altlovesbooks reviewed The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
Review of 'The Buried Giant' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
”What kind of god is it, sir, wishes wrongs to go forgotten and unpunished?”
This is my third Ishiguro novel, with The Remains of the Day being my first and favorite, and Never Let Me Go being my second and incredibly lackluster in my opinion. I went into this not really knowing which of the two polarizing opposites I’d land on, but aside from some really poignant and heartwrenching scenes, this landed squarely in the middle for me. I feel like there’s really two separate ideas going on here, and I felt one of the stories was way more compelling/emotional than the other, which really impacted my overall enjoyment.Spoilers follow.The story starts out focusing on Axl and Beatrice, two elderly Britons living within a community they’ve been a part of for as long as they can remember. Unfortunately, their memories don’t go back all that far for mysterious, unclear (in …
”What kind of god is it, sir, wishes wrongs to go forgotten and unpunished?”
This is my third Ishiguro novel, with The Remains of the Day being my first and favorite, and Never Let Me Go being my second and incredibly lackluster in my opinion. I went into this not really knowing which of the two polarizing opposites I’d land on, but aside from some really poignant and heartwrenching scenes, this landed squarely in the middle for me. I feel like there’s really two separate ideas going on here, and I felt one of the stories was way more compelling/emotional than the other, which really impacted my overall enjoyment.Spoilers follow.The story starts out focusing on Axl and Beatrice, two elderly Britons living within a community they’ve been a part of for as long as they can remember. Unfortunately, their memories don’t go back all that far for mysterious, unclear (in the beginning) reasons. Things that recently happened often go forgotten, and things long in the past may only occasionally be faintly remembered. Despite the persistent memory problems, the two decide that they really need to visit their son in a village several days away, and set out to see him. Along the way they meet up with Edwin, a boy persecuted by his village for superstitious reasons and Wistan, a Saxon warrior who rescues Edwin and takes him under his wing to train him as a warrior. The small group happens along Sir Gawain (King Arthur’s nephew, for those keeping track), on a quest to slay the dragon Querig. Wistan also is there to slay Querig, at the behest of his Saxon king. Querig, as it turns out, is the cause of the widespread memory loss, and Gawain and Wistan find themselves at odds with each other over the slaying of the dragon. The overall feeling of the book was melancholy and kind of dream-like. This wasn’t an easy read by any means, and there’s lots of symbolism, metaphors, and other literary elements to really chew through to get at what the book was trying to convey. I’m not even really sure I understand the significance of some portions, which is fine, I kind of like books that make me think. I will say that I was way more invested in the Axl/Beatrice story, as they struggled with their memory loss, their love for each other, and what is revealed to them about each other as it goes along than I was the Wistan/Gawain story where one wants to slay the dragon and the other wants to protect it. Theirs was a distracting story, and I got bored/impatient with a lot of it. The ending, though, was one heck of a payoff for the journey there. Incredibly emotional.So I guess, 3.5 stars? Maybe? I’ll round it up to 4, just to put it in the middle of my ratings of Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day, but it’s a hard book to get into and not everyone wants that kind of work with their reading. Give it a shot if you’ve read other Ishiguro works, but I’d make it one of your last stops in his catalog.