English language
Published Nov. 14, 2022
In post-Arthurian Britain, the wars that once raged between the Saxons and the Britons have finally ceased. Axl and Beatrice, an elderly British couple, set off to visit their son, whom they haven’t seen in years. And, because a strange mist has caused mass amnesia throughout the land, they can scarcely remember anything about him. As they are joined on their journey by a Saxon warrior, his orphan charge, and an illustrious knight, Axl and Beatrice slowly begin to remember the dark and troubled past they all share.
By turns savage, suspenseful, and intensely moving, The Buried Giant is a luminous meditation on the act of forgetting and the power of memory.
It seems it is a great book, but I simply didn't wasn't compelled to read it. It is definitely well written, with well-developed characters, but nothing really happened much on the first 100 pages. I found myself doing pretty much any other task instead of reading this book, so we definitely didn't click. Maybe it will click with you.
The ending picks up and makes some interesting points but it's a fairly long-winded road to get there. The general theme around memory and forgetting is definitely the best aspect of the book, and it makes me wish that more time had been spent developing all of the other elements to make it a rich, well-rounded read. The characters were all quite bland. I don't feel like I ended up emotionally invested in any of them, and I think a lot of that was due to the dialogue. All of the characters spoke in the exact same way, and it was a bizarrely formal/polite/detached style that made them feel inhuman. The main couple talked a lot about how much they loved each other, but it didn't really come across in the rest of the writing. At first I thought maybe this was part of the magic of the mist, clouding …
The ending picks up and makes some interesting points but it's a fairly long-winded road to get there. The general theme around memory and forgetting is definitely the best aspect of the book, and it makes me wish that more time had been spent developing all of the other elements to make it a rich, well-rounded read. The characters were all quite bland. I don't feel like I ended up emotionally invested in any of them, and I think a lot of that was due to the dialogue. All of the characters spoke in the exact same way, and it was a bizarrely formal/polite/detached style that made them feel inhuman. The main couple talked a lot about how much they loved each other, but it didn't really come across in the rest of the writing. At first I thought maybe this was part of the magic of the mist, clouding their mind and taking away their personality and emotion but it never changes so I guess not. By the end, the world was a bit more filled out but for a lot of the time it was as bland as the people.
I think this could have been a really fantastic short story but, as it is, it's a mostly tedious meander for the first 2/3rds that delivers a good ending. I'm just not sure the ending is good enough to justify the investment.
For the first three quarters, I was floating through. The device of forgotten memories, the mythic image of the boatman, the contention among and around the group, all let me plod along like the lost confused couple at the core of the novel. As my wife kept asking me, "Do you like it," I kept replying, "I don't know. It's interesting. I see what it's doing, but it feels eerie."
And then the end. It feels like a mirror held up to our age—2015 and beyond. There has been a buried giant we have forgotten, and it's not Saxon or Briton, Left or Right, but rather the fact that these are different sides and peace itself isn't the illusion we've created, but the fog we've chosen to not pull back. When it is, against our will, we stand at the precipice of destruction.
And the last chapter ruined me.
This is the second Ishiguro book I've read (the first was Never Let Me Go), and based on these two I need to go get his others and read them sometime soon. The plot isn't much, but the setting, the character, and especially the emotion and tone are something special. I thought about this book often, for several days after finishing it.
