by Kazuo Ishiguro, Roe Kendall
I've read two Ishiguro novels before, so I sort of knew what to expect. Though the subjects at the heart of his novel can be night and day, there seems to be a similarity in tone and in narrative voice. Expecting that, I went into A Pale View of Hills looking for the trap, hoping to spot in what way...
Review to come! P.S. : I really liked it.
Ishiguro weak point; not terrible, certainly readable, but isn't this just Madam butterfly all over again? some Japanese girl gets her heart broken over a foreigner, a tale told time and againalthough containing effective description and taut prose, does contain the depths of Ishiguro's other work ....
Ishiguro's A Pale View of the Hills, despite being his debut, is no less an emotional tale than his other better known works. It is a delicately woven tapestry of several themes, stitched together by the gift of Ishiguro's masterful but tender story-telling. Through the eyes of Etsuko, the protagon...
3.5 stars - This book was well written and had that surreal feeling of Ishiguro's novels, but was lacking the unforgettable haunting quality of The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go which were both amazing books and two of my favorites. The basic story is about a woman named Etsuko who is mour...
Narrated by: Roe Kendall Length: 6h 05m, unabridgedblurb - This is the story of Etsuko, a middle-aged Japanese woman living alone in England, and opens with discussion between Etsuko and her younger daughter, Niki, about the recent suicide of Etsuko's older daughter, Keiko. Etsuko's thoughts, howev...
Ishiguro's first novel hints as his later success with Remains of the Day, which I read just before this novel. The story centers around a woman and her youngest daughter, reunited briefly after an older daughter commits suicide. But the book really centers around the mother and her friendship with ...
I just couldn't connect to this novel, or any of the characters. Even the narrator managed to be completely distant.For all the conversations, so little was said. They didn't even seem to talk around the issues, so much as avoid them entirely. However, near the end, I began to sort of understand a f...
I think this is 3.5 stars, but I'm erring on the side of "really liked it." I wouldn't recommend it as an introduction to Ishiguro (Remains of the Day - read it!), but it's a lovely addition to his body of work.
While decent, this is clearly a first novel, and made me appreciate The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go all the more.In A Pale View of Hills, Etsuko, a Japanese immigrant in England, reflects on the recent suicide of her adult daughter, and on her own past in postwar Nagasaki. Her reflections...