My Goodreads review: The Buried Giant

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This lyrical, melancholy, & frequently strange novel is set in post-Arthurian Britain, somewhere between historical & magical. The land lies under a strange mist which thwarts long-term memory, though many suspect this has advantages as well as disadvantages.

When an elderly pair of Britons set out from their underground community to find their son in a neighboring town, they find themselves entangled in increasingly mythic situations. Their traveling companions include a Saxon fighter, a young orphan with a mysterious wound, and the nearly ancient Sir Gawain (yes, that Gawain) -- all in search of a she-dragon who may be causing the mist.

This set-up may sound like standard fantasy, but nothing about this journey is straightforward or completely explained. Ishiguro changes viewpoint characters often – though always with proper identification – and the reader is never sure how much of what he/she has just learned is real & how much is false memory. The ending is heartbreaking, though some loose ends remain. Or perhaps it’s only that dragon mist . . .

I was torn between four stars and five for this one, but finally settled on four due to a few too many “what just happened?” or “how does this relate to the overall plot?” moments. I suspect some might be my fault rather than the author’s. I’m an experienced consumer of fantasy fiction, but this tale is definitely on the thin literary edge of that genre.




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