There's less sex in this one than the other two, which i found interesting. Just one scene described, if i recall correctly. I think i liked this one more as well (not really for that reason). It has a huge "Beauty And The Beast" element to it, but in King Arthur's court and with a woman turned into a crone instead of a man turned into a beast. In a way, she's like the enchantress in the beginning of the Disney movie.

While both parties where exceedingly beautiful, there was more depth to it. Probably the main reason i liked this one so much is that it's not about one character being a jerk while the other, flawless one, teaches him/her the error of his/her ways. Both main characters were likable and yet each grew throughout the story.

On another note, who chose the names Morgana and Morgause? I still can't separate the two.

*Review written on November 9, 2014.*

So I've been on this huge King Arthur kick lately.  I've mentioned it a few times.  I don't know what started it (aside from King Arthur and the Arthurian legend being just fantastic.) but I have amassed a large collection of Arthur and Camelot books that I am beginning to get through finally.  I started with Thomas Mallory Le Morte D'arthur, which I loved, but full disclosure, I picked through a lot and skipped a good portion of the exposition throughout.  After that I went all the way through T.H. White's The Once And Future King, which was excellent, but not as gritty as Le Morte D'Arthur (TOaFK would be the Adam West Batman, to Le Morte D'Arthur's Christopher Nolan Batman.) 

I'm reading through a few different translations of Sir Gawain and The Green Knight right now.  I'm enjoying the Armitage version, but I have yet to get to the Tolkien version (which is kind of a cool idea.)

I feel like I'm going to end up reading a lot ABOUT King Arthur stories rather than reading the stories themselves.  I'm itching for some good non fic.

I don't know why, but I was very surprised about how good this turned out to be.  The story is a poem set in the Arthurian world and written by an anonymous author in the 14th century.  The story is very tight and well developed.  The poetry is alliterative, which I thought might have sounded like a picture book, but works very well.

There are some very clever scenes and bits of description.  My favorite part is the third Fit (part) where scenes of attempted seduction of Gawain are intermingled with hunting scenes.  Gawain is an interesting very virtuous hero, which is very hard to do.  He has the typical virtues of a chivalric knight but manages to remain a person with foibles despite that.  Most noticeably he excoriates himself for what everyone else including the author see as an almost totally insignificant failing and which the modern reader is unlikely to see as anything other than good commonsense.

The most interesting figure of all is the Green Knight.  Its easy to see him as a demonic figure.  He appears to be theoretically an enchanted knight.  I think that he is clearly rooted in pagan figures and faerie lore.  There is a lot of the Green Man in the Green Knight.  Even though the morality of the poem is fundamentally chivalric, which is a form of Christian morality, one can't see any real Christian concepts at all in the Green Knight who is richly drawn and a fantastic character as also is the wife of the Lord who Sir Gawain stays with.

All in all it is very effective.  I had suspected that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight had been seized on by SCA types who wanted it to be good, but it is in fact really really good.  

A lovely surprise.

Wow....I liked this book much much more than I expected to.

Post-Arthurian England. Axl and Beatrice are an elderly couple of Christian Britons. They have been struggling with memory, and realize that everyone in their community is as well. They seem to be the only ones who notice—perhaps due to their age and experience and what should be a wealth of memories? They decide it is time to go visit their son in his village, before they forget about him completely. And their community allows them to make the trip.

Travel at the time is not easy—and they have the aches and pains of the old. Their are ogres, and bandits, and pixies to watch out for. Who can be trusted? They must find shelter before dark, every day.

First they head to a nearby Saxon village. Beatrice has been there several times int he past, selling wares from their community. She speaks their language and hopes to see a healer there. Then they arrive amid an upheaval—some of the town's men have been killed and a teen boy taken. Only a traveling warrior is willing to try to save him.

After the warrior does save the boy, Axl and Beatrice travel with them, going to a monastery where an old monk knows more of healing to help with Beatrice's pain. On the way they meet Sir Gawain, a knight of Arthur, whose mission is to kill the dragon—the same mission as Wistan, the warrior. Sir Gawain has been unsuccessful, so another has been sent. And Gawain feels he recognizes Axl from past exploits. Axl, of course, has very limited memory.

And there we go. What will happen to the dragon? Will they even find her? Who wants her alive and why? What is The Buried Giant? Will Axl and Beatrice make it to their son safely?

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In many ways this is a retelling of Pilgrim's Progress. But do the characters know what their mission is? Not exactly, because of the dragon's breath mist. Though we can guess, as they themselves struggle to remember their past actions. Ishiguro's writing is so calm, and something always seems to be lurking just below the surface. There is additional meaning everywhere—somehow, he manages to let you know what is coming without ever actually saying anything outright.

I really wish I had someone to discuss this book with!