Book Review: "A Pale View of Hills" by Kazuo Ishiguro

Published in 1982, this was the first book Kazuo Ishiguro ever wrote and since, it has become a testament to his writing style in which the darker tension lies beneath the surface of the first meaning of the book. Kazuo Ishiguro has always been a brilliant writer from his more commercially known novels such as Never Let Me Go, to his most recent effort Klara and the Sun and all the way to Ishiguro clearly showing off his great prose skills in An Artist of the Floating World and once again to his slightly more confusing novels written less in his classic style but just as interesting as The Unconsoled was. I don't think we ever question whether he is a good writer, just which topic he will try to remove the layers from next. In A Pale View of Hills - Kazuo Ishiguro makes sure that everyone understands that he is here to find your darknesses.

This review contains spoilers.

Etsuko is a Japanese woman, middle-aged she has left her husband for a British man. Keiko is her child from her previous marriage and so, she takes her and moves to England with her new husband - Keiko is clearly distressed about the move. When they get to England, one thing that Etsuko notes over time is that her daughter is moving further and further away from her emotionally. It gets to the point that Keiko is now no longer coming out of her bedroom except to collect plates of food that her mother leaves on the counter since she won't come down for dinner.

Whilst this is all happening - some of it slightly before so, Etsuko and her new husband have another child. Etsuko wants to name the child something British and modern, but the father wants to call the child something more Japanese sounding. They settle on Niki and, as Etsuko's attention turns to this child, Keiko sinks into the dark background - barely visible at all. The distance between Etsuko and Keiko becomes even more apparent when Keiko commits suicide. This is definitely Kazuo Ishiguro showing us the dark regrets of human nature, showing us that there was no way of stopping it, but we could have at least tried. He is showing us that if we had tried and it had still happened the way it did, we may have not blamed ourselves for the whole thing. Etsuko is absolutely horrified.

Etsuko explains that she had a friend in Japan named Sachiko. Sachiko had a daughter called Mariko who also turned antisocial and distant as Sachiko took her and moved to America with a man only known as Frank. She reflects on her time knowing Sachiko and what she knows about her story. Many people seem to think (for the correct reasons) that Sachiko and Mariko are actually just Etsuko and Keiko. As she has made up these character (probably), she can reflect on all of her frustrations of moving to England and leaving the land of Japan for something 'more' - or so she thought.

The whole narrative is told from Etsuko's point of view in a conversation she is having with the now older Niki. It is a brilliant exploration of desires denied, dreams broken and hearts aching. Some of these darknesses you can also see in the novel Never Let Me Go - I thought there were some striking similarities in the idea of family and friendship. But ultimately, Ishiguro's biggest and best attribute is his ability to write about reality and illusion when a character is very clearly experiencing them both in first person.

In conclusion, this book was amazing and I apologise for the spoiler review, but the book was really short and I really had no other way of telling it. It is a beautiful book that more people should definitely pick up after they've read Ishiguro's more commercially known novels.