National Book Critic Circles Award and named as one of the top 10 books of the decade by TIME magazine.

I made it a point not to research anything about the book--I didn't want any hints about what was going to happen. I had three sentences to go on: 1. Children at a boarding school, and all is not what it seems. 2. By the guy who wrote The Remains of the Day. 3. It is slightly creepy and powerful with a twist ending.

Now, after reading the first sentence, you'd better have a pretty good idea about what is going on, or I've lost all my faith in your premonitions.

I settled down with the book and enjoyed it. My pre-book-reading premonitions were not exactly correct, but I quickly corrected them (we're talking 3rd chapter here), and had the twist safely figured out a few chapters later. Admittedly, my entire theory could have failed because I was building it off one sentence, but I had such comfort in the knowledge Ishiguro had of this world that I knew I could trust him to make that sentence be as important as it should be. He proved me right.

It was not my favorite book, by any means. I'm not even sure I'll read it again, but I did enjoy the chase. I enjoyed feeling like this book had fooled plenty of people before me, but it wasn't going to fool me. I felt as if I was a little kid again, reading a mystery novel while tucked under the covers, grasping to every word, eager to discover the motive, the weapon, and the killer, and the wonderful feeling when you discover you're right.

Besides all that--it was a pretty good book.

Note: if you are interested in reading the book, I do recommend the not-researching any part of it before you read. After I read it, I checked google, wikipedia, and amazon. Any self-respecting reader could piece the whole story together by just those tidbits that everyone else let creep out. But wouldn't you like to see if you could figure out what happened using only the author's words which are, I promise you, far more enjoyable then some book review on amazon. At least he has style--and prose.