Cassie McCullough

Well, the thing that I find is just this extraordinary ability to kind of use these microcosmic views to explore the massive questions.

And I think all of his books from the very beginning have essentially

been asking the same question in one way or another, which is what makes for a purposeful, a meaningful life?

How do we live a life that we can look back on and find meaning in, particularly when any number of structural obstacles are in the way, like how do we still make meaning of our lives when the world throws essentially meaninglessness at us?

And it's interesting to hear Rebecca talking about the two world worldview, because I think about something like an artist of the floating world, which is about an aging artist kind of reckoning with having pinned his life to an ideal that turned out to be wrong and reckoning with Japan's role.

in the war and his his own role in japan's war effort that kind of continues again in something like remains of the day where where stevens who is the butler the narrator who has dedicated himself entirely to duty and this this idea of dignity and you know being able to live a dignified life and a life where you know you as a small person have to make whatever contribution you can to the bigger picture even if that means being you know at the service of or enabling

the more important person to do what they need to do.

And yeah, I just think with Remains of the Day, you know, he comes to exactly that same question, like towards the end and where he kind of looks back and he says, you know, oh, well, it's important not to regret because I need to find meaning in what I've done.

So I think, you know, he continually comes to this question and, you know, again, in Never Let Me Go, this idea that these kids who are clones, who are there just to essentially supply

organs to the people of whom they are clones still have to have a meaningful life.

So it's just that question.

He just does it in such a beautiful way, such a thoughtful way.

And he comes at it from so many different angles, so many different genres.

It's just quite an incredible intellectual endeavor that

done in the most beautiful prose.

I mean, to read him is just, it's like looking at a stunning piece of art.

You're just, you know, your jaws on the floor at how beautifully it's done.

But conceptually as well, it's so complex and so brilliantly rendered, but also so accessible.

And so, you know, for those reasons, I just think he's almost without equal in at least the English writing world.

He also loves a good cliffhanger at the end of a chapter.