Ishiguro here plays with his common themes of personal and collective memories, trauma and cultural differences between Japan and England. It could be argued that, even the novel itself is written in a Japanese style since most of its dialogue feels artificial and awkward, with characters not feeling completely at ease with one another, being keenly aware of the social hierarchy. Like her future daughter Keiko, Mariko is a very troubled child and often runs away, with Sachiko hardly being concerned about her. From Nobel Laureates Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter to theatre greats Tom Stoppard and Alan Bennett to rising stars Polly Stenham and Florian Zeller, Faber Drama presents the very best theatre has to offer.

Ogata-San must live out his life as an old man, suspecting that Matsuda may be right—that he is responsible for some unconscionable things. Firstly, the novel contrasts western and eastern mentalities as Etsuko and Sachiko, Etsuko’s strange woman neighbour, converse with American guests in Japan. Even if the “memory” theme is more or less convincingly established in the novel, the second theme of copying with trauma by dissociation/mistaken association requires quite a big imaginary leap on the part of the readers. We can imply from it that the characters are full of regret, we can assume, but he does not state it anywhere: he doesn’t need to.In a story of secrets, not much is initially known of Sachiko’s background, and Etsuko’s own past is likewise a mystery. Quite likely her tale of the imaginary Sachiko and Mariko is her way of venting all the horrors of her life—things that may have happened to her as a little girl, and then, especially, what she went through and witnessed during the war, but also the horrors of her bad marriage with Jiro, the turmoil involved with having an affair, leaving Jiro for a foreigner. Certain telling details (easy to miss) suggest that Etsuko is lending Sachiko some of her own experiences and emotions, and by the end of the novel that seems obvious. Going back for a second reading—all really good fiction deserves, and sometimes demands a second reading—I found all sorts of clues that I missed the first time through.

A duty to pass on, as best I could, these memories and lessons from our parents' generation to the one after our own? One possibility is that Sachiko and Mariko, her daughter, were real people in Etsuko’s life and she tries alleviating her mental burden by hinting at her grief and blame through them.But one detail later suggests that Keiko had been with her, and she apparently cherishes this memory of one happy day in her and Keiko’s lives. And, especially again, her guilt over taking Keiko to England and leaving her there, after having promised her, “If we don’t like it we’ll come back. The characters are interesting and tell us a lot of the Japanese world and its changes in recent times. What she and Sachiko think of each other is conveyed in looks and the subtext of what is spoken, rather than up front. Hi there, I think this is a really insightful take on this work of Ishiguro, and I find myself agreeing with the sentiment that much of this book is based around the concept of memory and how it’s unreliability interacts with our daily lives.

Something about Ishiguro's style suits me - I don't like being shouted at in a novel and I don't like have everything spelled out to me.Etsuko overhears two women in the neighborhood talking about how the arrogant, unfriendly Sachiko has snubbed them, then remarks, “It was never my [Etsuko’s] intention to appear unfriendly. In their very first conversation, Etsuko tells Sachiko that she is worried about her daughter Mariko, whom she has seen fighting with other children. On many occasions, we’re presented with gentle probing, the characters polite on the surface, yet persistent and unyielding.

As the story of her friendship with Sachiko and the wilfulness of Mariko plays out in Etsuko’s memory, it begins to feel unreal, like a ghost story.

It's like that I've fallen in love with a b 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. 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.