# The Buried Giant Tags: #literature ## Metadata * Author: [Kazuo Ishiguro](https://www.amazon.comundefined) * ASIN: B00N6PCXME * ISBN: 0307455793 * Reference: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N6PCXME * [Kindle link](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME) Man, I need to read this book again. I get the sense that the ubiquitous mist that clouds the minds of our protagonists is also meant to cloud the reader's mind, and I forget many things about this novel. What I do remember: - I wonder about the importance of the "mist" in our lives. The way time blurs, if not erases altogether, memories, failures, ways we hurt and are hurt by others, etc. Is *mist* all that keeps us together? If it is, is that a bad thing? - The love/commitment/support between Axl and Beatrice that permeates the entire novel. She is always in his thoughts. In the beginning he is overcome by the desire to wake her so he can tell her good news, then suddenly considers this to be selfish and changes his mind. He is always at her side. She is always calling out for him, ensuring he is there. - Death separates us all, in the end. We have no idea what awaits us at the island. ## Highlights Axl crossed the small room and swept his hand through the space above his sleeping wife, catching the spider within his palm. Then he stood there a moment looking down at her. There was a peacefulness on her sleeping face he rarely saw now when she was awake, and the sudden rush of happiness the sight brought him took him by surprise. He knew then he had made up his mind, and he wanted again to awaken her, just so he might break to her his news. But he saw the selfishness of such an action—and besides, how could he be so sure of her response? In the end he went back quietly to his stool, and as he seated himself again, remembered the spider and opened his hand gently. — location: [231](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=231) ^ref-25999 --- But in the days that followed, even if they alluded to the idea of this journey, they never talked properly about it. For they found they became oddly uncomfortable whenever the topic was broached, and before long an understanding had grown between them, in the silent way understandings do between a husband and wife of many years, to avoid the subject as much as possible. I say “as much as possible,” for there appeared at times to be a need—a compulsion, you might say—to which one or the other would have to yield. — location: [328](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=328) ^ref-12912 --- “You spoke earlier, sir,” Beatrice went on, “of your duty to question a couple waiting to cross the water. You spoke of the need to discover if their bond of love is such as to allow them to dwell together on the island. Well, sir, I was wondering this. How do you question them to discover what you must?” For a moment the boatman seemed uncertain. Then he said: “Frankly, good lady, it’s not for me to talk of such matters. Indeed, we shouldn’t by rights have met today, but some curious chance brought us together and I’m not sorry for it. You were both kind and took my part and for that I’m grateful. So I will answer you as best I can. It is, as you say, my duty to question all who wish to cross to the island. If it’s a couple such as you speak of, who claim their bond is so strong, then I must ask them to put their most cherished memories before me. I’ll ask one, then the other to do this. Each must speak separately. In this way the real nature of their bond is soon revealed.” “But isn’t it hard, sir,” Beatrice asked, “to see what truly lies in people’s hearts? Appearances deceive so easily.” “That’s true, good lady, but then we boatmen have seen so many over the years it doesn’t take us long to see beyond deceptions. Besides, when travellers speak of their most cherished memories, it’s impossible for them to disguise the truth. A couple may claim to be bonded by love, but we boatmen may see instead resentment, anger, even hatred. Or a great barrenness. Sometimes a fear of loneliness and nothing more. Abiding love that has endured the years—that we see only rarely. When we do, we’re only too glad to ferry the couple together. Good lady, I’ve already said more than I should.” “I thank you for it, boatman. It’s just to satisfy an old woman’s curiosity. Now we’ll leave you in peace.” “May you have a safe journey.” — location: [689](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=689) ^ref-10804 --- But she went on speaking, about how this land had become cursed with a mist of forgetfulness, a thing we’ve remarked on often enough ourselves. And then she asked me: ‘How will you and your husband prove your love for each other when you can’t remember the past you’ve shared?’ And I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Sometimes I think of it and it makes me so afraid.” — location: [715](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=715) ^ref-60110 --- The stranger thought it might be God himself had forgotten much from our pasts, events far distant, events of the same day. And if a thing is not in God’s mind, then what chance of it remaining in those of mortal men?” — location: [1005](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=1005) ^ref-48837 --- “Yet are you so certain, good mistress, you wish to be free of this mist? Is it not better some things remain hidden from our minds?” “It may be so for some, father, but not for us. Axl and I wish to have again the happy moments we shared together. To be robbed of them is as if a thief came in the night and took what’s most precious from us.” “Yet the mist covers all memories, the bad as well as the good. Isn’t that so, mistress?” “We’ll have the bad ones come back too, even if they make us weep or shake with anger. For isn’t it the life we’ve shared?” “You’ve no fear, then, of bad memories, mistress?” “What’s to fear, father? What Axl and I feel today in our hearts for each other tells us the path taken here can hold no danger for us, no matter that the mist hides it now. It’s like a tale with a happy end, when even a child knows not to fear the twists and turns before. Axl and I would remember our life together, whatever its shape, for it’s been a thing dear to us.” — location: [2352](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=2352) ^ref-44146 --- “Who knows what demons whisper in that fool’s ear? A great lord now, in this country and the next, yet he lives in dread of any Saxon traveller from the east passing through his lands. Has he fed the fear of that night again and again that it now sits in his belly a giant worm? Or is it the she-dragon’s breath makes him forget whatever cause he once had to fear me, yet the dread grows all the more monstrous for being unnamed? — location: [3256](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=3256) ^ref-62836 --- He longed for a patch of sun to warm Beatrice. — location: [3270](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=3270) ^ref-37472 --- “It would be the saddest thing to me, princess. To walk separately from you, when the ground will let us go as we always did.” — location: [3677](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=3677) ^ref-39579 --- “We’re not to face her, Axl, only to tether the goat and flee. It may be days before Querig comes to the spot, and we’ll by then be safe at our son’s village. Axl, don’t we want returned to us our memories of this long life lived together? Or will we become like strangers met one night in a shelter? Come, husband, say we’ll turn back and do as those children bid us.” — location: [3779](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=3779) ^ref-41452 --- “It’s simply this, princess. Should Querig really die and the mist begin to clear. Should memories return, and among them of times I disappointed you. Or yet of dark deeds I may once have done to make you look at me and see no longer the man you do now. Promise me this at least. Promise, princess, you’ll not forget what you feel in your heart for me at this moment. For what good’s a memory’s returning from the mist if it’s only to push away another? Will you promise me, princess? Promise to keep what you feel for me this moment always in your heart, no matter what you see once the mist’s gone.” “I’ll promise it, Axl, and no hardship to do so.” — location: [3788](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=3788) ^ref-54282 --- Some of you will have fine monuments by which the living may remember the evil done to you. Some of you will have only crude wooden crosses or painted rocks, while yet others of you must remain hidden in the shadows of history. You are in any case part of an ancient procession, and so it is always possible the giant’s cairn was erected to mark the site of some such tragedy long ago when young innocents were slaughtered in war. — location: [3881](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=3881) ^ref-52504 --- “Who’s to say your path wasn’t the more godly?” he said. “To leave behind all great talk of war and peace. Leave behind that fine law to bring men closer to God. To leave behind Arthur once and for all and devote yourself to…” He glanced over again at Beatrice, who had remained on her feet, her forehead almost touching the piled stones in her effort to escape the wind. “To a good wife, sir. I’ve watched how she goes beside you as a kind shadow. — location: [3930](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=3930) ^ref-27824 --- “Is it not enough, husband, I swore you an oath, and only this morning, I’d not let go what I feel in my heart for you today, no matter what the mist’s fading reveals?” — location: [4000](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=4000) ^ref-44399 --- “What kind of god is it, sir, wishes wrongs to go forgotten and unpunished?” “You ask it well, Master Wistan, and I know my god looks uneasily on our deeds of that day. Yet it’s long past and the bones lie sheltered beneath a pleasant green carpet. The young know nothing of them. I beg you leave this place, and let Querig do her work a while longer. Another season or two, that’s the most she’ll last. Yet even that may be long enough for old wounds to heal for ever, and an eternal peace to hold among us. Look how she clings to life, sir! Be merciful and leave this place. Leave this country to rest in forgetfulness.” “Foolishness, sir. How can old wounds heal while maggots linger so richly? Or a peace hold for ever built on slaughter and a magician’s trickery? I see how devoutly you wish it, for your old horrors to crumble as dust. Yet — location: [4167](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=4167) ^ref-37453 --- We must hope God yet finds a way to preserve the bonds between our peoples, yet custom and suspicion have always divided us. Who knows what will come when quick-tongued men make ancient grievances rhyme with fresh desire for land and conquest?” — location: [4340](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=4340) ^ref-33008 --- “The giant, once well buried, now stirs. When soon he rises, as surely he will, the friendly bonds between us will prove as knots young girls make with the stems of small flowers. — location: [4343](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=4343) ^ref-65493 --- “Master Edwin! We both beg this of you. In the days to come, remember us. Remember us and this friendship when you were still a boy.” — location: [4395](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=4395) ^ref-50132 --- “Boatman,” she says. “There’s a tale I once heard, perhaps as a small child. Of an island full of gentle woods and streams, yet also a place of strange qualities. Many cross to it, yet for each who dwells there, it’s as if he walks the island alone, his neighbours unseen and unheard. Can this be true of the island now before us, sir?” — location: [4471](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=4471) ^ref-5460 --- “No, boatman,” she says, “it was something more. I heard it said a man and woman, after a lifetime shared, and with a bond of love unusually strong, may travel to the island with no need to roam it apart. I heard they may enjoy the pleasures of one another’s company, as they did through all the years before. Could this be a true thing I heard, boatman?” — location: [4480](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=4480) ^ref-52682 --- toil.” “Yet there’s no one here now but you to guide us, boatman. So I ask this of you, sir. If you now ferry my husband and me, can it be we’ll not be parted, but free to walk the island arm in arm the way we go now?” — location: [4484](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=4484) ^ref-23380 --- “Very well, good lady. I’ll speak to you frankly. You and your husband are a pair as we boatmen rarely set eyes upon. I saw your unusual devotion to each other even as you came riding through the rain. So there’s no question but that you’ll be permitted to dwell on the island together. Be assured on that point.” “What you — location: [4486](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=4486) ^ref-61799 --- “I don’t fear your questions, boatman,” she says quietly. “For I know what I feel in my heart for him. Ask me what you will. My answers will be honest, yet prove only one thing.” — location: [4518](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=4518) ^ref-23563 --- “I was simply going to ask, was there some remembrance from your years together still brought you particular pain? That’s all it was.” — location: [4539](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=4539) ^ref-20884 --- “Boatman,” he says gravely, and his steps slow further still. “I’ll answer your question if you wish. I can’t be certain how she answered, for there’s much held in silence even between those like us. What’s more, until this day, a she-dragon’s breath polluted the air, robbing memories both happy and dark. But the dragon’s slain and already many things grow clearer in my mind. You ask for a memory brings particular pain. What else can I say, boatman, than it’s of our son, almost grown when we last saw him, but who left us before a beard was on his face. It was after some quarrel and only to a nearby village, and I thought it a matter of days before he returned.” “Your wife spoke of the same, friend,” I tell him. “And she said she’s to blame for his leaving.” “If she convicts herself for the first part of it, there’s plenty to lay at my door for the next. For it’s true there was a small moment she was unfaithful to me. It may be, boatman, I did something to drive her to the arms of another. Or was it what I failed to say or do? It’s all distant now, like a bird flown by and become a speck in the sky. But our son was witness to its bitterness, and at an age too old to be fooled with soft words, yet too young to know the many strange ways of our hearts. He left vowing never to return, and was still away from us when she and I were happily reunited.” — location: [4544](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=4544) ^ref-28296 --- “This part your wife told me. And how soon after came news of your good son taken by the plague swept the country. My own parents were lost in that same plague, friend, and I remember it well. But why blame yourself for it? A plague sent by God or the devil, but what fault lies with you for it?” “I forbade her to go to his grave, boatman. A cruel thing. She wished us to go together to where he rested, but I wouldn’t have it. Now many years have passed and it’s only a few days ago we set off to find it, and by then the she-dragon’s mist had robbed us of any clear knowledge of what we sought.” “Ah, so that’s it,” I say. “That part your wife was shy to reveal. So it was you stopped her visiting his grave.” “A cruel thing I did, sir. And a darker betrayal than the small infidelity cuckolded me a month or two.” “What did you hope to gain, sir, preventing not just your wife but even yourself grieving at your son’s resting place?” “Gain? There was nothing to gain, boatman. It was just foolishness and pride. And whatever… — location: [4555](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=4555) ^ref-57502 --- “I thank you for confiding this, friend,” I say to him. “And perhaps it’s as well. For though this talk intrudes in no part on my duty, and we speak now as two companions passing the day, I confess there was before a small unease in my mind, a feeling I’d yet to hear all there was. Now I’ll be able to row you with a carefree contentment. But tell me, friend, what is it made you break your resolve of so many years and come out at last on this journey? Was it something said? Or a change of heart as unknowable as the tide and sky before us?” “I’ve wondered myself, boatman. And I think now it’s no single thing changed my heart, but it was gradually won back by the years shared between us. That may be all it was, boatman. A wound that healed slowly, but heal it did. For there was a morning not long ago, the dawn brought with it the first signs of this spring, and I watched my wife still asleep though the sun already lit our chamber. And I knew the last of the darkness had left me. So we came on this journey, sir, and now my wife recalls our son crossing before us to this island, so his burial place must be within its woods or perhaps on its gentle shores. Boatman, I’ve spoken… — location: [4566](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=4566) ^ref-58988 --- “I was wondering, princess. Could it be our love would never have grown so strong down the years had the mist not robbed us the way it did? Perhaps it allowed old wounds to heal.” — location: [4625](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=4625) ^ref-4917 --- Do they embrace now, even though I left her swaddled like a babe? Even though he must kneel and make a strange shape on the boat’s hard floor? I suppose they do, and for as long as the silence remains, I dare not turn. The oar in my arms, does it cast a shadow in this swaying water? How much longer? At last their voices return. — location: [4631](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N6PCXME&location=4631) ^ref-6108 ---