Kazuo Ishiguro's magical realism and Kafka-esque prose is a brilliant pairing for The Buried Giant's heady themes. Like the specter of a half-forgotten reverie, Ishiguro leads readers on a metaphysical journey to remind us of the importance of memory. At times, Ishiguro's text reads like a Hayao Miyazaki film: at times, The Buried Giant is a breathless, effervescent fairy tale. At others, the novel is as bleak and dark as the epics of Roland and Beowulf. While Ishiguro sometimes sacrifices pace for lyrical description, the novel provides a compelling reinterpretation of modern fantasy.