The mist’s in-universe explanation is a clever twist on the nature and abilities of mythological creatures. Not only are Axl and Beatrice mutable characters, but the third-person narrative is themselves unreliable to an extent, and that makes for interesting storytelling. Ishiguro exploits it effectively to manipulate both the pace and substance of the narrative. I like the over-arching mystery of the memory mist. Axl and Beatrice are such unassuming characters you’d be forgiven for your mind wandering to whether or not you remembered to put the trash cans out or turn off that light switch before you left for work. Ishiguro’s post-Arthurian quest epic distilled into a story about an old married couple trying to get to the next village is simultaneously a brilliant novel and also a little bit boring. I could see a good story in there and appreciate the quality of the writing, but stylistically it didn’t dovetail with my preferences. Nevertheless, I’m ambivalent about this one, guys.Ītwood is an appropriate comparison, because I’m reminded of some of my earlier attempts to read her novels, such as The Blind Assassin. He doesn’t write in one particular genre, setting, or form. I’m not going to compare this book to Ishiguro’s other novels, because part of his style is that each novel is a very separate entity.

It’s true that Ishiguro, much like Margaret Atwood, has a certain literary cachet that allows his books to escape genre ghettoing- Never Let Me Go is science fiction like it or not, not that I’m going to spoil it for you if you haven’t read it and therefore don’t know why it’s SF-and The Buried Giant is fantasy.

Back when this came I know there was a lot of hullabaloo about whether or not it was fantasy, and whether or not Kazuo Ishiguro wanted it to be seen as fantasy or liked fantasy or whatever.

The buried giant review