Ishiguro

I read The Remains of the Day in college, after my roommate got it for me as a gift. Since then, she moved to Kuwait and has picked Ishiguro up again. Consequently, so have I.

Ishiguro is genius at titles: The Remains of the Day, Never Let Me Go, A Pale View of Hills. I'm a sucker for a good title.

A Pale View of Hills is Ishiguro's first novel. Like The Remains of the Day, A Pale View of Hills deals with a society in transition, although this society is Japanese rather than British. The respect for elders characteristic of older Japanese society is eroding during the course of the novel. (Although it's all so tactfully put--none of the characters say what they mean, properly and passive-aggressively skirting around the issues; my directness would really never fit in in that culture.) Set in post-war Nagasaki, the writing is minimalist and indirect (no one could say that it's overwritten!): the narrator, Etsuko, gives insight into her relationship with her two daughters (one born in Japan and the other in England) through her memories of her friend, Sachiko, and Sachiko's daughter, Mariko.

The novel explores motherhood--Etsuko is pregnant in the memories that she recounts. Sachiko is a terrible mother, contributing to the instability of her daughter, which originated in war-time trauma. Motherhood, the novel shows us, depends on a hope in the future--where this hope is lacking, mothers kill their children. But when this hope for the future involves moving to a new culture and leaving Japan, the effect on children is also drastic. The novel also explores the nature of memory itself--memories are not always correct; at times, Etsuko's story blends together with the story Sachiko and Mariko.

Also, Ishiguro doesn't do a half bad job at writing women.


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