One thing that struck me as I was reading Remainder and thinking back to Never Let Me Go is the concept of memory and collecting in each of these novels.
Kathy only mentions the collections the Hailsham kids a few times, and references how few of them kept them once they left Hailsham, and even more so how little purpose they served in the world outside of it. It's almost as if the Hailsham children didn't have use for memory, that their lives are only moving in one future direction, and mementos only serve as painful reminders of what they no longer have access to.
The concept is flipped in Remainder. The narrator uses his wealth to recreate and build back his memories, in doing so collecting people and things in order to rebuild his life.It also comes off as a very selfish desire, though somewhat understandable.
This makes me wonder then, what about memory is so important, and how different situations cast different lights on memory and its usefulness.
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