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This book is definitely a fascinating page-turner despite its slow pace. The author is an expert in managing the details of the Hailsham world, and it's his collections of digressions that sets up the rules of a dystopic England. Although not exactly a new device, I certainly took the bait and finished it in two days. Having only read Haruki Murakami in terms of Japanese authors, I can only compare Ishiguro's writing with his. I think there are definitely elements of "Japanese-ness" to Ishiguro's literary style that can be perceived as cold and unemotional at first. It's part of the Japanese culture to be unerringly polite, follow social norms and not display violent emotions. On some level it supports a more harmonious society when people take care not to trouble others with their emotions, but it also explains why Kathy and Tommy did not fight against the big bad system. They're not blockbuster film heroes or revolutionaries. Most people aren't. I think there's a very bleak sense of reality because they don't explicitly express their sorrows internally or externally. Sometimes the world is that unfeeling, where bad things happen and no one cares, and one, moves, on. No drama, no outbursts.

Of course the book also has its flaws. The digression "hooks" get really annoying about halfway through the book. The characters aren't fully fleshed-out in a lot of parts. It seems that they are playing the part of being in society, and that their sense of alienation is what makes them shells of human beings. Maybe that's what they lacked in their humanity.