Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30717 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Synopsis
In his, highly acclaimed debut, A PALE VIEW OF HILLS, Kazuo Ishiguro tells the story of Etsuko, a Japanese woman now living alone in England, dwelling on the recent suicide of her daughter. Retreating into the past, she finds herself reliving one particular hot summer in Nagasaki, when she and her friends struggled to rebuild their lives after the war. But then as she recalls her strange friendship with Sachiko - a wealthy woman reduced to vagrancy - the memories take on a disturbing cast.

Customer Reviews

It doesn't matter how old someone is, it's what they've experienced that counts
Under the surface of apparently harmless conversations, the author uncovers Japan's `very strict and very patriotic' old world of `discipline, loyalty, such things held Japan together once. People were bound by a sense of duty. Towards one's family, towards superiors, towards the country.'

But, in fact, it was a rigid, cold world without pity (symbolized by the merciless drowning of the kittens), where `children were taught terrible things. They were taught lies of the most damaging kind. Worst of all, they were taught not to see, not to question'. It was a world without democracy, where women could not study.

It all ended in disaster: `And that's why the country was plunged into the most evil disaster in her entire history.' A general disaster of war ('Towards the end we were all living in tunnels and derelict buildings and there was nothing but rubble') and atom bombs (`I know it was a terrible thing that happened here in Nagasaki'), and painful personal and familial disasters (suicides, even of a child).

In his brilliant indirect, but nevertheless emotional, suggestive style Kazuo Ishiguro wrote a masterpiece.

Shadows Across The River
Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki in 1954 and moved to Britain at the age of five. He was awarded the OBE in 1995 and the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1998. "A Pale View of the Hills" is his first book, and he has gone on to win the Whitbread Prize (with "An Artist of the Floating World") and the Booker Prize (with "The Remains of the Day").

"A Pale View of the Hills" is told by Etsuko, a Japanese widow now living in England. Keiko, Etsuko's daughter from her first marriage, was born in Japan though had later moved to England with her mother. She later moved to Manchester, where she had recently committed suicide. Niki - her daughter from her second marriage to her English husband - currently lives in London. Niki and Keiko were never close, to the point where Niki felt she couldn't attend the funeral. Keiko, in fact, she appears to have kept herself isolated - even when living at home, she wouldn't have been seen by her family for days at a time. Part of the book deals with Etsuko's current relationship with Niki, and their attempts to come to terms with Keiko's death.

Recent events have also led to Etsuko looking back to when she was pregnant with Keiko. The war was only recently over and she was living in Nagasaki with her first husband, Jiro. The couple were living in a recently built block of apartments, close to the river - though right beside a large patch of very unhygienic wasteground. At the far end of the wasteground, on the banks of the river, was a lone wooden cottage that had somehow survived both the war and the city's planners. For a short period, during the summer, that cottage was home to a woman called Sachiko - someone Etsuko came to consider a friend. Sachiko was originally from Tokyo, though had been in Nagasaki for around a year. Until her arrival at the cottage, she had been staying at an Uncle's house in a different part of the city - though she proves a little vague as to why she left such comfortable surroundings for such a dilapidated cottage. She doesn't appear to be a caring mother either - Mariko doesn't go to school and she's regularly left without a babysitter. In fact, Mariko seems to care more for her cat and kittens than she is cared for by her mother. (Mariko does speak of a mysterious woman who apparently lives in the woods and calls round when her mother goes out - this, however, is dismissed as a figment of her imagination by Sachiko). In time, Etsuko learns a little more of her new friend's past and her plans for the future - including a life in America with a man called Frank.

The same summer, Etsuko's father-in-law came to stay. Ogata-San is a retired teacher, and he proves a likeable character. While he's not in the same position as Sachiko, he is struggling a little with how attitudes have changed in post-war Japan. Ogata-San is a little troubled by an article he stumbled across in a magazine for teachers. The article had been written by one of Jiro's former school-friend, Shiego Matsuda, and had suggested that teachers like himself should have been dismissed at the end of the war. Ogata-San is naturally offended - Matsuda had spent a great deal of time at the Ogata house as a boy, and Ogata-San himself had introduced Matsuda to his current employer. He's hoping that Jiro will insist on an apology from his old friend.

A little frustratingly, there are a few loose ends that aren't tied up - it's only really hinted at how Etsuko's first marriage came to an end and how she met her second husband, for example. I also wondered about Etsuko's father-in-law, and how he felt about her decision to leave Japan for England - the pair had clearly been very close. Nevertheless, while it's not a cheerful book, "A Pale View of the Hills" is a well worth reading.

macabre
I read this having never read his books before but have always loved the 'remains of the day' film version. At first I felt dissatisfied with the ending but later (a day later) it made more sense. For some reason parts of the story especially the part where a memory on the bridge is revealed made my 'hair stand on end'. Other parts were even funny but for the most part it felt eerie and sad.To me the horror lay in the presence of evil or percieved evil despite one's best intentions.