“The Buried Giant” by Kazuo Ishiguro

I found this book through investigating what the local book club was reading, and it seemed interesting enough to add it to my list. But not interesting enough for me to get around to it right away, I think I had to leave it at the library like three times because I just could not be bothered to make the trip. I’m glad that I eventually did though, this is quite the interesting book.

The setting is a mythical spin on medieval England just after the fall of King Arthur. Ogres roam the land and a dragon prowls among the mountains. There’s also a buried giant, as you probably could have guessed. The Saxons and the Britons have been at odds but now is a time of relative peace. But something strange is going on with the people’s memories. It seems that they forget things at an alarming rate, but are unaware of doing so.

The main characters are Axl and Beatrice, an elderly couple from a Briton village. They decide to make a journey to their son’s village, since they haven’t seen him in years. Along the way they meet up with a Saxon warrior and his orphan boy, and an Arthurian knight tasked with slaying the dragon. Eventually an old monk reveals to them that the source of their forgetfulness is the dragon’s breath, it is she that causes the mist that covers their memories.

Meanwhile it comes to light that the old knight is not trying to slay the dragon, he is protecting her. King Arthur placed the dragon there with the help of Merlin to keep the peace. If the people cannot remember past wrongs, they have no reason to try and avenge them. This causes a dilemma for Axl and Beatrice, for they eventually want to journey to an island where one can wander around forever without meeting another person. However couples can walk arm in arm if their bond is strong enough. Beatrice worries though that if they cannot recall their past together, how can they prove that they love each other?

So this is much more than a whimsical fantasy story about the aftermath of King Arthur. It is also about how and why we love each other. Would we feel as though we love each other more if we couldn’t remember our past? Does that even count as love? How do we prove our love to other people if not through our memories?

Ultimately, the book ends with the dragon dying and characters realizing that there will now be conflict again. And that the buried giant must rise again now. For we do not live in a world where we cannot remember our past, outside of this book we face our past every day. Does this mean that we cannot love each other as fully with this knowledge of past wrongs?

I was also reminded of Watchmen quite a bit while reading this. King Arthur did not ask for anyone’s permission to cloud their memories. He did what he had to do to ensure peace would last. Naturally people would be upset to find out about this, because they never consented to that. But regardless, an entire generation grew up without war. Is that worth the price it took? It seems as though the book comes down lightly on the side that yes it was worth it. Axl believes that without this clouding of his memories, he wouldn’t have had the time required to forgive Beatrice for past mistakes. The knight sometimes contributes a chapter in his own stream-of-consciousness narration, wringing his hands about his past actions and asking what else he should have done.

What I think Ishiguro is trying to say is that yes we can remember past injustices, but it might be better to forget them. He highlights these benefits, without shying away from the wrongs committed, but the fact that the book is titled after the coming wars and not the lost memories seems very significant. It is as if he wants to warn us away from this rising giant by reminding us to forgive and forget. In all of our relationships there probably rests a buried giant that we do not want to rouse. And the best way to do that is to tiptoe around it quietly, and forget past actions.