The first two pairs live near a resurgent Nagasaki sometime toward the end of the American Occupation of Japan in April 1952. A Japanese-born woman living in England reminisces with her daughter about the woman’s memories of life in Japan in Nagasaki after the war. Ogata-san is stuck on an idea of the past, unable to accept the changes that have taken place since the end of the war. In a story of secrets, not much is initially known of Sachiko’s background, and Etsuko’s own past is likewise a mystery. Ghosts have a habit of coming back to haunt you, and both Etsuko and Sachiko have left a lot of people behind.

It's the story of Etsuko, a Japanese woman, now living alone in England, dwelling on the recent suicide of her eldest daughter. 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. The characters are interesting and tell us a lot of the Japanese world and its changes in recent times. We know that Etsuko married again and moved to England with her Western husband and she says that she knew this would make Keiko very unhappy. This is a deeply moving novel, and Ishiguro creates the nostalgic and poignant atmosphere of remorse, sorrow, and love without ever explicitly writing about feelings, which makes him a master of his craft, with a minimalist, almost restrained approach achieving maximum emotional impact, as listening to a melody that brings you up memories.

I missed a few words and misunderstood a key part the first time I read it, but the re-reeading was so much better. Mariko, an angry, almost feral child, is obviously wounded by Sachiko’s insistence on moving around, clinging to the only thing she has, her kittens. Throughout the episodes set in 1952 Etsuko remains concerned about Mariko, who is emotionally disturbed. The story also examines the issue of living with, and obeying, in-laws, and even if Etsuko seems quite happy to look after Jiro’s father, Ogata-san, during his extended visit to their apartment, the relationship between Sachiko and her uncle seems to be a different story.

Perhaps Etsuko/Saichiko considered murdering her own child so that her lover would be more willing to take her to America/England.Never have I read a book in which the characters—especially Etsuko, but also others—are described so frequently as standing or sitting idly by windows, staring out at nature. The first time, at the beginning of Chapter Six, where Mariko keeps asking Etsuko, “Why have you got that rope? times: “I should keep looking forward,” “how important it is to keep looking forward,” “I’m going to look forward to it,” “you have a lot to look forward to,” “we must look forward to life,” “there’s still so much to look forward to,” etc. My recent reread of When We Were Orphans reminded me that my Kazuo Ishiguro collection wasn’t quite complete as I was missing his first novel, but while I was planning to get myself a copy at some point, ‘some point’ arrived rather sooner than expected.

Archives Archives Tags Art Biography Book List Book Review Books Book Tag Classical Music Classics Debut Novel Detective Fiction Fantasy Fiction French Literature Historical Fiction History Horror Italian Literature Japan Japanese Books Japanese Literature Literary Fiction Music Mystery Non-Fiction Novella Paintings Philip K.One finds it hard to believe that even bad mother Sachiko, much less Etsuko, could have been capable of such cruelty. Ishiguro here plays with his common themes of personal and collective memories, trauma and cultural differences between Japan and England.