How does it compare to audio works by the same author?
Quite good
Advantages:
Well - written and a little creepy
Disadvantages:
Deals with suicide
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Introduction I am always impressed by authors that are from one culture, but can write about another. To be able to do so in a believable way has to be the sign of a good author. Although Kazuo Ishiguro came to the UK when he was just five years old, his background is still Japanese and my experience of living abroad is that no matter how much you immerse yourself in another culture, your own is part of you and very difficult to turn your back on. The fact that Ishiguro can write so convincingly about the essence of English life as he does in Remains of the Day, just blows me away. A Pale View of Hills is the author's first published novel and does go back to his roots in Nagasaki and the way that the Japanese way of life can affect women in particular; yet at the same time, the Japanese way of looking at life is interspersed with the British, all of which makes for an interesting read.
The author Kazuo Ishiguro wrote this book, A Pale View of Hills in 1982 and immediately whipped up a storm of critical acclaim. By the time of his third book, The Remains of the Day, he had already won literary prizes for his work, and topped this by winning the Booker Prize for The Remains in 1989. Ishiguro was awarded an OBE for his contribution to literature in 1989.
The story Etsuko, a Japanese woman from Nagasaki, now living in England, is reflecting on the suicide of her elder daughter, Keiko. At the same time, she begins dreaming about Sachiko, a woman she had befriended when she was living in Nagasaki. Sachiko had a daughter, Mariko, and the two, although from a wealthy family, are forced to live in poverty while waiting for Sachiko's American lover to arrange for them to go to the US.
Etsuko, pregnant with Keiko at the time, is concerned at her friend's neglect of Mariko, especially when there have been a series of recent child murders. Mariko is a strange child, happiest when she is with her kittens, and often rude to people. During the course of the book, it becomes clear that there are a number of similarities between Etsuko's life and that of Sachiko's.
The characters Etsuko is deliberately vaguely portrayed. She seems to have lost her family when Nagasaki was bombed during the war and was adopted by Ogata-san. Eventually she marries Ogata-san's son, Jiro and becomes pregnant with her first child. At some point in her life, although it is only implied, she moves to England with her daughter Keiko, Jiro's child, her second husband, who appears to be English and Niki, their daughter together. Keiko clearly does not settle in England and spends her time at the family home locked away in her bedroom. Eventually, she moves away from home, and is later found hanging in her flat by her landlady. Etsuko, despite efforts to help Keiko, seems to feel a lot of responsibility for her daughter's death. Strangely, Etsuko's feelings are never really voiced and are left for the reader to work out.
Sachiko is even more vaguely portrayed. She seems to live life the way that she wants it, although both she and her daughter suffer from being poor. She also seems to have a problem with telling the truth. Her relationship with her daughter, Mariko, is complicated, and there doesn't seem to be a great deal of love there; although at the same time, it seems that neither can do without the other.
Conclusion This book is very different from my usual choice of crime fiction, when everything is laid out in black and white - or at least it is by the end. When I first finished it, it seemed that it had not ended and I felt disappointed. But it did really start me thinking. It is a while since I've read a book that has occupied my thoughts so much - I usually finish a book, put it down and pick up the next one. The conclusion is hinted at, but not entirely articulated. On the whole, I think that I do prefer books that are straightforward and to the point - I have a similar opinion where art is concerned - give me anything but abstract art any day. Yet it is hard to not find this book completely enthralling. It is well-written, thought-provoking, challenging and a little creepy at the same time, mainly psychologically, but matched by descriptions of Etsuko searching for Mariko in the dark and the stories of the murdered children. If I was to sum up what this book is about, in my opinion, it looks at the effect of transplanting one culture to another - it is never as straightforward as one might first think and it has a different effect on different people. However, I think others would see it in a completely different light and this is exactly what the author was trying to do. Recommended, particularly if you like a cryptic read.
The book is available from Amazon for £5.59. Published by Faber and Faber, it has 192 pages. ISBN: 0571225373
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