The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

According to the author’s bio in The Buried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro is the author of six novels, including Never Let Me Go and Remains of the Day, which won the Booker Prize and was adapted into an award-winning film.  Ishiguro’s work has been translated into forty languages.  In 1995, he received an Order of the British Empire for service to literature, and in 1998 was named a Chevalier [of the Order of Arts and Letters] by the French government.  All his novels have a serene and ethereal feel to them.  His latest novel, The Buried Giant, has these qualities, while conveying the atmosphere and setting of the middle ages.

Axl and Beatrice have lived a long life together.  Their village consisted of a series of chambers making up a warren.  Their chamber sat close to the opening, as if near death, they could easily leave, and a slightly younger couple could move into that living space.  One day, he rises early.  Ishiguro writes, “…on this particular morning, Axl had abandoned his bed altogether and slipped quietly outside to sit on the old warped bench beside the entrance to the warren in wait for the first signs of daylight.  It was spring, but the air still felt bitter, even with Beatrice’s cloak, which he had taken on his way out and wrapped around himself.  Yet, he had become so absorbed in his thoughts that by the time he realized how cold he was, the stars had all but gone, a glow was spreading on the horizon, and the first notes of birdsong were emerging in the dimness. // He rose slowly to his feet, regretting having stayed out so long.  He was in good health, but it had taken a while to shake off his last fever and he did not want it to return.  Now he could feel the damp in his legs, but as he turned to go back inside, he was well satisfied: for he had this morning succeeded in remembering a number of things that had eluded him for some time” (5).

Axl does not suffer from dementia, nor from Alzheimer’s.  His land is poisoned by the breath of a dragon which robs the inhabitants of their memory.  Ishiguro writes, “…in this community the past was rarely discussed. […] it had somehow faded into a mist as dense as that which hung over the marshes” (7).  I sense a great allegory in this tale, but only a second reading -- with that in mind -- will reveal the underlying truth of this story.

Ishiguro has written a tale part errant knights of the round table, part Beowulf, and part Lord of the Rings, and all adventure.  Axl and Beatrice are deeply in love, and they have suddenly recalled their long lost son who moved to another village.  They decide to go in search of him, so they can spend their final days with him.

I have read three of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels, and I found all absorbing, stimulating, and thought-provoking.  I am positive The Buried Giant will not be my last novel by this talented and entertaining author.  5 stars

--Chiron, 6/19/15

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

 My wife started out her career as a children’s librarian in a small school in North Carolina.  She went onto graduate school and currently works for the Baylor University Library.  She has never forgotten her kiddie lit roots, so we have a lot of children and young adult fiction in our collection.  She frequently urges me to read this or that Newberry Award winner, and I have enjoyed everyone I read.  Madeleine L’Engle recently came up in a conversation, and we were both surprised I had never read it.  After the intense historical novel by Hilary Mantel I had recently finished, I needed something to sooth my psyche.  A Wrinkle in Time is exactly what the librarian ordered.  I noted from the cover of my copy, that this interesting tale recently celebrated its silver anniversary.

Madeliene L’Engle was born November 29, 1918.  Like Meg, she was not a good student preferring to read and write her stories.  When she was 12, her mother sent her to a Swiss Boarding school.  She returned to Charleston, SC for high school.  Madeleine flourished there, and ended up at Smith College, where she read the classics and continued to write.  Several of her English professors had a profound influence on her writing.  When she graduated, she moved to Greenwich Village in New York, and worked in the theater.  Her first two novels were published during this time.  Madeleine began an association with the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, where she was the librarian and maintained an office for more than thirty years. She wrote over 60 books. She died in 2007.

Madeleine L'Engle

Meg and her brother Charles Wallace are bright children, but Meg seems bored, and Charles Wallace hides his intellect to prevent teasing by his classmates.  A mysterious visitor – Mrs. Whatsit – comes for a visit, and she entices Meg and her brother to go on a dangerous journey to find their father who suddenly disappeared.  Mrs. Murry, Meg and Charles’s mother is a scientist like Mr. Murry.  Mrs. Whatsit has two friends – Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which.  They have strange powers and abilities and help to guide the children to their father’s location, so they can attempt to rescue him.  A friend of Meg’s, Calvin O’Keefe, also accompanies Meg and Charles Wallace on the journey.  I guess even characters in young adult fiction need a love interest, like Katniss in Hunger Games and Harry in The Sorcerer’s Stone and its sequels.

While not nearly as exciting and detailed as The Hunger Games and the Harry Potter Series, the tale has more than enough wonderful ideas to hold the attention of an adult reader.  Science, religion, and literature are all woven into the tale.  For example, L’Engle writes, “‘You mean you’re comparing our lives to a sonnet?  A strict form, but freedom within it?’  ‘Yes.’ Mrs. Whatsit said.  ‘You’re given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself.  What you say is completely up to you.’” (219).

An easy read for a few afternoons, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle is interesting, and well worth the time.  It also deserves 5 stars.

--Chiron, 12/31/13

Windflower by Nick Bantock

Nick Bantock has a mysterious originality in his work. His series beginning with Griffin and Sabine, allowed the reader to peek into the private correspondence of a designer of stamps who lives in the South Pacific and an artist who lives in London. By “peek,” I mean that literally – some pages have envelopes pasted to the page, and the reader must lift the flap, remove the sheet and read the letter. Fascinating, thrilling, mysterious, and completely absorbing.

In Windflower, he has written a more conventional tale about Ana, a young woman forced into marriage for economic reasons by her parents. As the ceremony is about to reach its conclusion, a violent wind sweeps in, and Ana takes the opportunity to run away. Her grandfather has told Ana her destiny lies in another direction.

This adult fantasy has the feel of something placed in the middle ages, but a few times we are reminded it is firmly in the present, or at least the near past. Ana suddenly has a “torch” or flashlight, and she sees then flies in an airplane. His characters are as interesting and mysterious as the story itself.

Along with the wonderful mesmerizing prose, Bantock’s illustrations have a warmth and beauty all their own. His illustrations alone make his books collectible.

Except for some instances hokey, clichéd dialogue, an almost perfect piece of literature. 4-1/2 stars.

--Chiron, 11/22/09