Ever since I first saw the film of Never Let Me Go a couple of months ago, I've been telling people how I've learnt so much more about my own novel. Friends think I'm being modest, or they think it weird, but actually it makes a lot of sense. When I was writing the novel, there was only me. I had to do everything myself: all the voices and thoughts for all those characters, set the scenes, fix the sunsets, etc. It's a lot for one person to manage. When you're lucky enough to have a good film made of your novel -- and Never Let Me Go is, believe me, a heartbreakingly good film indeed -- you get wonderfully talented individuals each focusing on their special area. These superb actors, for instance, have in every case brought something deeper, something I hadn't previously suspected, to their characters. It's been a fantastic journey for me -- and an educative one.
Mr. Ishiguro, your novel is powerfully heartbreaking; and I only hope that the release of the film drives even more readers to the source novel, which disturbs one for much longer than the span of reading the novel (certainly more than the span of a film). Thanks so much for the experience of this book...
Rather than read a novel himself, he's assign it to maybe a dozen staff members, who would then, one by one, tell him the story and their impressions of it and the characters. Of course, each staffer came with a slightly different take, and by the time he'd heard from each of them, he had a broader understanding of the work than any one of them, without ever having read a single word of it.
So lovely to read this post. Your novel was wonderful... thank you so very much for giving us that haunting story and for creating those characters. I have been eagerly awaiting the film release, and am so glad to hear that even the author was able to connect to his source material in new ways. I am hoping for the same experience.