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bookappeal 's review for:
The Buried Giant
by Kazuo Ishiguro
With lovely black-gilded pages and spacious font type, this edition of The Buried Giant is a pleasure to hold and the ethereal and dreamy fable ends in a beautiful and stirring exchange between two of the main characters. But the journey through the text is often tedious and confusing. Axl and Beatrice are two elderly Britons with failing memories - not due to age, however. All of the region's inhabitants suffer from the same affliction - an inability to recall the past except in brief, easily forgotten, snatches of vague memory. The couple remembers enough to set off on a journey to see their adult son, though it's unclear if they remember where he lives or even whether they will recognize him. They encounter many strange events along the way and eventually team up with a Saxon warrior, a wounded boy, and an old knight of King Arthur on a mission to end the mist that clouds their recollections.
Ishiguro starts new sections by jumping forward in time, only to reverse and reveal the events leading up to the present - a technique that takes some getting used to. The characters' muddled dialogue never truly becomes comfortable, however. Presumably he reaches his goal but I couldn't help wishing he had written this tale as a novella instead. Recommended only for intrepid readers who enjoy unconventional literary fiction.
Ishiguro starts new sections by jumping forward in time, only to reverse and reveal the events leading up to the present - a technique that takes some getting used to. The characters' muddled dialogue never truly becomes comfortable, however. Presumably he reaches his goal but I couldn't help wishing he had written this tale as a novella instead. Recommended only for intrepid readers who enjoy unconventional literary fiction.