A review by disqmonde
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

reflective relaxing sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book is about a pair of characters on a walking journey, which feels like it passes in real time. This book is slow and relaxed, but moves steadily forward as our main characters wander through it, always keeping just enough going on in the plot to interest you in the story and keeping enough hidden behind the mists to make you want to see more. In and of itself, the characters are simple and the story is inconclusive, straddling genre conventions and never feeling quite right as a fantasy or a history. However, the book reads well in the context of modern politics. In between dreamlike passages and Arthurian characters, The Buried Giant asks questions about memory, peace, and responsibility that are never quite answered well enough to satisfy and linger on after the book is finished. This reads more like a fairy tale than a novel; don't come here looking for thrills. 

Recommended for literary fiction readers or those who enjoy melancholy.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings