Book Review: 'The Buried Giant' by Kazuo Ishiguro

Kazuo Ishiguro, Man Booker Prize-winning author of “The Remains of the Day,” makes his first foray into fantasy with his new novel, “The Buried Giant.” Although the world Ishiguro portrays is beset with all manner of creatures, it is his examination of the frailty of human memory that makes this novel so interesting.

Set in England in the years following the brutal war between the Britons and the Saxons, “The Buried Giant” chronicles the adventures of an elderly Briton couple, Axl and Beatrice, as they embark on a journey to reach their son. Given the landscape and the lingering mistrust following the war, the couple anticipates the path to be a challenging one, but the journey very quickly proves itself to be more than Axl and Beatrice imagined. 

As the name of the novel suggests, “The Buried Giant,” takes place in a world inhabited by ogres, dragons, and other fantastical creatures, and very soon after they have left their warren home, Axl and Beatrice come upon a Saxon village whose inhabitants have been attacked by ogres. A small rescue party led by a travelling Saxon warrior is assembled to rescue a young man still held captive by the ogres. 

This Saxon warrior and the rescued boy, who becomes his charge, join Axl and Beatrice on their journey. Farther on, the unlikely band of travelers is also joined by Sir Gawain, King Arthur’s knight and nephew, who years ago was tasked with slaying Querig, the dragon who continues to plague the region.

But the most interesting element of Ishiguro’s novel is the plague of forgetfulness that has spread almost as a disease throughout the land. This forgetfulness, which Axl and Beatrice refer to as “the mist,” has silently and quite thoroughly erased even the most cherished memories of Axl, Beatrice and those around them. 

Having recognized this memory loss in themselves, Axl and Beatrice are motivated to find their son before the memory of him fades entirely. Along the way, they struggle to recover elements of their identity that they have lost, and to find and eliminate the source of “the mist.”      

“The Buried Giant,” being such a departure from Ishiguro’s previous and widely acclaimed works, has met with mixed reviews. But his exploration both of the power of memory and the act of forgetting make this novel a fascinating read, even for those ordinarily disinclined to take a literary walk on the fantastical side.  

“The Buried Giant” is available at Bookstore1Sarasota, 1359 Main St., Sarasota. For more information, call 365-7900.

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