Kazuo Ishiguro (Nagasaki, 8 november 1954)
De Japanse schrijver Kazuo Ishiguro werd op 8 november 1954 geboren in Nagasaki. Zie ook mijn blog van 8 november 2006.
Uit: Never Let Me Go
My name is Kathy H. Im thirty-one years old, and Ive been a carer now for over eleven years. That sounds long enough, I know, but actually they want me to go on for another eight months, until the end of this year. Thatll make it almost exactly twelve years. Now I know my being a carer so long isnt necessarily because they think Im fantastic at what I do. There are some really good carers whove been told to stop after just two or three years. And I can think of one carer at least who went on for all of fourteen years despite being a complete waste of space. So Im not trying to boast. But then I do know for a fact theyve been pleased with my work, and by and large, I have too. My donors have always tended to do much better than expected. Their recovery times have been impressive, and hardly any of them have been classified as "agitated," even before fourth donation. Okay, maybe I am boasting now. But it means a lot to me, being able to do my work well, especially that bit about my donors staying "calm." Ive developed a kind of instinct around donors. I know when to hang around and comfort them, when to leave them to themselves; when to listen to everything they have to say, and when just to shrug and tell them to snap out of it.
Anyway, Im not making any big claims for myself. I know carers, working now, who are just as good and dont get half the credit. If youre one of them, I can understand how you might get resentfulabout my bedsit, my car, above all, the way I get to pick and choose who I look after. And Im a Hailsham studentwhich is enough by itself sometimes to get peoples backs up. Kathy H., they say, she gets to pick and choose, and she always chooses her own kind: people from Hailsham, or one of the other privileged estates. No wonder she has a great record. Ive heard it said enough, so Im sure youve heard it plenty more, and maybe theres something in it. But Im not the first to be allowed to pick and choose, and I doubt if Ill be the last. And anyway, Ive done my share of looking after donors brought up in every kind of place. By the time I finish, remember, Ill have done twelve years of this, and its only for the last six theyve let me choose.
And why shouldnt they? Carers arent machines. You try and do your best for every donor, but in the end, it wears you down. You dont have unlimited patience and energy. So when you get a chance to choose, of course, you choose your own kind. Thats natural. Theres no way I could have gone on for as long as I have if Id stopped feeling for my donors every step of the way. And anyway, if Id never started choosing, how would I ever have got close again to Ruth and Tommy after all those years?
Zie voor onderstaande schrijvers ook mijn blog van 8 november 2006.
De Duitse schrijver Peter Weiss werd geboren op 8 november 1916 in Nowawes (het tegenwoordige Neubabelsberg) bij Berlijn.
De Amerikaanse schrijfster Margaret Mitchell werd geboren op 8 november 1900 in Atlanta, Georgia in de zuidelijke Verenigde Staten.
De Ierse schrijver Bram Stoker werd geboren op 8 november 1847 in Clontarf, een wijk van Dublin in Ierland.
08-11-2007 om 21:23
geschreven door Romenu
|