i bought this book so long ago that i don’t remember when and where (and that doesn’t happen often, mind you). however, it was clearly during my ishiguro-barnes phase that lasted for a while in mid 2010s (beavers, doesn’t that sound like a long time ago).
with this book ishiguro further reaffirms my opinion that he’s of the rare type of writers who write differently in every new book. “the buried giant” is nothing like “never let me go” or “remains of the day” or any other book of his.
this time he seems to try his hand at a fable-tale mixture.there are knights, dragons, mentions of king arthur. signifiers are all present, but the plot breaks out of the mold. the protagonists don’t reach the goal that was posted at the start, the curse is lifted for worse, and the knight ends up defending the dragon.
you might say “oh well, postmodernism again”, and i’d reply “yep, you got in one”. as much as we are tired of it, when done well, postmodernist novel is a delight, and kazuo ishiguro delivers on that front.
this book is three out of five = liked it. if you are not into tales with plot twists, you can safely put “the buried giant” aside. but if you are (or a fan of ishiguro’s), then your time won’t be wasted.
opinions about books 