The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro - A Review

 

Kazuo Ishiguro's 2015 novel takes place in a Britain of the sixth or seventh century, a Britain in which Britons and Saxons live uneasily together in a post-war land.

At the heart of the novel are the characters of Axl and Beatrice, an elderly Briton couple. As with all the characters in this novel, they suffer from the effects of a mist that hangs over the land, a mist that leaves everyone with only short term memory. Ishiguro uses this mist as a device to explore how people living in a land troubled by war can cope with traumatic events through forgetting. This lack of memories means that these two characters have forgotten much of their own personal history too. For, aside from those explorations of collective memory and collective trauma, at the core of this book is an exploration of marital bonds and love.

There is much that could be discussed when taking into consideration The Buried Giant, for this story is an allegory, and references to myth (King Arthur, Sir Gawain, boatmen transporting the dead) and fantasy (dragons, pixies, magic) abound in its telling. Themes of memory loss, trauma, marital love, and war are taken in through this myth and fantasy, requiring the reader to be engaged in the world of Axl and Beatrice. This isn't a mistake; Ishiguro intentionally created a world that would be unfamiliar to the reader, so that they might be drawn into the allegory, and not take the telling quite so literally.

I haven't all of Ishiguro's works on my shelves but even just a cursory look through a list of his novels will tell you that he explores different genres. The last Ishiguro novel I read was The Remains of the Day (my blog post about that novel can be read here), and I loved that book, so I came to The Buried Giant with some expectation of what the book might be. However, the two books are entirely different. The genre, the way in which the story is told, the type of story that it is . . . But, that is not the fault of Ishiguro. I know he isn't an author to get comfortable in a formula and stick with it.

I will be coming back to The Buried Giant. I think that when I reread this novel I will find things in there that I didn't notice the first time around.

At the end of the book, I was most affected by how Ishiguro handled the theme of marital love and the bond between his two main characters. He takes in the light and the dark of married life and love. The characters, in their quest to free the land of the mist that leaves them without memories of their lives together - accept for foggy patches of recollection - they sometimes have their doubts about what they do and what they don't want to remember. However, ultimately, the pains in their life together do not damage their bond. Nor the challenges they face, and the troubled land they live in.

There are other themes in this novel - grief; death; and how people navigate trauma in their lives, both as individuals, and collectively. And, Kazuo Ishiguro, in this allegory that takes us into his fictional fantasy Britain of the sixth or seventh century, handles them with skill and subtlety. I don't think I appreciated it fully the first time around, but it's a book that I will be returning to.

So, if you haven't read The Buried Giant, I would say it is worth following Axl and Beatrice as they set off on their journey across this land of mist and lost memories that you will find in this book. They journey, seeking a son that they haven't seen for years, and corners of their love that had been forgotten are revealed to them.

I sometimes fear that my posts are a little rambling as I explore themes, plots, and characters in some of the novels that I have read. However, I hope that you found something informative or enjoyable in this post. If you did, perhaps you might consider buying me a coffee (it goes great with books) at my ko-fi page.

Until next time (when I think I will be discussing a bawdy Shakespeare sonnet), take care, read lots, and be kind.

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

 When I finished reading The Remains of the Day, it became for me one of those books that I felt a need to share. If I didn't have a blog before, a place to wax lyrical about all things bookish, then this novel by Kazuo Ishiguro might have been one of those works that inspired me to start one.

If you haven't read this book then, before you read further, I suggest that you do, or beware, spoilers may follow!

The protagonist of The Remains of the Day is Stevens, the ageing butler of Darlington Hall, and at the beginning of the novel we meet him as he is preparing for a leisurely motoring holiday that will take him deep into the English countryside. The purpose, we come to learn, is so that he might meet with Miss Kenton (or Mrs Benn, as she then is), a former housekeeper of Darlington Hall. And so, in the summer of 1956, we join Stevens on his journey where, through his meetings with people along the way and his reminiscences, the story is told.

Stevens is a hard man to know. He has spent his life in service and his position as head butler at Darlington Hall is of great importance to him. However, in striving to gain the dignity and propriety of his position, he has become distanced from his own feelings. We see this in a number of instances throughout the novel where he tells us, as he narrates the story, of his feelings for certain situations, but his actions do not demonstrate this. He struggles when trying to decipher people's motivations and emotions. When his new employer demonstrates an liking for banter, he is unsure of how to engage - this is a theme that arises throughout the novel.

Stevens is a character that I love - beautifully drawn, a little heartbreaking, and memorable. He is flawed but not cruel, and his worst faults ultimately hurt him the most.

He is sheltered and a little blinkered because of his devotion to propriety and his profession. From the beginning of his journey he tells us of how little he knows of the world, that he hasn't seen much of the country beyond what his duties as butler have allowed him to see. And, as we make our way through the novel with him, we learn that he is mostly unaware of the affairs of the world. However, we also see that there is some appreciation for beauty there, some hope, and some desire for connection.

As he makes his way through the English countryside, Stevens often demonstrates that he has an appreciation for beauty - at one point driving out of his way just see a beauty spot recommended to him. We also see him appreciative of connection and friendship, though often more so than he allows to be known to anyone. Basically, we see that Stevens is someone, however subdued he may seem emotionally, is a man with heart.

At the end of the novel, we see Stevens' heart break. In fact, by the end of the novel, he tells us that this is so. The reader is left wondering about Stevens, about what the future might hold for him . . .

Personally, I think that Stevens would spend the rest of his working days in service, seeing out his life lonely and, now and then reflecting on lost causes and lost love.

The Remains of the Day became an international bestseller and won the Booker Prize, establishing itself as a modern classic. It evokes beautifully and hauntingly life in a grand English house in the years between the two world wars. Ultimately though, it is a story about loss, love, and things left unsaid.

The Remains of the Day was also adapted into award-winning film (1993) starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson which is also definitely worth checking out.

If you've read The Remains of the Day, tell me what you think, and if you haven't read it then I whole heartedly recommend that you do!

You can purchase a copy of this book here (Disclosure: if you make a purchase through links in this blog, I may earn a commission from the seller, but that does not influence the content of this blog).