Reviews

Il gigante sepolto by Kazuo Ishiguro

ellen_is_reading's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

nealagrace's review against another edition

4.0

this book was pretty magical. a fable, a romance, a quest for memory. I thought ishiguro’s writing worked so well in this melancholy fantasy. cried hard at the end. even outside of the writing and the characters, what an interesting exploration of trauma and the act of remembering. ishiguro always manages to ask big, terrifying questions, and while not give answers to those questions, he still presents to the reader people and situations and stories with such empathy and humanity, that I’m always left with some confusion but overall a deep appreciation for people and the complexity of life. I don’t know if any of that made sense. I loved the book, that’s the takeaway.

grumpkin's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

mitskacir's review against another edition

3.0

Ishiguro's slow, stream-of-consciousness writing style is perfectly suited to reflective books like Never Let Me Go (one of my favorites) but was rather boring for The Buried Giant, a fantasy story about an elderly couple who live in medieval England. The juxtaposition of Ishiguro's style, where nothing really happens, with an epic quest story, where I expect a lot of things to happen, just left me disappointed - whenever my curiosity was piqued about a new mystery or adventure, I had to await the resolution for ages before getting a lack luster answer. I honestly wished the book was "weirder" or darker, along the lines of Coraline.

hillaryreadseverything's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

neonskylite's review against another edition

mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

Definitely the weakest of Ishiguro's novels which I think the lack of a strong narrator and switching between perspectives is mainly to blame - Ishiguro shines when he is entirely in one character's mind and gets to unwrap the layers. Without it, I feel like I barely even know these characters. Perhaps this is a point about how without memory you cannot cultivate a rich inner mind most Ishiguro protagonists have, like if Axl and Beatrice had to write an essay without knowing any words. I don't think this was the intention though.

Yes I know the boatman is the narrator but he doesn't count except for some authorial intrusions and clearly speaking as narrator only at the final chapter

Only really started enjoying this in Part III - Gawain's First Reverie was literally so beautiful to me despite how dark the subject matter is (which, yet again, I think is because Ishiguro remembers that he's meant to be a first person writer and shows how Gawain is grappling with his sins on a depth that none of the other four in the main party receive) to the point that I looped it to fall asleep to for two nights

aidenalex's review against another edition

3.0

Kazuo I love you but this was not for me.

warmrats's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

sidharthvardhan's review against another edition

4.0

“But then again I wonder if what we feel in our hearts today isn't like these raindrops still falling on us from the soaked leaves above, even though the sky itself long stopped raining. I'm wondering if without our memories, there's nothing for it but for our love to fade and die.”

In as far as the great aim of impressing me is concerned - the one aim that all books should strive for IMO, Ishiguru started with a bad foot - I am not much interested in the fantasy genre, even though I liked watching the game of thrones I can't imagine reading and enjoying the book. Buried giant shares much with the Game of thrones at superficial levels - the ancient Europe setting, the knights, the dragons. There is a lot of violence too but most of that occurs in the background for Buried Giant. Ishiguru's work is of course more of a united entity and with lesser twists and turns made in order to shock, Ishiguru obviously doesn't give cool one-liners to his characters like Martin which is second best thing about Game of Thrones (you will in a moment guess the best thing) ... and unfortunately without any naked ladies whatsoever.

Yet despite its fantasy motifs, its themes are literary - memory and trauma. And here Ishiguru plays those themes at levels of collective unconsciousness, a level in writing about which very few authors impress me. How do we deal with hurts done to us by those we are forced to live with? Must we revenge ourselves but revenge will, in its turn, attract revenge. Or shall we forgive? The question then arises if such forgiveness won't be an injustice to victims. Particularly, when victims still live memories of trauma suffered. So, if we are to avoid violence at all costs, the only way is to forget the traumatic experience itself.

These questions can be raised on a number of socio-political themes. Racism, the slave trade (Wole Soyinka wrote essays on forgetting and forgiveness in those contexts), imperial history, the memory of wars, etc. The hatemongers are able to use those traumatic memories to raise themselves to power. Hitler did that. Likes of Trump and Modi have done so in recent times.

"Who knows what will come when quick-tongued men make ancient grievances rhyme with fresh desire for land and conquest?”

There is also a theme of how forgetting and remembering affect love that I won't talk about. It seems to be an exploration that somehow demands simple characters which can make the book boring at times. Perhaps the only time I could say about Ishiguru, but I would have preferred it to be shorter. Though all his books have a tendency of being elusive with what they explore, I particularly won't recommend this one to be your first Ishiguru.

anaabo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

3.0