The dynamics of the relationship between the three of them has always been complicated, she thinks. Starting from their childhood years, when Ruth was sometimes being difficult and Tommy was sometimes having tantrums. As they grew up, Ruth and Tommy became a couple, and Kathy was always there for them in their time of need.

(if you don’t know what the book’s about you might not want to read further as a major spoiler could follow)

Hailsham seems, at first, like a normal school. Sure, the personnel there does not consist of “teachers” but of “guardians”. Sure, the pupils there have very little contact with the outside world. And there is certainly a good deal of importance placed on developing the pupils creativity. Despite it all, the daily life is just as normal as one would think. Children are being taught, they interact with one another in ways more or less mature, they grow up and, once they reach sixteen, they leave. All seems natural enough… but there are also mentions of things that make the reader wonder just how ordinary the school is.

For example, all the students know that they can never have babies of their own. All students know that they must keep as healthy as possible, and smoking is so taboo that even the pages in the books mentioning it are being ripped out. Every now and then there are talks of having to make donations later on. All clues are pointing to one simple truth (unveiled one rainy day by one of the teachers): the students are not ordinary children. They are just clones that have been created in order to “donate” their organs later on.

But this surprise is not, in my eyes, the central point of the story. For me, everything focuses around the fact (easily forgettable by the people of that time, and understandable too under the circumstances) that these clones are people too. Although they have been brought to life with a specific purpose, and their path in life has already been traced for them, they’re just like everyone else: they argue, they fall in love, they enjoy reading books, etc. A truth that’s obvious to the reader, especially given that the story is narrated by “one of them”, but way less so to the society Kathy, Ruth and Tommy live in.

Here is a quote explaining precisely that (and also a quote that makes everything seem very possible, like it could actually happen the very moment the logistics and technology would be available):

Suddenly there were all these new possibilities laid before us, all these ways to cure so many previously incurable conditions. This was what the world noticed the most, wanted the most. And for a long time, people preferred to believe these organs appeared from nowhere, or at most that they grew in a kind of vacuum. Yes, there were arguments. But by the time people became concerned about… about students, by the time they came to consider just how you were reared, whether you should have been brought into existence at all, well by then it was too late. There was no way to reverse the process. How can you ask a world that has come to regard cancer as curable, how can you ask such a world to put away that cure, to go back to the dark days? There was no going back. However uncomfortable people were about your existence, their overwhelming concern was that their own children, their spouses, their parents, their friends, did not die from cancer, motor neurone disease, heart disease. So for a long time you were kept in the shadows, and people did their best not to think about you. And if they did, they tried to convince themselves you weren’t really like us. That you were less than human, so it didn’t matter.

(I know that cloning people is theoretically possible even today, but right now the moral part is prevalent and the process is forbidden in most countries. And yet I can only too easily imagine how the morals would have to take a step back once it may be discovered that this would be the way to cure cancer, for example. Luckily for everyone involved, as far as I know efforts are being made to grow organs in labs, out of stem cells, so theoretically the need for creating a “whole human” would not exist, ever. Only the future will tell, though, if that is the case or not).

Another issue that got me thinking (and as I write this I have yet to decide what my feelings are on the matter) is whether these children-clones should be told or not about what is in store for them. Should things be kept hidden from them, should they think themselves normal and should they be allowed to have plans for the future? Or should all their little ambitions be nipped in the bud, and the harsh reality fully exposed to them? Hailsham’s head guardian has one way of looking at things, Kathy and Tommy have another. And I… I have no idea who to agree with. Or better yet, who not to agree with as I currently tend to think both sides are as correct as possible, given the circumstances.

As a final consideration, the world the author has created is, towards our characters and their peers, harsh and cruel. A world where twenty-something year olds have to die in order for other people to enjoy longer life. Frightening. But also a world where people no longer die from, say, heart disease (one of the leading causes of death these days). Two sides of the same coin, and there cannot be one without the other. I do hope that there won’t ever be such cases in real life, that we will never “create” people like that, and yet I am lured by the benefits too. It all boils down to the person whose shoes I’m putting myself in whenever I try to decide which option is best. Yay for lab-created organs is all I’ll say.

What I liked most: The way the Hailsham students were told about who they are. show spoiler

I found the last few phrases particularly moving too:
show spoiler

What I liked least: Nothing. It was great.

Recommend it to? Anyone. It saddened me while reading (and a bit after), but that is a sign of how good a book it is.


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