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Product Description
Book Description
Stunning new repackages to celebrate Ishiguro's popular baclikst titles.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
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Product Description
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.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is such a wonderful book. Ishiguro is a master of atmosphere and subtlety... he doesn't shout and wave his arms when making his points, but only murmurs... you do have to pay attention. This is wonderfully, eerily effective in A Pale View of Hills. I bought this book yesterday and have read it twice already... the first time, as another reviewer mentioned, my hair nearly stood on end when I reached the last dozen pages; the second time I combed through looking for all the clues I hadn't realized were clues the first time (her husband's missing tie, the rope tangled around her sandle, Mariko's frequent fearful retreats, so many things!). Memory is unreliable indeed, and time folds over on itself.
After loving Never Let Me Go so much I was afraid that a debut novel could only be a disappointment, but this is not at all the case here. If you've read any of Ishiguro's other wonderful works, give this one a try as well. Pay attention, it's very much worth it.
After loving Never Let Me Go so much I was afraid that a debut novel could only be a disappointment, but this is not at all the case here. If you've read any of Ishiguro's other wonderful works, give this one a try as well. Pay attention, it's very much worth it.
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an amazing first novel and it is a good introduction to Ishiguro for readers who haven't read his books before. It is so delicately told from the point of view of a woman who has survived WWII. You are given only brief personal glimpses of her life, yet those glimpses spark an enormous amount of questions revealing her to be a woman of deep complexity. You would expect her to be pondering the life of her daughter Keiko, but she spends most of her time remembering the mysterious woman Sachiko who she knew briefly in Nagasaki. Over the course of reading the novel you begin to understand that this is a way for her to process her emotions over her daughter's death. Pondering the mysteries of a woman she can never understand is preferable to admitting the responsibility for her daughter's suicide. Perhaps she contributed in some way to her death? From her obsession with Sachiko and Sachiko's daughter Mariko we understand that she is possibly drawing parallels between the girls. While this mystery looms in the background you are brought deeply into her observations of Sachiko and her story of a single woman trying to survive independently. Through the entire time Ishiguro is very careful about what is and is not given away. He is a master at telling and not telling. The selection that goes into telling has an impact on the way we interpret what is told. In this way he explores human complexities that few other writers are able to dig into. Our view of Etsuko, like our view of Nagasaki, is blurred and from this not quite clear view we understand that this Japanese woman still has a lot more to tell.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In my view, Ishiguro has never surpassed this novel, which I have read several times. Yes the ending is enigmatic, leaving one confused about the narrator - is she the woman who has been presented to us, or is she actually the friend Sachico or even the woman who has drowned her baby or the child murderer? In some ways, she is all of these, although in no way can her character be exactly pinned down to one position. It seemed to me that what Ishiguro is trying to portray is a guilt that extends across a whole community - not located in one person. Each is as implicated as another. This fits very well with the theme of Nagasaki and how, in a sense, the old ways of Japan have resulted in its downfall.
Ishiguro has a wonderful style that makes you feel like you are looking into cool clear waters. The book is moving in how it presents without sentiment the remnants of families that have survived the war - a husband here, a mother and eldest child there - and how they huddle together in its aftermath. Those who say that the unreliable narrator is an overly familiar trope seem to me to be missing the depth and complexity of this book, the emotional truths of the subtlely painful human encounters Ishiguro depicts, and the sheer skill of the novel's construction and use of language.
Ishiguro has a wonderful style that makes you feel like you are looking into cool clear waters. The book is moving in how it presents without sentiment the remnants of families that have survived the war - a husband here, a mother and eldest child there - and how they huddle together in its aftermath. Those who say that the unreliable narrator is an overly familiar trope seem to me to be missing the depth and complexity of this book, the emotional truths of the subtlely painful human encounters Ishiguro depicts, and the sheer skill of the novel's construction and use of language.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
If it is read easy, it is writ hard
Ishiguro's debut novel is a subtle exploration of the varying degrees and contrasts between the meanings the various parties of a relationship attach to it. Read more
Published 2 days ago by Mr. N. R. Birkhead
A Pale View of Hills
I found this a very well-written book. Kazuo Ishiguro has a very distinctive style of writing which appeals to me. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Kindler
Subtle, slow burning, highly readable and ultimately satisfying
Having just finished `A Pale View of Hills' and this being the only Ishiguro novel I've tried, my first impressions of this author are good. Read more
Published 5 months ago by bankooki
a fine debut novel, maybe better than his later ones
The novel's narrator, Etsuko, is a Japanese woman now living alone in England. As a younger woman she lived in Nagasaki with her first husband Jiro, with whom she had a daughter,... Read more
Published 8 months ago by James
A Pale View of Hills
A Pale View of Hills is Kazuo Ishiguro's debut novel. However, this fact should not sway your decision if you are thinking of reading the book; it is an accomplished piece of... Read more
Published 13 months ago by N. A. Spencer
One of his best
I've read most of Kazuo Ishiguro's books. This one is simpler than many of the later, more complex ones (like 'the unconsoled') but is virtually perfect in it's simplicity. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Kim
limp not limpid
Beware of bestsellers! I kept going to the end waiting for several threads to be tied together. But they weren't. Did I miss something?
Published 15 months ago by Dennis McDuff
A Pale View of Hills
Strange and obscure. One other reviewer described it as being 'elliptical' and typical of this author's style. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Rodney Elliott
A Pale View of Hills
`A Pale View of Hills' is Kazuo Ishiguro's debut novel and it is both a very beautiful and a very powerful story. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Spider Monkey
marvellous
I tried to explain to someone why this is a good book, but failed, however a year on it is still memorable, i think for its landscapes and calm. Highly recommended.
Published 24 months ago by S. Smith
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