#the buried giant
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro Review…
I give this 1 out of 5 stars… buckle up
Oh god this book. This painfully quaint and politely awful book. This books is so posh and British, the characters would murder you and then say, “Jolly good chap, sorry old boy. Top of the morning.”
Basic premise: Fantasy version of England is under fog of memory loss and no one can remember past a few hours. the protagonists Beatrice and Axl are the old couple who leave their valley to find their son who left them many years ago. The reader is reminded MANY times that their son is waiting for them and they must go to him. Every new person they meet along the way, they have to tell they are going to their son who is waiting for them.
Stuff happens and they end up traveling with a stereotypical, perfect hero named Winston, and a boy named Edwin whose only characteristic is he hears the voice of his mother who abandoned him and that he’ll be a warrior one day.
King Arthur exists in this world but he is dead and one of his knights is still charged with slaying the dragon. That’s about all there is to this story.
My Thoughts:
The story wasn’t awful or poorly done. It would be a good simple story for people who are new to fantasy or who don’t like high fantasy.
I didn’t enjoy the lack of interesting mystery or original storytelling. I didn’t connect with any of the characters and I couldn’t relate to the story or characters.
This story had zero tension or excitement but I was so on edge and stressed reading this because I was convinced that there was going to be a massive twist that ripped this quaint little story apart… but it never came. it ended exactly how I anticipated with no suprises. The dragon was slain by the hero, the couple survived and were on their way to their sons grave… btw yeah he’s dead and this was revealed in the most boring bit of dialogue.
The characters could’ve compensated for the lack of an interesting story but they remained flat, dull and predictable. You will find no gray morality much less any evil or twisted characters. It’s just lovely, perfumed, unyielding, POLITENESS. I never thought I could hate a wholesome and cute old couple but I just couldn’t deal with the fact that these characters were so unnervingly nice it was creepy…
I could go on nitpicking and I know this sounds like I hate nice stories but I was so bored and was waiting for a twist, I finished this story out of spite.
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“Resulta raro el modo en que todo el mundo olvida a las personas y las cosas de ayer mismo y del día anterior a ése. Como si una enfermedad se cerniera sobre nosotros”.
Libro: The Buried giant-Kazuo Ishiguro
Join Kazuo Ishiguro on his U.S. tour for the release of The Buried Giant. He’ll visit 13 cities over 2 weeks. Click here for the details.
Sixth & I and politicsprose are lucky to host the DC stop on the Man Booker Prize-winning author’s 13-city book tour. Grab your tickets to see Kazuo Ishiguro on Sunday, March 22 at 5:00 pm here.
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