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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
I don't really get Ishiguro - I find him rather gimmicky and intensely, perversely, deliberately dull. This is the same, a sort of parable-cum-quest set in a dreamy post-Arthurian England. The dragons and ogres and such didn't bother me, and the context, Britons about to be completely overrun by Saxons, is potentially very interesting. However most of our characters are old, tired, unclear in their thinking and forgetful and doubly so because of the (ridiculous) mist of forgetting that the She-Dragon has spread over the land, and they ramble on in a stiff and tedious way, with quite a lot of whining, and meet other boring people and cut the heads off things (in, remarkably, a boring way) with none of it being very illuminating.
There are perhaps some sensitive points being made here about loss and memory and moving on, but Ishiguro (not the bounciest of writers in any case) has picked himself a particularly dull path. I'd read that he'd considered Bosnia, America, Japan and France (after WW2) as settings and somehow I think any of those might have been better... but no, he'd slow it down as much there too. There is an undeniable sense of incipient threat and some building tension as the book progresses, and considerable emotion, particularly at the end, but also very dull passages about how if he stood here, then he'd have a good chance of smiting him there, but if he moved a little to left, the other might notice and change the grip on his sword and then would he have time to step forward before the other swiftly closed the gap and...
On balance, it's just too boring. Also I hate the cover.
There are perhaps some sensitive points being made here about loss and memory and moving on, but Ishiguro (not the bounciest of writers in any case) has picked himself a particularly dull path. I'd read that he'd considered Bosnia, America, Japan and France (after WW2) as settings and somehow I think any of those might have been better... but no, he'd slow it down as much there too. There is an undeniable sense of incipient threat and some building tension as the book progresses, and considerable emotion, particularly at the end, but also very dull passages about how if he stood here, then he'd have a good chance of smiting him there, but if he moved a little to left, the other might notice and change the grip on his sword and then would he have time to step forward before the other swiftly closed the gap and...
On balance, it's just too boring. Also I hate the cover.
I struggled so hard with this book. Left it, read something else, came back to it and I still couldn't get into it. I feel like the story only picked up pace well over halfway through. By that point I was only reading as I was determined to finish it.
Some people have said the love of the two central characters Beatrice and Axl has stayed with them long since they read the book. Unfortunately for me, this won't be the case.
Some people have said the love of the two central characters Beatrice and Axl has stayed with them long since they read the book. Unfortunately for me, this won't be the case.
Hmm. Not sure what to say about this book. I realize it was all allegorical, but I guess I'm just not sure what the allegory was? I read somewhere that it might be about the effects of war on people, but... that's literally what it's about, so that would be a really shallow allegory if so. It just all felt so simple. Even the characters were just shells of people being conveyed around a plot with no real purpose. It seemed like the author was trying to make it a fable-esque tale in this way, but it just didn't really work for me I guess. It wasn't bad, just was kind of boring. I did appreciate the Saxon/Briton time period though.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I tried a type of book I normally wouldn't read; I suppose I'm sorry that I did. Try as I might, I was never able to feel anything positive about this book. For a fantasy tale of a great journey, the story went nowhere for me. It could be that I'm just not meant to understand these types of stories. Or maybe it just wasn't good enough.
Disappointing. The themes seemed confused and the ultimate message unclear. In the book's final moments, though some ambiguity is left for the reader, it seems certain that Axl and Beatrice will be parted forever and the boatman was indeed deceiving them . What are we meant to take from that? Their love in fact wasn't strong enough, or was built on a lie? Or that it really is better to forget? The resolution writ large seems similarly to suggest ambiguously that maybe the loss of memories really wasn't such a bad thing.
Beyond that, the pacing was slow, drowned in a torrent of sometimes pleasant-to-read but often superfluous dialogue. The setting, both in its historical and its fantasy elements, was uninteresting and underdeveloped. The cast of characters was limited and not even quite hard to like - hard to care about, maybe. And the threads of mystery, initially intriguing, were uninterestingly tied off with insufficient payoff.
Overall, it had promise, but failed to deliver.
Beyond that, the pacing was slow, drowned in a torrent of sometimes pleasant-to-read but often superfluous dialogue. The setting, both in its historical and its fantasy elements, was uninteresting and underdeveloped. The cast of characters was limited and not even quite hard to like - hard to care about, maybe. And the threads of mystery, initially intriguing, were uninterestingly tied off with insufficient payoff.
Overall, it had promise, but failed to deliver.
really not my favorite. each chapter was a kind of hit-or-miss for me - some vignettes were intimate and gorgeous, and others felt like they were on the verge of something special but never quite got there. axl's characterization didn't quite make sense for me at the very end, also????? and edwin deserved better. it's well written and all that i just can't bring myself to care that much about england.
Beautiful story. It reads like a collection of folktales/fairy tales, a modern novel with the careful craft in character development that _should_ include, poetry, and Arthurian legend. It's about what really makes love tick and what really matters. Is it memory and knowledge about a person and the world around us, or is it more about what one is doing *now*? The story doesn't provide definitive answers, but it makes very clear points about both perspectives and forces the reader to consider the ideas carefully.
More than Ishiguro's other works, The Buried Giant is cerebral while remaining fun. It will stick with me for a long time, maybe forever. I suspect I'll be recommending this book to everyone I recommend books to, eventually.
More than Ishiguro's other works, The Buried Giant is cerebral while remaining fun. It will stick with me for a long time, maybe forever. I suspect I'll be recommending this book to everyone I recommend books to, eventually.
Assuming that the boatman won't ferry Axl, this is a true tragedy. Love and forgiveness do not conquer all? Is it a sin that they are founded on forgetfulness and would not have grown without that?