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reginatw 's review for:
The Buried Giant
by Kazuo Ishiguro
It’s hard for me to express how much I loved this book. I have loved the other Ishiguro I’m familiar with- I’ve read The Remains of the Day and seen the film of Never Let Me Go- but also found his work so devastating that I felt I needed to be emotionally prepared to take it in, which I think is why it took me so long to read this one despite being drawn to it since its release. I’m so glad I finally did, because it is one of the strangest and most moving stories I’ve ever read.
The story is set in early medieval England, and in line with what I think many of us envision when we think of that time and place, has no problem blending magic and myth with historical reality. We learn that the great King Arthur is only recently dead, and the impact of his leadership still much in evidence across the land. But all of this is only a backdrop to the lives of a couple, Axl and Beatrice, whom we get to know intimately. The devotion of this elderly couple is so touching and tender that I could not help but be drawn in by it. This couple sets out on a quest to visit their son in another village, braving the dangers of ogres, soldiers, and, most disturbingly, a mist that has settled across the land, causing its inhabitants to forget even their most precious memories, both long-term and recent.
In the telling of this quest, the story has the feel of a myth or a fable itself. The tender love of the couple contrasts sharply with the strange and disconcerting imagery of the land they travel, and they encounter both heroes and monsters of real and potential legend. There is a truly unsettling feel to much of the book, which is close enough to reality to bring you fully inside, yet filled with enough magical uncertainty to be disturbing, and I was constantly fearing for the protagonists.
But like Ishiguro’s other work, or at least what I’m familiar with, this is a story with deep layers. Here, the story of the elderly couple that we know and fear for is layered with the story of a country far from real peace, despite appearances. And the role that memory plays in both.
If you’re like me, and have a lifelong love of Arthurian legend, you might both love this book more and find it more disturbing than other readers. Working with and through the magical and mythical elements, this story gets to the heart of a harder reality that is usually lost in the romanticizing of the legend-
So if you are a lover of all things Arthurian, be prepared to be faced with stunning realizations that will change your perspective and impact your long-held perceptions of the legend. I feel it has done that to me- not for better or for worse, but in a way that will always be with me. This book does what any fable or myth is intended to do- expresses a reality in a way that is far more powerful than unembellished historical fact.
The story is set in early medieval England, and in line with what I think many of us envision when we think of that time and place, has no problem blending magic and myth with historical reality. We learn that the great King Arthur is only recently dead, and the impact of his leadership still much in evidence across the land. But all of this is only a backdrop to the lives of a couple, Axl and Beatrice, whom we get to know intimately. The devotion of this elderly couple is so touching and tender that I could not help but be drawn in by it. This couple sets out on a quest to visit their son in another village, braving the dangers of ogres, soldiers, and, most disturbingly, a mist that has settled across the land, causing its inhabitants to forget even their most precious memories, both long-term and recent.
In the telling of this quest, the story has the feel of a myth or a fable itself. The tender love of the couple contrasts sharply with the strange and disconcerting imagery of the land they travel, and they encounter both heroes and monsters of real and potential legend. There is a truly unsettling feel to much of the book, which is close enough to reality to bring you fully inside, yet filled with enough magical uncertainty to be disturbing, and I was constantly fearing for the protagonists.
But like Ishiguro’s other work, or at least what I’m familiar with, this is a story with deep layers. Here, the story of the elderly couple that we know and fear for is layered with the story of a country far from real peace, despite appearances. And the role that memory plays in both.
If you’re like me, and have a lifelong love of Arthurian legend, you might both love this book more and find it more disturbing than other readers. Working with and through the magical and mythical elements, this story gets to the heart of a harder reality that is usually lost in the romanticizing of the legend-
Spoiler
that Arthur’s mythos is defined by his role as a wartime leader who succeeded in defeating and subjugating one side of the battle, and that the time of Arthur, whether he as a figure is real or purely legendary, was a time of a country torn apart by war. The fact that we, as modern readers, seem to gloss over this fact is evidence that we too are taken in by the “mists” of time that seem to have their own peculiar magic. And what is foreshadowed in the book- that the time of the Celts’ reign in Britain will soon come crashing to an end- perhaps explains why the legend of Arthur is clung to so dearly in Celtic mythology.So if you are a lover of all things Arthurian, be prepared to be faced with stunning realizations that will change your perspective and impact your long-held perceptions of the legend. I feel it has done that to me- not for better or for worse, but in a way that will always be with me. This book does what any fable or myth is intended to do- expresses a reality in a way that is far more powerful than unembellished historical fact.