A Pale View of Hills [Paperback]

 

 

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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.

This was the first Ishiguro book I have read, and so far I an not all that impressed, but of course i also know that this is his first novel, and i have not read his better loved books such as the remains of the day.
The book is about a woman named Etsuko who moved from Japan to England with the man who was to be her second husband. The book starts off in England. Etsuko's daughter from her first marriage has just commited suicide and soon aftyer the funeral her younger daughter Niki arrives. During the time Niki is there, Etsuko remembers her past in Nagasaki and the woman that lived in a shack near her apartment building named Sachiko. It is hard to say what kind of relationship Etsoko and Sachiko have. To me they don't seem mucjh of friends because although they do go places together Sachiko seems to do most of the talking while Etsuko just listens. The there is Sachiko's daughter Mariko a strange little girl who has the very annoying habit of repeating the same thing over and over again. Although several characters in this book seem to have the same habit. It gets quite old after awhile. Sachiko tells Etsko often of her background of the grandness which she once lived and how dreadful it is how she is living at the present moment, and how she plans to move away with an American named Frank. Etsuko just seems to sit back and listen. This seems to be the majority of the book, not much really happens and every thing seems to have a grey overcast to it. Not much else to say. I will read more Ishiguro novels., but i hope they are much better than this one.

This book is particularly dissapointing if you have read Ishiguro's Remains of the Day, which was such a lovely, perfect understated novel. This novel does employ some similarities of style and Ishiguro's prose is crisp and lyrical. But the book is confusing and unclear. The fewer than 200 pages drag on without drama or motion. At the novel's end the reader can't even feel that he or she has been offered any particular insight into the main character's mind or motivation. Too much is left unsaid or unexplained for the book to be effective. If this book were a person, I'd want to shake it by the shoulders and demand an explanation.

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4.0 out of 5 stars View of memory's tricks
A quote from The New York Times book Review on the back cover characterizes this book as elliptical, and it certainly is that, maybe a bit overly so. Read more

Published on Nov 27 2001 by Barbara Klein

4.0 out of 5 stars Etsuko ... Sachiko ... Unsettling!
This is the first book I have read by Kazuo Ishiguro. Wow -- what an introduction! This is a story set in Japan after World War II. Read more

Published on Nov 9 2001 by Elizabeth Crain

3.0 out of 5 stars oversubtle
Etsuko, the narrator of A Pale View of Hills, is a native of Nagasaki, who left her Japanese husband and Japan for England and an English husband. Read more

Published on Aug 7 2001 by Orrin C. Judd

5.0 out of 5 stars Seminal work!
This novel is classic-Ishiguro; subtle yet powerful in its depiction of loss and sadness across time.

In the end Etsuko becomes Sachiko, and Keiko becomes Mariko. Read more

Published on Jun 15 2001

2.0 out of 5 stars ishiguro at his best? what a disappointment
i'm quite amazed at the many good reviews this book has received. Finishing this book is like having a nice discussion with a friend who, at the end of the hour, tells you he's... Read more

Published on Jan 12 2001 by secret squirrel

4.0 out of 5 stars Choosing to Tell
This is an amazing first novel and it is a good introduction to Ishiguro for readers who haven't read his books before. Read more

Published on Jan 12 2001 by Eric Anderson

5.0 out of 5 stars Subtle, Moving Masterpiece
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. The reviewers below have summarized the basic elements, so let me concentrate on style. Read more

Published on Nov 2 2000 by Nessander

4.0 out of 5 stars Ishiguro at his delicate best.
One can't help but be amazed by the subtlety with which Ishiguro has tackled a tale about Japan post-World War II. Read more

Published on Aug 14 2000 by Bernard

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Masterpiece From a Master Writer
In a Pale View of Hills, Kazuo Ishiguro focuses on Etsuko, a Japanese woman now living in rural England. Read more

Published on Jun 28 2000 by kingsransom

5.0 out of 5 stars The beauty of restraint
Ishiguro achieved this incredible debut novel by holding in the reins and managing to tell only what he felt necessary. Read more

Published on Jun 22 2000 by Ken Fordyce

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