What a remarkable book. This is a book of memory and recollection, of buried truths and enmities. Its narrative is coy and twisting, an enigma to be unravelled that conjures a fairytale-like feel. And it is human as well; always at its heart there lies a very human tragedy. For it is a journey of self-discovery, one that just happens to have dragons and pixies and knights along the way.
When deciphered, The Buried Giant is very simple. But its power lies in its telling and the slow unveiling of things. It concerns an elderly couple who take notice of a forgetfulness plaguing the land. This forgetfulness is tied with the mists which cover the land and affect everyone. The couple, Axl and Beatrice, take it upon themselves to visit their son in a nearby village and, eventually during their journey, see if they can dispel the magical mists. On their journey they come across a Saxon warrior and a rescued boy, an old knight from King Arthur's times, Sir Gawain, and hear tales of a dragon connected to the mist.
For all these fantastical things, the heart of the book remains with Axl and Beatrice's relationship. Their bond ties everything together. The two of them want the mist dispelled so they can remember who they were and the time they spent together. Beatrice is afraid that if they do not remember, they will not be able to answer the boatman's questions when it comes time for their deaths. If they cannot answer his questions and show that their love is a true one, they will not be allowed to live together on the island where the dead go.
Allegory shadows the book, as one could see. The mists are meant to hide the true, savage costs of a united Britain. As the book goes on, the divide between Saxon and Briton is made ever clearer. The true cost of King Arthur's peace, Britain's peace, is exposed, and shown through metaphor. The creatures from legend which exist are twisted and feeble. Sir Gawain and his trusty steed, Horace, are old and withered. That unifying time of legend that forged the British identity is waning here, in both age and memory, and shown to be something come by deceit and trickery. The buried giant is the old enmity between Saxon and Briton that cannot lie dormant forever; the unity of the country cannot be upheld forever, especially not by legend of a time well past.
All of that runs beneath the book and enriches it. At its forefront, its characters are all complex and true. It is from them that spring all the other greater themes of the book, and it is from them that these themes matter. Much of the book focuses on slowly revealing them to us, their pasts more important than the present. Often, each chapter will start with the characters somewhere and then work backwards to show how they arrived at that position. It is rarely a linear experience and its habit of teasing out details and understanding is expertly done. This approach allows for emotions to build and simmer, and allows for them to be expressed at always the right time.
Wistan, the Saxon warrior, Edwin, the boy he rescues, Sir Gawain and Horace, Axl and Beatrice, are all so incredibly well written and true that it is hard to believe The Buried Giant is as short as it is. This lends the book a strong vividness, as images readily spring from its coalescing truth. Ishiguro has a simple sort of prose that digs deep into the soul in an almost oblivious way. His writing seems both nonchalant and beautiful and always very natural. It infuses the book with an overwhelming melancholy but it is never depressing or downtrodden. On the contrary, there is an indelible lightness to The Buried Giant that makes it very addicting to read, no matter how sad it gets.
And it gets sad. Well, perhaps there is an optimistic interpretation of the ending. I choose to believe that the boatman does not lie at the end. Every good relationship requires trust, and Beatrice asks Axl to place his trust in her for this most important moment of their lives, and he does. I choose to believe they are not deceived. Whereas Britain's peace required the amnesiac mists, Beatrice and Axl's relationship hold steady in the present. Whatever enmity may lie between them in the shroud of mists, they have endeavoured to move past, proving their love to be true; perhaps showing that on a small scale there was some wisdom in Arthur's plan. But that is only a hopeful extrapolation. Perhaps the buried giant of their lives is too unforgiving and they, too, are destined for eternal fracture. The book gives no hint as to which is true.
All it yields is raw feeling and the emotion I felt welling up inside at the ending embodies what I thought of the book. It is truly remarkable. It seems like a puzzle to decipher at first, but soon one realises it is more like a flower opening with the dawn. When all the mists have faded, this flower stands beautiful, if a bit sadly, in the sun. I hope never to forget this book.
by SteelPanMan