The Buried Giant - Kazuo Ishiguro

The Buried Giant. Where do I begin with this book? It's safe to say that all the books I've reviewed so far I have thoroughly enjoyed, but with this one I'm not wholly convinced. I read Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day a couple of years ago for a university module, and absolutely loved it. As a massive fan of period dramas such as Downton Abbey, I really loved the setting of a grand house in a country estate and the dynamic of Lord Darlington's relationship with the butler Stevens was particularly humorous in the novel.

With this in mind, and very little prior knowledge about The Buried Giant, I expected a somewhat similar style and historical setting, due to Ishiguro's position as an acclaimed literary fiction author. What I didn't expect was a fantasy novel set in the medieval period with the Arthurian chivalric romance genre. The blurb and cover of the novel (I have the Faber & Faber edition, as pictured) give no indication of the novel's genre or of it's central themes, except the quotes that the novel is a 'deeply affecting portrait of marital love' and a 'beautiful, heart-breaking book'. Both of these quotes, I would argue, are fairly misleading when it comes to the contents of the novel. 

The novel begins with the focus on the central characters, Axl and Beatrice, who are an elderly Briton couple living in the aftermath of the death of King Arthur. For a while, the novel focuses on the relationship of the couple and the forgetfulness of the townspeople, who are all seemingly suffering from some sort of amnesia. At this point, the Saxons and Britons are living in harmony and there seems to be something out of sorts going on. Ishiguro explores the idea of collective memory and this concept runs throughout the novel as there is an overall air of confusion and clouded memory for recent events. The couple come to the conclusion that they will embark on a quest in search for their long-lost son, who ran away many years ago, but for what reason they cannot recall. 

It turns out that, writing the novel, Ishiguro observed that the barren landscape of Britain during this time is a somewhat 'blank period of English history', and that no-one really knew 'what the hell was going on', so he decided to fill in the gaps himself, leading to his incorporation of Sir Gawain and the mist-breathing dragon Querig. As it turns out (teeny spoiler alert), the mist breathed by the dragon is what is causing the forgetfulness of the people, and this is why things are unnaturally harmonious between the Britons and Saxons - they have forgotten what they were fighting about. Now, I have studied Arthurian literature in the past, including Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and although I often enjoy the adventure-filled plot lines, I do not find the lengthy prose overly enamouring. Ishiguro's use of modern language in combination with the traditional heroic-quest storyline was much more suitable for bedtime reading. 

Anyway, back to Axl and Beatrice. Yes, they're a 'sweet' old couple... after a while it gets a little irritating that Axl feels the need to call her 'princess' in EVERY SINGLE SENTENCE of dialogue. Even when they're risking their lives in a freezing river and being attacked by swarming pixies, Axl still finds the time to call his wife 'princess', which is just ridiculous. In spite of this quirky character-trait, I finished the novel and found myself feeling absolutely no emotional attachment towards either character. The Remains of the Day manages to create a deep and complex character in Stevens, whom you feel great emotion for throughout the novel, so I was expecting great things in the way of character development in The Buried Giant. Unfortunately this fell short for me, but it may have been Ishiguro's intention to align this with the overall forgetfulness of the novel and therefore create hollow characters who are difficult to attach to. 

In terms of plot development, although the novel followed the quest of both the couple on the journey to find their son; and also Sir Gawain on his quest to slay the dragon (so we are initially led to believe), it was overly lengthy and at times even boring. The dialogue was pretty dull and overly formal, and even at the most climactic moments lacked any real passion at all. Never have I read a novel in which life-threatening situations are tackled with such overt politeness. I won't go too in-depth with the plot outcome and spoil it for anyone who wants to read it, but what I can say is I was not on the edge of my seat.

Finally, the ending. I had been expecting a shocking realisation or tragedy, particularly given the premise that the novel is 'heartbreaking'. In fact, I read in another review that the ending is 'one that will shock you'. This is far from what happened, as I actually turned over the last page to see whether I was really finished - was that really the end? I think Ishiguro intended to leave the ending much to your own speculation, and leave it quite open-ended, so to speak. I suppose there was an indication of what happened to the characters, though it wasn't made explicit. But I certainly found myself extremely underwhelmed, as I'd hoped for a good old sob to be quite honest - after 350 pages of fairly boring journeying, I wanted the end to make up for it. 

It sounds like I am being pretty harsh here, but considering the acclaim for this novel and my prior experience with Ishiguro, I was really anticipating something fantastic. I can see how the novel is in many ways considered a great achievement for Ishiguro, and that the fact that I'm no lover of the Arthurian chivalric romance style may add to my lack of praise for it. But I found myself wanting to really feel something about this book, which I do not. I'm glad that I read it, and if you're a fan of the genre I would encourage you to also, but overall I'm disappointed with its anti-climactic non-ending.