A review by krismcd59
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

3.0

It’s not a good sign when you find yourself thinking halfway through a novel, “I need to finish it to figure out what the point of all this is.” There is no question that Ishiguro is a master at evoking memory and emotion with minimal but vivid details. In this dreamlike narrative, he’s clearly paying homage to the images and rhythms of medieval epics like Beowulf and Le Morte Arthur. However, this novel is likely to frustrate almost everyone - for lovers of historical fiction, the style is too simple and repetitive. For lovers of fantasy, the otherworldly details are doled out in an annoyingly vague pastiche. For readers who want insights into the human condition, the confusion and paralysis of the characters keeps us at too great a distance to really care what is happening. Ultimately, it’s an allegory, that most misunderstood of medieval genres, and carefully crafted, but Ishiguro seems to be counting on a readership not already familiar with the well-worn path he treads. I appreciate and admire what he is attempting here, but really believe that he doesn’t do anything in this novel that [a:Alan Garner|47991|Alan Garner|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1363273417p2/47991.jpg] has not done many times already, and much more powerfully.