Skip to main content

The Buried Giant


Book Review

Memories play a vital role in human life.  It is also necessary to forget many things because some memories may be a painful burden.  Kazuo Ishiguro’s latest novel, The Buried Giant, is about memories.

Axl and Beatrice, an elderly couple, set out in search of their son.  They don’t remember why their son left them.  In fact, their memories about many things are vague.  It is because of a magic that King Arthur’s beloved magician, Merlin, had performed in order to bring peace among the Britons and the Saxons.

The novel is set in those days when the Romans had left Britannia and the Saxons came in to take their place.  King Arthur is no more but his nephew, Sir Gawain, is alive though very old.  Axl and Beatrice will encounter Sir Gawain on their way.  Two other persons who join them are Wistan and Edwin.  Wistan is a Saxon warrior who hates Britons.  His mission is to kill the dragon Querig who is as wise as she is wicked.  Sir Gawain’s mission is to protect the dragon because it is through her breath that Merlin’s magic continues to work.  The monks in the monastery where Axl and Beatrice take shelter on their way to their son’s village are also defenders of the dragon.  Edwin is a young boy in search of his mother.

The plot brings together more fantasy and myths than history and reality.  Yet it raises penetrating questions about real life.  One of the monks in the monastery asks Beatrice whether she really wants the mist of forgetfulness to clear, the mist that Merlin’s magic has brought about.  “Is it not better some things remain hidden from our minds?”  The monk’s question is the central question of the novel.  Finally, when Wistan succeeds in his mission and the mist clears, Axl wonders: “You and I longed for Querig’s end, thinking only of our own dear memories.  Yet who knows what old hatreds will loosen across the land now?”

Life is never a crystal-clear affair.  There is no pure love.  Our kindness is tinged with suspicion or even cruelty.  There are traces of vengeance in our forgiveness. Justice hardly exists in human affairs.  Even the God of the monks is an unjust god who is ready to forget the foulest sins by drawing a veil of penance over them.  In Wistan’s words, “Your Christian god of mercy gives men licence to pursue their greed, their lust for land and blood, knowing a few prayers and a little penance will bring forgiveness and blessing.”

The monks themselves are a dubious lot.  They are not as kind as they appear.  Sir Gawain explains to Axl and Beatrice that “As men of Christ, it’s beyond them to use a sword or even poison.”  So they use devious methods to kill those whom they consider as enemies. 

Axl and Beatrice, the central characters, are a very loving couple.  They can’t even think of living apart for a moment.  Yet is their love purer than any other human love?  Can they be holier than the monks? 

Querig, the dragon, can be killed.  But what about the giant within us?  That is what the novel explores. 

It is a beautiful narrative that takes over the reader entirely from the beginning.  We immerse ourselves into it.  But every now and then the mythical creatures appear reminding us that we are in a fantasy land.  The novel is a unique experience.  For those who enjoy rare, unique experiences and don’t expect life to be a neat system of rights and wrongs fairly balanced or rewarded, this novel is highly recommended. 




Comments

  1. Thanks for the recommendation. I'd like to ponder over it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. An interesting review of an apparantly interesting book...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you found the review interesting. The books is far more interesting provided, as I have said in the review, you have an inclination toward the out-of-box kind of stuff.

      Delete
  3. I am becoming an ardent admirer of him. I read 'The remains of the day' recently and was blown away by its sheer brilliance. Thank you so much for the recommendation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad to come across a fan of Ishiguro. The fact is this is the first of his that I've read. I would like to try out the others.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why I won’t vote

From Deshabhimani , Malayalam weekly Exactly a month from today is the Parliamentary election in my state of Kerala. This time, I’m not going to vote. Bernard Shaw defined democracy , with his characteristic cynicism, as “ a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve .” We elect our government in a democracy. And the government invariably sucks our blood – whichever the party is. The BJP and the Congress are like Tweedledum and Tweedledee though the former makes all sorts of other claims day in and day out. BJP = Congress + the holy cow. The holy cow has turned out to be quite a vampire and that makes a difference, no doubt. In our Prime Minister’s algebra, it is: (a+b) 2 which should be equal to a 2 and b 2 . There is an extra 2ab which is the holy cow. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm , the animals revolt against the human master and set up their own nationalist republic. Soon politics develops in the republic and some pigs become leaders. The porcine

Prelude to AtoZ

  From Garden of 5 Senses, Delhi [file pic] Hindsight gives an unearthly charm and order to the past. There can be pain too. A lot of things could have been different, much better, if only we possessed the wisdom of our old age back in those days. As a writer put it, Oedipus, Hamlet, Lear and a lot of those guys must have thought, “I wish I had known this some time ago.” Life is a series of errors with intermittent achievements. The only usefulness of the errors may be the lessons they teach us. Probably, that is their purpose too. We are created to err so that we learn, I dare to put it that way. I turn 64 in a month’s time. It’s not inappropriate to look back at some of the people whom life brought into my life so that I would learn certain lessons. No, I don’t mean to say that life has any such purpose or design or anything. Life is absurd. People come into your life as haphazardly as vehicles ply on your road or birds poop on your head. Some of these people change the chemist

How Arvind Kejriwal can save himself

Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have a clear vision. Eliminate all opposition. Decimate them or absorb them. My previous post [link below] showed a few people decimated by them. Today let’s look at the others: those who are saved by joining the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP]. 1. Himanta Biswa Sarma  This guy was in Congress and faced serious charges related to the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam. He also faced corruption charges related to drinking water supply in Guwahati. His house was raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation [CBI]. Then he switched over to BJP and all his crimes just vanished. It’s as simple as taking a dip in the Ganga and all your sins are forgiven. Today he is the chief minister of Assam. Nothing is heard of all the charges that were levelled against him. 2. Amarinder Singh  This former Captain in the Indian Army was a Congressman until Modi’s Enforcement Directorate [ED] started raiding him, his son and his son-in-law. He put an end to all those raid

The Good Old World

Book Review Title: Dukhi Dadiba and irony of fate Author: Dadi Edulji Taraporewala Translators: Aban Mukherji and Tulsi Vatsal Publisher: Ratna Books, Delhi, 2023 Pages: 314 If you want to return to the good old days of the late 19 th century, this is an ideal novel for you. This was published originally in Gujarati in 1913. It appeared as a serial before that from 1898 onwards in a periodical. The conflict between good and evil is the dominant motif though there is romance, betrayal, disappointment, regret, and pretty much of traditional morality. Reading this novel is quite like watching an old Bollywood movie, 1960s style. Ardeshir Bahadurshah, a wealthy Parsi aristocrat in Surat, dies having obligated his son Jehangir to find out his long-lost brother Rustom. Rustom was Bahadurshah’s son in his first marriage. The mother died when the boy was too small and the nurse who looked after the child vanished with it one day. Ratanmai, Bahadurshah’s present wife, takes her

Good Friday and Some Arithmetic

Two and two is not always equal to four, my young friend Tony says. 2 + 2 ≠ 4, he reasserts. Tony doesn’t think linearly though his thinking has the precision of mathematical logic. See these two, Tony offers an illustration, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. Then add another 2 to them, Ambani and Adani. What do you get? I smile in answer. It’s dangerous to answer Tony verbally. Now, Tony continues, let’s take two beggars from the street. And then add you and me, another two, to them. What do you get? Tony goes on with more arithmetic because he thinks I didn’t get it. (Modi + Shah) + (Ambani + Adani) = 4 persons (Beggar 1 + Beggar 2) + (You + I) = 4 persons Is the first 4 equal to the second 4? T oday is Good Friday. Good Fridays are sad because they are about the victory of vicious political power over simple goodness. Just a few days back, on what’s known as Palm Sunday among Christians, Jesus was led like a hero to Jerusalem, a political fulcrum in those days, by a hu