NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

Ishiguro’s beautiful saga is fantastical in this time of King Arthur, but it is also so grounded in the deeply human story of a long-married husband and wife on a quest to reunite with their absent son. As their journey progresses, the reader understands there is an unseen current running through the tale with each page moving us closer to understanding its full, poignant implication.

On the surface, the book is a fantasy story. However, the plot contains serious literary undertones.

This novel is a story that asks whether human beings can overcome painful memory. With the background of the old legend of King Arthur of England, Kazuo Ishiguro expresses the universal life of the people throughout the ages. The ending is open to interpretation, it will differ from person to person. But his message would certainly continue down to the present day.

This spare and haunting novel feels like half dream, half fairy tale. Despite the historic setting in a divided Britain, the story offers a fresh and complex contemplation of war, revenge, loyalty and love.

In this novel an elderly married couple set out on a journey set in sixth century England where the Britons and the Saxons live in relative peace from recent war. All of the characters’ memories have been degraded by a mist that permeates the land. From the beginning of the novel the reader wonders if what is forgotten can be recovered. Romantic memory often has a blissful loss of realistic quality to it, but memories of war usually have the opposite effect. The story takes a dreamlike look at the relationships in marriage and warring cultures, then it makes the reader wonder with what set of agreements do we communicate without memory? I nominated this novel because if uses the advantages and disadvantages of memory to make us consider our struggle with personal and cultural differences.