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A Pale View of Hills

Kazuo Ishiguro

3.76 · Rating details · 20,325 ratings · 2,008 reviews

The story of Etsuko, a Japanese woman now living alone in England, dwelling on the recent suicide of her daughter. In a story where past and present confuse, she relives scenes of Japan's devastation in the wake of World War II. ...more

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Kindle Edition, US Edition, 196 pages

Published September 5th 2012 by Vintage (first published 1982)

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Mar 24, 2011 William2 rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: uk, fiction, 20-ce

This is a beautiful novel that calls for patient and careful reading. I admire the way it's constructed. The cares and concerns of three pairs of mothers and daughters are refracted off one another. The first two pairs live near a resurgent Nagasaki sometime toward the end of the American Occupation of Japan in April 1952. The pregnant Etsuko, who narrates, lives with her husband Jiro, in a new concrete residential building along the river. From her window, across a stretch of wasteland, Etsuko ...more

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Aug 17, 2008 Michele rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Every once in a while, a book surprises you on the way to its ending. After the first few pages of this book, I figured I knew what to expect - a well written realist novel about a displaced Japanese woman in England who reminisces about her youth while contemplating the choices her children have made. And for most of the book, that impression is borne out. It nicely describes the two countries, how people act and react, and what life has been like for this character throughout her time in both Every once in a while, a book surprises you on the way to its ending. After the first few pages of this book, I figured I knew what to expect - a well written realist novel about a displaced Japanese woman in England who reminisces about her youth while contemplating the choices her children have made. And for most of the book, that impression is borne out. It nicely describes the two countries, how people act and react, and what life has been like for this character throughout her time in both places.

The novel even does a very good job of replicating the varying syntax between English and Japanese - in the reminiscences, the dialogue does not flow as it would in English, and the translation is in some cases very literal, which makes the dialogue reflect the difference in thought patterns that speaking (and thinking) in another language requires.

Then, only ten pages from the end, the pronouns change. Where you expect 'she' there is 'the child' and where you expect 'you' there is 'we'. And all of a sudden you're unsure who is talking to whom, and when, and you start to realize that you have been taking what your narrator says at face value when perhaps you shouldn't have.

After all, the narrator of the story tells us more than once that perhaps her memory is faulty, perhaps she is mixing things up. But such a confession, such reluctance to appear certain, such a recognition of the false nature of memory, does the opposite of what the words should do. Instead of making the reader doubt the narrator, such qualification about the haziness of memory leads the reader to trust the narrator, after all, she has recognized that she's telling a story, and because she's telling a story, we're willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Then suddenly, the pronoun shift at the end introduces the possibility that not only did the narrator perhaps get some details wrong, leave some things out, change some names, be not as innocent as she seems, but maybe these omissions and alterations weren't accidental and we've been led to believe her a good person when perhaps she was lying about those details because she wasn't such a nice person after all, in fact, maybe she was a really nasty person.

I'm sure if you haven't read the book, all this sounds a bit confusing, and you might be wondering what the deal is anyway, but from a narrative theory point of view, the ability of such a small thing - a few pronouns - to throw the entire preceeding narrative into doubt is pretty impressive.

I think I will need to reread this book to figure it out. ...more

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Oct 04, 2010 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-book, fiction, literature, 20th-century, japanese-literature, novels, historical

(274 of 1001 Books) - A Pale View of Hills, Kazuo Ishiguro

A Pale View of Hills (1982) is the first novel by Nobel Prize–winning author Kazuo Ishiguro.

During a visit from her daughter, Niki, Etsuko reflects on her own life as a young woman in Japan, and how she left that country to live in England. As she describes it, she and her Japanese husband, Jiro, had a daughter together, and a few years later Etsuko met a British man and moved with him to England.

She took her elder daughter, Keiko, to E (274 of 1001 Books) - A Pale View of Hills, Kazuo Ishiguro

A Pale View of Hills (1982) is the first novel by Nobel Prize–winning author Kazuo Ishiguro.

During a visit from her daughter, Niki, Etsuko reflects on her own life as a young woman in Japan, and how she left that country to live in England. As she describes it, she and her Japanese husband, Jiro, had a daughter together, and a few years later Etsuko met a British man and moved with him to England.

She took her elder daughter, Keiko, to England to live with her and the new husband. When Etsuko and her new husband have a daughter, Etsuko wants to call her something "modern" and her husband wants an Eastern-sounding name, so they compromise with the name "Niki," which seems to Etsuko to be perfectly British, but sounds to her husband at least slightly Japanese. ...

منظر پریده رنگ تپه‌ ها - کازوئو ایشی گورو ، ادبیات ژاپن (انتشارات نیلا)؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: چهارم ماه آوریل سال 2012میلادی

عنوان: منظر پریده رنگ تپه‌ ها؛ نویسنده: کازوئو ایشی گورو؛ مترجم: امیر امجد؛ تهران، نیلا، 1380، در 189ص؛ چاپ دوم 1389؛ شابک 9646900151؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان ژاپنی - سده 20م

منظر پریده رنگ تپه ها، گویا نخستین اثر «كازوئو ايشیگورو» باشد؛ داستان پیرزنی که یکی از دو دخترانش خودش را کشته، رمان «منظر پریده‌رنگ تپه‌ها» به ظاهر ماجرایی خانوادگی است، که در آن زنی «ژاپنی ـ مقیم انگلیس»؛ یادمانهایش را از دوران جوانی باز می‌گوید، و در قالب آن به روابط پیچیده ی خود، با خانواده، و همسایگان اشارت می‌کند، و طی آن روایتی از رودررویی سنت، و تجدد، در جامعه‌ ای در مرحله گذار را ارائه می‌دهد؛ این رمان «ایشی‌گورو» نیز، همانند دیگر آثار «ایشی‌گورو»، در دو زمان روایت می‌شود؛ در زمان حال راوی در «انگلیس» زندگی می‌کند، شوهرش مُرده، و یکی از دخترهایش خودکشی کرده است؛ دختر دیگرش، که در شهر دیگری زندگی می‌کند، برای چند روز، نزد راوی آمده، و در زمان گذشته رابطه ی راوی با زن، و دختر همسایه‌ شان در «ژاپن» پس از جنگ جهانی روایت می‌شود؛

داستان با این جملات آغاز می‌شود: «نیکی، اسمی که بالاخره روی کوچک‌ترین دخترم گذاشتیم، مخفف چیزی نیست؛ فقط توافقی بود بین من و پدرش؛ جالب این‌جاست پدرش این بود، که دنبال اسمی «ژاپنی» می‌گشت، و من شاید به خاطر این خودخواهی، که نمی‌خواستم گذشته را به یاد آورم، روی اسمی «انگلیسی»، پافشاری می‌کردم؛ بالاخره با «نیکی» موافقت کرد، معتقد بود این اسم حال‌وهوایی شرقی دارد؛ «نیکی» امسال، در ماه آوریل، وقتی روز‌ها هنوز سرد بود، و سوزن‌ریز باران بیداد می‌کرد، به دیدنم آمد؛ شاید هم می‌خواست بیشتر پیشم بماند، نمی‌دانم؛ اما خانهٔ من در بیرون شهر و سکوتی که آن را در بر گرفته بود، حوصله‌ اش را سر برد، و چیزی نگذشت که آشکارا برای بازگشت به «لندن» بی‌تابی می‌کرد؛ بی‌حوصله به صفحه‌ های کلاسیکم گوش می‌داد، و خودش را با مجلات مختلف، مشغول می‌کرد؛ تلفن مرتب برایش به صدا درمی‌آمد، از روی فرش جستی می‌زد – اندام لاغر و استخوانیش، به پیراهن تنگش چسبیده بود – و همیشه حواسش جمع بود، که در را پشت سرش ببندد، تا حرف‌هایش خدای نکرده به گوشم نرسد؛ بعد از پنج روز رفت…»؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 03/10/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی ...more

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Mar 22, 2018 Annet rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: literature-pure, asia, beautiful-poetic, booker-pulitzer-nobel-material, dark, family-ties, favorite-author

She came to see me earlier this year, in April, when the days were still cold and drizzly. Perhaps she had intended to stay longer. I do not know. But my country house and the quiet that surrounds it made her restless, and before long I could see she was anxious to return to her life in London. She listened impatiently to my classical records, flicked through numerous magazines. The telephone rang for her regularly, and she would stride across the carpet, her thin figure squeezed into her tight She came to see me earlier this year, in April, when the days were still cold and drizzly. Perhaps she had intended to stay longer. I do not know. But my country house and the quiet that surrounds it made her restless, and before long I could see she was anxious to return to her life in London. She listened impatiently to my classical records, flicked through numerous magazines. The telephone rang for her regularly, and she would stride across the carpet, her thin figure squeezed into her tight clothes, taking care to close the door behind her so I would not overhear her conver-sation. She left after five days. She did not mention Keiko until the second day. It was a grey windy morning, and we had moved the armchairs nearer the windows to watch the rain falling on my garden. ‘Did you expect me to be there?’ she asked. ‘At the funeral, I mean.’ ‘No, I suppose not. I didn’t really think you’d come.’
‘It did upset me, hearing about her. I almost came.’
‘I never expected you to come.’

This is another Ishiguro story (his debut) full of mystery and questions, what’s happening and what is at the heart of the matter? Beautifully written, as I appreciate Ishiguro. Stories are ‘mingled’ and all has a subfeeling of sadness, melancholy and ‘something is not quite right here…’.
When I finished the book, I started again right at the beginning, to see if the circle was complete. Not quite sure. But I love Ishiguro’s brooding and 'still' writing, a dark and lyrical poet. Loved reading Ishiguro again…

It's the story of Etsuko, a Japanese woman, now living alone in England, dwelling on the recent suicide of her eldest daughter. 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 on a disturbing cast.

Interesting Wikipedia bit about the plot:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Pale_... ...more

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Sep 01, 2013 Anne rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book was so creepy and confusing that I opted to read it again. Not just because it is short, but because it is well written and it weaves a very intriguing mystery.

Our narrator Etsuko’s oldest daughter recently hung herself in her apartment. Nikki, Etsuko’s daughter with her second husband, visits Etsuko at her home and Etsuko recounts to her a brief friendship she had with a single mom named Sachiko back when she still lived in Nagasaki. I believe that Etsuko is an unreliable narrator an ...more

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Jun 06, 2020 Jim Fonseca rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: japanese-authors, memory, suicide

A Japanese-born woman in England reminisces with her daughter about the woman’s memories of life in Japan in Nagasaki after the war. The woman had two daughters by two husbands. We learn in the first couple of pages that the oldest daughter, born in Japan to a Japanese husband, recently committed suicide in England. She was solitary and anti-social, even to her family.

The second daughter’s father was British and the woman moved to England where her visiting daughter was raised. We don’t learn w ...more

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Sep 15, 2011 Fabian rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Surprise, surprise! The brilliant mind that concocted “Never Let Me Go” (which is, by the way, indubitably on my top ten list) first brought this masterpiece to a readership whose last brush with (this is no exaggeration:) PERFECTION was reading Mr. Graham Greene (“The Quiet American”). The novel is tight, 75% dialogue, exquisitely concise, devoid of flowery sentences/descriptions, no bullshit and beautiful. Ishiguro is a (n enviable) genius, a poet, one capable of expelling tears and tugging at ...more

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Jun 11, 2018 Sean Barrs rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 3-star-reads, contemporary-lit

Ishiguro’s first novel is an intriguing read. If anything, it shows how much promise he had as an author and how much he could offer the literary world as he honed his skills.

The Pale View of Hills is a very implicit book, and the conclusions I took from it may not even be conclusions at all. It’s a story that made me think, and it even made me re-read it when I finished. And that’s the problem: the cleverness of this is not revealed until the very end. There are three paragraphs in the penultim Ishiguro’s first novel is an intriguing read. If anything, it shows how much promise he had as an author and how much he could offer the literary world as he honed his skills.

The Pale View of Hills is a very implicit book, and the conclusions I took from it may not even be conclusions at all. It’s a story that made me think, and it even made me re-read it when I finished. And that’s the problem: the cleverness of this is not revealed until the very end. There are three paragraphs in the penultimate chapter that (perhaps) change the entire story.

"Memory, I realize, can be an unreliable thing; often it is heavily coloured by the circumstances in which one remembers, and no doubt this applies to certain of the recollections I have gathered here."

Up to that point it all seemed rather ordinary. I was waiting for something big to happen and it came far too late. By the time it did, I was already quite bored with the story and ready to move onto a new book. For me, it was a real shame. I would have liked more suggestions through the book. On my second read, I found not a single shred of evidence or hint about what we learn at the end. It came rather quick and stopped me dead in my tracks even if it is a very, very cleaver device.

If I’m being cryptic, it’s because I don’t want to ruin the it all for you though I do really think Ishiguro learnt from this book. All the major themes he replicates across his writing are here in a very early form. He explores memory and regret in a way no other writer can. It’s the things he doesn’t say that make his writing so powerful. 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. And this is something he delivered with a masterful stroke in The Remains of the Day. He really grew as an artist.

So I recommend this to those that like his later books and really want to see how far he has come, though I do warn you this is not executed with the same level of skill he would later wield. ...more

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May 24, 2020 Jean-Luke rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Some books you really just have to read (at least) twice. Never before have I read a work of literary fiction more carefully than I would read an Agatha Christie novel. What can I say? I was determined to figure it out the second time around, reading for details instead of for an explanation, and as it turns out these characters actually have a special place on my heart, especially Etsuko and Ogata-san and their teasing relationship. What was I smoking the first time around? I just wanted answer ...more

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Oct 07, 2010 K.D. Absolutely rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006-2010)

Shelves: 1001-core, asian, family-drama, war, british, booker

I have a friend here on Goodreads who reads the books of the authors he fancies chronologically. I admire his tenacity and discipline. Even if I have all the author's works in my bookshelves, I still always pick first his most famous work. My reason is that if I die soon, at least, I've already read the author's masterpiece.

I think I liked Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day (4 stars) and Never Let Me Go (4 stars) that almost all of his other works seem to be mediocre. It's like that I've fallen i ...more

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Jan 16, 2019 Justin Tate rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Didn't work for me, unfortunately. I need more than subtle hints at mystery to keep me interested. I was annoyed that virtually the entire novel was told through dialogue. Worse, so much of the dialogue seemed irrelevant. Filtering out the nonsense to find intrigue took too much work. Still, there were some well-crafted scenes so it wasn't all bad. And, thankfully, it is a very slim novel. I'm sure some readers will love it, but beware if you aren't a fan of subtle. ...more

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Jun 01, 2018 سارا rated it really liked it · review of another edition

به انتهای کتاب که رسیدم منتظر کشف چیزی بودم، دلیلی برای روایت خاطرات گذشته راوی و‌ اتفاقی که برای دخترش افتاده، و خب بعد از کمی فکر کردن و کنار هم گذاشتن بخش های مختلف پیداش کردم.
بنظرم این قدرت قلم فوق العاده ایشی گوروئه که سرنخ ها رو به خواننده میده ولی قضاوت و تصمیم نهایی رو به عهده خودش میذاره. کتاب ایراد ترجمه‌ای داشت که اگر نبود تو همون صفحات پایانی گره داستان باز میشد.
یک روزه خوندمش و لذت بردم و احساس میکنم بعد از خوندن سه کتاب، می تونم «کازوئو ایشی گورو» رو یکی از نویسندگان مورد علاقه ام ...more

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Dec 08, 2017 nettebuecherkiste rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: belletristik, buchpreise, englischsprachige-literatur, historische-romane, literatunobelpreis, weltkriege, zeitgeschichte, japan, nachkriegszeit

Cooooooool! 😮

Großbritannien in den Achtizgern. Seitdem die Japanerin Etsuko Japan mit ihrem inzwischen verstorbenen britischen Ehemann Japan verlassen hat, lebt sie in England. Sie bekommt Besuch von ihrer gemeinsamen jüngeren Tochter Niki. Die ältere Tochter Keiko, die aus einer früheren Beziehung mit einem Japaner stammt, hat sich kürzlich das Leben genommen. Vor dem Eindruck ihres Todes und des Besuchs ihrer Schwester beginnt Etsuko, sich an ihre Zeit in Japan zu erinnern.

Damals kam das von d Cooooooool! 😮

Großbritannien in den Achtizgern. Seitdem die Japanerin Etsuko Japan mit ihrem inzwischen verstorbenen britischen Ehemann Japan verlassen hat, lebt sie in England. Sie bekommt Besuch von ihrer gemeinsamen jüngeren Tochter Niki. Die ältere Tochter Keiko, die aus einer früheren Beziehung mit einem Japaner stammt, hat sich kürzlich das Leben genommen. Vor dem Eindruck ihres Todes und des Besuchs ihrer Schwester beginnt Etsuko, sich an ihre Zeit in Japan zu erinnern.

Damals kam das von der Atombombe erschütterte Nachkriegs-Nagasaki wieder auf die Beine, Etsuko war schwanger, ihr japanischer Mann versuchte, seine Karriere voranzutreiben und ihr Schwiegervater war zu einem längeren Besuch da, als in ein Häuschen gegenüber die rätselhafte Sachiko mit ihrer Tochter Mariko einzog. Sachiko ist keine Mutter aus dem Bilderbuch, sie lässt Mariko häufig unbeaufsichtigt, um in der Stadt mit ihrem Freund, einem amerikanischen Soldaten, um die Häuser zu ziehen. Etsuko freundet sich mit Sachiko an und achtet auch ein wenig auf Mariko.

Von den drei Büchern, die ich bisher von Kazuo Ishiguro gelesen habe, beeindruckte mich dieses – sein Debütroman – am meisten. Das liegt einmal daran, dass es um ein bevorzugtes Thema von mir geht, die Unzuverlässigkeit von Erinnerungen, andererseits an der meisterhaften Komposition des Romans. Für mich schreibt so ein echter Könner. Es ist sehr schwierig, dieses Buch ohne Spoiler zu besprechen, deshalb folgt unten ein Spoiler-Abschnitt. Der Plot-Twist verbirgt sich tatsächlich hinter einem einzigen Wort, weshalb ich empfehle, das Buch vor allem in der zweiten Hälfte sehr aufmerksam zu lesen, denn die ganze Bedeutung hinter dem Buch hängt an diesem Twist. Deshalb muss aber niemand das Buch scheuen, denn es ist, wie es sich für Ishiguro gehört, sehr gut lesbar und angenehm geschrieben. Lasst euch diesen kleinen Geniestreich von Ishiguro nicht entgehen!

SPOILER!!!

Es geht also um die Unzuverlässigkeit von Erinnerungen. Diese machen Etsuko zu einer unzuverlässigen Erzählerin, die ihre eigenen Erinnerungen daran, wie schlecht sie sich selbst als Mutter ihrer älteren Tochter verhalten hat, verdrängt hat. Denn Mariko ist niemand anderes als Keiko und Sachiko ist eine Figur, auf die Etsuko sich selbst und ihr Verhalten projiziert. Dies erschließt sich in der letzten in der Vergangenheit in Nagasaki spielenden Szene, als Etsuko Mariko nachläuft und sie besänftigen will:

„In any case,“ I went on, „if you don’t like it over there, we’ll comne straight back. But we have to try it and see if we like it there. I’m sure we will.“ (Seite 173)

Die plötzliche Verwendung des Pronomens „we“ statt „you“ ist ein entscheidender Hinweise. Ein so feinsinniger und raffinierter Plottwist ist mir noch nicht untergekommen und hat in mir große Begeisterung für das Buch ausgelöst. Ich muss darauf hinweisen, dass es noch eine andere Interpretation gibt, nämlich dass Etsuko eine Kindsmörderin ist, die Mädchen erhängt, was Marikos Entsetzen über das in Etsukos Sandale verfangene Seil erklären würde. Meine eigene Theorie ist die gängigere und ich habe mich entschieden, dabei zu bleiben, es spricht mehr dafür. Aber vielleicht bietet uns Ishiguro, der sich wohl nicht über die richtige Interpretation geäußert hat, seinen Lesern auch beide Interpretationen ermöglichen? In jedem Fall handelt es sich um einen meisterhaft gestalteten Roman. ...more

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Nov 14, 2017 Nishat rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: got-into-my-nerves

On the surface, Ishiguro's characters are in control. They have repressed their emotions and unknowingly in that attempt, prolonged the process of healing after loss. The war has left them numb and bereaved of loved ones. And in this remarkable debut, we listen to one of these survivors.

Etsuko's daughter hanged herself in England. Etsuko, our leading character is somewhat in denial, but nevertheless means to develop intimacy with grief, with her old wounds. Through her recollections, we go back ...more

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Jan 14, 2015 Barry Pierce rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, read-in-2015

My first Ishiguro. This is such a quaint and quiet novel. Inane to the point of enjoyability. I look forward to more monotony.

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Nov 18, 2017 Hodove rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

خب از اون کتابهایی بود که تا چندین روز باهام خواهد موند!میتونستم همینطور ۲۰۰صفحه دیگه به خوندن ادامه بدم بس که قلم ایشی گورو به دلم نشسته بود.
خب فقط یه نکته ای هست.گویا که مترجم عزیز کتاب دقت کافی در ترجمه مهم ترین و کلیدی ترین بخش کتاب نکرده و باعث شده به کل داستان عوض بشه؛اگر داستان رو خوندین و آخرش گیج شدین احتمال داره به این خاطر باشه.
تو ‌ترجمه جناب امیر امجد(نشر نیلا)این اتفاق تو صفحه ۱۹۰افتاده؛من که حدس زده بودم چی شده رفتم سرچ کردم و به این مطلب زیر برخورد کردم که ازش نقل قول میکنم:

«متاسف ...more

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Mar 26, 2018 Sidharth Vardhan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2-asia, nobel, war-genocide, list-1001

"Niki, the name we finally gave my younger daughter, is not an abbreviation; it was a compromise I reached with her father. For paradoxically it was he who wanted to give her a Japanese name, and I — perhaps out of some selfish desire not to be reminded of the past — insisted on an English one."

Etsuko doesn't like to talk or even think about her past, the time of world war 2 when she was in Nagasaki. It is the central theme of the book having to deal with gloomy and dark past (the world w

"Niki, the name we finally gave my younger daughter, is not an abbreviation; it was a compromise I reached with her father. For paradoxically it was he who wanted to give her a Japanese name, and I — perhaps out of some selfish desire not to be reminded of the past — insisted on an English one."

Etsuko doesn't like to talk or even think about her past, the time of world war 2 when she was in Nagasaki. It is the central theme of the book having to deal with gloomy and dark past (the world war and nuclear bombs) while building the future, whether you are talking about Japan or at the individual level:

"That’s no way to bring a child into the world, visiting the cemetery every week."

This is just one of the ways the people in the novel deal with the past - her friend, Sachiko, must keep on reassuring her that she has nothing to feel guilty about in marrying an American man and leaving for States (which she too is doing for her daughter's future). Her father-in-law is troubled by the Japanese adoption of American values. There is that whole generation gap thing - but I guess nothing widens that gap like war, from a generation of old ways (father-in-law) to a generation, lost to war (Etsuko and Sachiko) to the generation that was born in or around war times (Keiko) to the generation that is alien to their parents' sufferings (Nikki).

This is difference between dates of generations is common motif (though not most obvious) in all Ishiguru books I have read but this one also shows characters who have other forms of prejudice then prevalent whether it be Japanese prejudice against women:

"My wife votes for Yoshida just because he looks like her uncle. That’s typical of women. They don’t understand politics. They think they can choose the country’s leaders the same way they choose dresses.”

Or western prejudice against Japanese (arising out of Kamikaze strikes?):

"The English are fond of their idea that our race has an instinct for suicide, as if further explanations are unnecessary; for that was all they reported, that she was Japanese and that she had hung herself in her room."

There are usual 'memory' tricks that only Proust and Ishiguru can pull as far as I am concerned (Banville and Barnes failed to impress).

"Memory, I realize, can be an unreliable thing; often it is heavily coloured by the circumstances in which one remembers, and no doubt this applies to certain of the recollections I have gathered here."

And finally, my favorite quote:

"I have found myself continually bringing to mind that picture — of my daughter hanging in her room for days on end. The horror of that image has never diminished, but it has long ceased to be a morbid matter; as with a wound on one’s own body, it is possible to develop an intimacy with the most disturbing of things."

...more

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May 26, 2016 Deniz Balcı rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ingiliz-edebiyati

Kasuo Ishiguro bilindiği üzere Japon kökenli olmasına rağmen; İngilizce yazan, İngiltere'de yaşayan ve İngiliz vatandaşı olarak hayatını sürdüren bir yazar. Haliyle bu durumda aslında İngiliz Edebiyatı yapması beklenebilir. Ancak İngiltere'nin, malum tarihi politikalarından dolayı, eskiden beri sahip olduğu çok İngiliz olmayan gayrikökenli yazarları mevcut. Bu yazarlarda ilginç bir şekilde, İngiltere'de başarılı olma yolunun, farklılığını kullanmak bundan beslenmek olduğunu düşünüyor sanırım. Bu Kasuo Ishiguro bilindiği üzere Japon kökenli olmasına rağmen; İngilizce yazan, İngiltere'de yaşayan ve İngiliz vatandaşı olarak hayatını sürdüren bir yazar. Haliyle bu durumda aslında İngiliz Edebiyatı yapması beklenebilir. Ancak İngiltere'nin, malum tarihi politikalarından dolayı, eskiden beri sahip olduğu çok İngiliz olmayan gayrikökenli yazarları mevcut. Bu yazarlarda ilginç bir şekilde, İngiltere'de başarılı olma yolunun, farklılığını kullanmak bundan beslenmek olduğunu düşünüyor sanırım. Bu çerçevede Kasuo Ishiguro'nun eline aldığı konu ve işleme şekli bir Japon yazarınkinden çok farklı değil.

Eser çok çabuk okunabilecek, akışın içerisinde güzel tespitler sıkıştırılmış bir kitap. Yazarın ilk romanı. 1993 senesinde İngiltere'de yayımlanmış. Kitap, ikinci evliliğini İngiliz bir adamla yapmış; biri vefat etmiş Japon kocasından diğeri İngiliz kocasından iki tane çocuk sahibi; İngiltere'de yaşayan, II. Dünya Savaşı sonrası Nagazaki'de yaşamış; İngiltere'de ilk eşinden olan çocuğu Keiko'yu intiharla kaybetmiş bir annenin; geçmişe dönük yolculuklarıyla, çocukları ve hayatla kurduğu ilişkiden bahsediyor.

Böyle uzaktan baktığımızda konu çok zengin. Birçok kod var yazarın işleyebileceği. Hepsini de bir ölçüde karşılamaya çalışmış zaten. Ama çok başarılı olduğunu düşünmüyorum ben. Bu bir kitaptan ziyade film gibi akan romanlardan. Kitabı okumadım, izledim. Mesleğim senaryo olduğundan da böyle bir izlenime kapılmış olabilirim bilmiyorum ama genel yapı, kurgu, akış; bir sinema filmi oluşturmak için muazzam uygunlukta.

Bunun dışında diğer takıldığım bir şey samimiyet. Savaş sonrası değişimi Japon yazarlar eserlerine çok farklı ve özgün şekillerde eserlerine yedirmişken, İngiltere'de büyümüş birisi için fazla kesin hüküm verirci gibi geldi. Bu da bende samimiyet durumunu sorgulattı. O yüzden biraz soru işaretleri olduğunu söyleyebilirim bu açıdan.

Ancak okuma zevki olarak oldukça tatmin olduğu için tavsiye edebilirim.

7/10 ...more

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Jun 16, 2020 ✨ A ✨ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: adult, historical, debut, faves-adult-historical-fiction, four-stars, novella-or-short-story, read-in-2020, cross-post

The first words to come out of my mouth when I finished this book was: WHAT. THE. HELL.

What did I just read?

Did what I think happened really happen? Is my copy missing another 200 pages or something BECAUSE I NEED ANSWERS!!

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Feb 18, 2019 Henk rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Deeply unsettling how this novel shows the human cost of war reverberating
“Memory, I realize, can be an unreliable thing; often it is heavily coloured by the circumstances in which one remembers, and no doubt this applies to certain of the recollections I have gathered here.”

The time and period the book is set in, Nagasaki just after the second world war, is very interesting. The characters, even the youngest, all struggle with memories from the war (most chillingly culminating in a recollection Deeply unsettling how this novel shows the human cost of war reverberating
“Memory, I realize, can be an unreliable thing; often it is heavily coloured by the circumstances in which one remembers, and no doubt this applies to certain of the recollections I have gathered here.”

The time and period the book is set in, Nagasaki just after the second world war, is very interesting. The characters, even the youngest, all struggle with memories from the war (most chillingly culminating in a recollection of how a desperate woman drowned her baby in wartime Tokyo) and the people they’ve lost. Most of the story is told through dialogue, that quite often have a strange repetition of denials in them, up to three time phrases seem to be repeated, like it is only proper to say what you really want or need from each other after someone urged you three times to speak out.

Sechiko as a fallen rich woman befriends Etsuko, the pregnant narrator. I found it hard to pinpoint why exactly they were friends, given Sechiko mostly talks about the better life she had, her plans to move with an American to the US and, despite her persistent proclamations that the wellbeing of her daughter Mariko is most dear to her, spends most of her time in the Nagasaki nightlife. Sachiko often looks down at others who try too pick up their lives, but has no clue how to get ahead alone herself; during the whole book she is never not being moved around by either her American boyfriend or her uncle.

Drowning cats or caring for them, a dilemma for Sachiko at the end of the book, was another scene which was acutely emotionally scarring and carried real emotional weight.
A more minor character is the father in law of Etsuko, who is yearning for a simpler and more authoritarian Japan. He feels like a clear foreshadowing of the main character of the next book of Ishiguro, An Artist of The Floating World.

Nagasaki just after World War II is however not the only time and place the story is set in. Etsuko also narrates from England how one of her daughters, Nikki, visit her after the suicide of Keiko. Very little happens or is explained in these short section, except that a feeling of melancholy rules in the house of Etsuko.

Plot twist or why I stayed up an hour after finishing the book, just thinking: WTF
“Do you belief that, only for a second, I think that I am a good mother for her?”
During the story you feel that Etsuko walking around and visiting Sachiko so often, while pregnant, and with quite a grumpy husband at home, is a bit odd. Also no government childcare service goes after Mariko skipping school. However nothing could prepare me for the ending of this book, an ending that is very uncanny and creepy, especially since the largest part of the book is calm, reflective and collected.

(view spoiler) ...more

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Aug 04, 2017 Fiona rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: general-fiction

Interesting from a historical point of view, this novel is set in 1951/2 at the end of the American occupation of Japan post WWII. It shifts between then and the 1970s when the main character, Etsuko, is living in England. So many questions about the storyline are left unanswered but somehow it doesn’t matter. Its main point is, I think, to show how times change and how generations mourn the passing of their old ways.

Conversations between the Japanese characters is so controlled and couched in p ...more

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Mar 05, 2011 Emily rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
A Pale View of Hills reads like a dream, thus the conclusions drawn about the narrator and the events she describes are more ambiguous then those in Ishiguro’s other novels. Unlike other Ishiguro’s novels, we are not only left doubting the narrator’s interpretations of her memories, but doubting whether they are memories at all. Therefore, this review attempts to separate the story that is presented by the narrator, Etsuko, and the “truth” of the events that lies beneath her unreliable narratio
A Pale View of Hills reads like a dream, thus the conclusions drawn about the narrator and the events she describes are more ambiguous then those in Ishiguro’s other novels. Unlike other Ishiguro’s novels, we are not only left doubting the narrator’s interpretations of her memories, but doubting whether they are memories at all. Therefore, this review attempts to separate the story that is presented by the narrator, Etsuko, and the “truth” of the events that lies beneath her unreliable narration.
That being said, I think it is interesting to note that the novel appears to purposefully be divided into two parts. Although there is no clear plot distinction between the two sections, since I had read Ishiguro before, I saw this as the secret for unraveling the novels ambiguity.
To begin with, I realized Etsuko’s life was clearly broken into two very different past and presents. The past, her life in post-WWII Japan with her first husband and the birth of her first child Kieko, and then the present, defined by her life in England with her second husband and her daughter Niki. Rather then using the two sections to structure the novel chronologically, the narrator, Etsuko, chooses to bounce back and forth from past to present in both sections, as if she too is confused as to the boundary that divides the two, mixing memory with falsehoods.
This can seen most clearly on the last page of Part One, when Etsuko is addressing her daughter about a reoccurring dream she is having about a little girl she saw on a swing the other day. Earlier in the novel, Etsuko suggests that it was seeing this little girl that prompted all of her memories of Sachiko and her daughter Mariko, however in this last page of the section, Etsuko realizes “something else about the dream. The little girl isn’t on a swing at all. It seemed like that at first. But it’s not a swing she’s on” (pg. 96). Most likely, Etsuko is realizing here that she is not thinking of the little girl, she is thinking of her own child, Kieko, dangling from a rope when she hung herself in her room. If this is true, and the image of the death of her oldest daughter marks the recollections of Mariko, then the changing of the pronouns at the end of the novel (when she addresses Mariko as her own child) suggest that Etsuko is aware at some level they are the same person, yet her memory separates them because of personal guilt or trauma.
If this is true, then the novel’s division into two sections becomes clear: Part One is where the memories of past and present exist separate from each other in the narrator’s mind, Part Two is when the narrator realizes she has created these false memories in order to hide the guilt she feels about her daughter’s suicide. In Part Two, the narrator slowly begins to meld these different realities together, mixing pronouns and switching names, because she is slowly realizing the truth, that “the little girl is not on a swing at all”.
Once the reader is aware that Sachiko is most likely the doppelganger of Etsuko and Mariko is Kieko, a few of the novel’s reoccurring memories begin to take on new meaning. To begin with, Etsuko tells of two memories where she goes out looking for Kieko in the woods at night and finds the child under a willow tree and runs away scared. Although these two memories appear to be different, Etsuko combines the details of each into a reoccurring collective memory. For example, although she only remembers in one memory picking up a rope on her way to find Maiko, in both memories Mariko appears scared and asks about why Etsuko is holding the rope. Etsuko later recalls a child in the city being hung from a tree by a rope, and reveals her own daughter had hung herself with a rope in her room. Most likely, Etsuko has these memories where the child is threatened by her holding a rope because she, at some level, blames herself for her daughter’s death.
Another example of these overlapping and conflicting memories is Mariko’s constant fear of the woman she saw drown her own child. From the very beginning of the novel, Mariko compares Etsuko to this woman, who she says also offered to take her back to her house the day after Etsuko and Mariko had the same interaction. Later in the novel, Sachiko reenacts (down to the same body movements and empty smile) the same scene as the woman drowning the baby when she drowns Mariko’s kittens. If Sachiko is actually Etsuko’s memory manifestation of herself, then she is reliving the guilt of feeling like she killed her own child.
Towards the beginning of the novel, Etsuko states that the suicide of her daughter prompted the newspaper to draw a parallel to the fact that she was Japanese and committed suicide, as if the two were linked. Through all of her attempts to rationalize these memories, it becomes clear by the end of the novel that Etsuko cannot dissolve her guilt of her past, her heritage, being the reason her daughter died.
This theme of the past haunting the living, is something that runs throughout every aspect of the novel: Sachiko’s haunted house being the only remaining pre-war building, the young families going to cemeteries with their young children, Jiro’s rocky relationship with his strong viewed father, the choice/regret of Etsuko not living in the home of her father-in-law. Mrs Fujiwara’s declaration of forgetting the past and looking forward to happier days is something Etsuko continually repeats throughout her narration, but it is something that she is unable to do.
This can best be seen in the stark contradiction of the opening lines of the novel (where Etsuko states her younger daughter is names Niki in order to give up Japanese tradition and “not be reminded of the past”) and the middle of the novel where Etsuko promises her father-in-law that she will name all her children after him and his wife. Etsuko is a woman who, though the death of her daughter, is attempting to forget her past by creating a new one that is devoid of pain. But like her youngest child’s name that echos the sounds of her past, Etsuko’s falseified memories cannot help but reveal the truth underneath.
The novel ends with Niki leaving her past, her home, in an attempt to forge her own future (deny the past filled with a dead sister by sleeping in a room that is not her own and not going to her sister’s funeral). The last line states, “Niki glanced back and seemed surprised to find me still standing at the door”. The past, Ishiguro argues, will always haunt us.

...more

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Jan 02, 2015 Hugh rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: modern-lit, read-2015, five-leaves-bookclub, read-2019

Original one line summary review - March 2015:

A poised, elliptical story of post-war Japan and contrasting cultures, generations and family relationships.

Further reflections after re-reading and face to face discussion with the Five Leaves book group - Nov 2019:
When this book was chosen for this month's Five Leaves book group discussion, I was initially a little reluctant to participate, having read and quite enjoyed the book four years ago I remembered very little about it, and would not have p ...more

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Nov 13, 2010 Aubrey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: person-of-everything, shorty-short, 1-read-on-hand, 4-star, r-2014, r-goodreads, reviewed, antidote-think-twice-read, antidote-think-twice-all, nobel-prize-people

4.5/5

The English are fond of their idea that our race has an instinct for suicide, as if further explanations are unnecessary; for that was all they reported, that she was Japanese and that she had hung herself in her room.

I had forgotten what an Ishiguro novel is like. Of course, it is customary to treat first works as trial runs in the vein of Icarus, so I wasn't expecting another The Remains of the Day or Never Let Me Go. While my star rating for this doesn't match up to the other two, it is my discomforting awareness of my inherent unfamiliarity with the subject material that prevents me from "liking" it any more. I do not trust my current understanding of what I have just finished reading enough, and so I will leave the four stars where it is until I can return with a firmer grasp on things.

But then again, Etsuko, no one knew what a war was really like, not in those days.

It is only recently that I started paying more attention to the divide between how much of my food, literature, and media is Japanese in origin, and how little I can conceptualize living there. I touched upon the effects of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in my review of The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, but that was a piece that didn't pull its punches, and thus is very different from this subtle hydra interplay of many tragedies in a single life. Here, the dominating lighthouse of EuroAmerican sensibilities wins, in a certain sense, if only due to the fundamental differences between Japanese society's treatment of women and men. I do not judge with this statement, as the all inspiring "business woman" goal touched upon the mothers in this book has its own garrote to pay in the land of the free murderers and the home of the brave sadists.

What I enjoy most about Ishiguro is this intangible sense of bitter nostalgia that mixes sadness and respite in equal measure. He takes a great deal of time and patience and is far from obvious about any of it, but once the context sinks in it weighs on your heart for months. The themes are simple enough: death, memory, the choices we make and the results we live by, but Ishigro is one of the few who refuses to make human beings an equation for these modes of story to solve. It doesn't make for light reading, so it's a wonder that he's as popular as he is. Then again, McCullers and Stoner are doing just fine, so some measure of the public eye craves a more soul-wrenching breed of entertainment.

P.S. Much as I've grown to dislike my ham-fisted intercultural studies class, one of the assigned readings on conflict helped my understanding of this book immensely. It can be found here, if anyone's interested in that sort of thing. ...more

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Aug 03, 2018 Orki De rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: رمان-خارجی

بعد از خوندن این کتاب، مطمئنم شدم که ادبیات شرق دور جز علاقه مندی های زیادم محسوب میشه. داشتن موراکامی کافی نیست؟ ایشی گورو هم رفت که بشه نویسنده مورد علاقه ام!
اگه در آخرین صفحات داستان هم گره گشایی رخ نمیداد و لذت خوندش را صدبرابر نمیکرد، باز هم من تمام کمال از کلمات و داستان لذت برده بودم. و اما فصل آخر، به صورت خیلی مخفی و غیر مستقیم، تیر خلاص بود برای وارونه کردن همه تصورات خواننده از داستان و شخصیت ها. راوی مطمئن و قابل اعتماد نیست، و بارها در حین بازگویی خاطرات به این اعتراف میکنه که حافظه بعد از خوندن این کتاب، مطمئنم شدم که ادبیات شرق دور جز علاقه مندی های زیادم محسوب میشه. داشتن موراکامی کافی نیست؟ ایشی گورو هم رفت که بشه نویسنده مورد علاقه ام!
اگه در آخرین صفحات داستان هم گره گشایی رخ نمیداد و لذت خوندش را صدبرابر نمیکرد، باز هم من تمام کمال از کلمات و داستان لذت برده بودم. و اما فصل آخر، به صورت خیلی مخفی و غیر مستقیم، تیر خلاص بود برای وارونه کردن همه تصورات خواننده از داستان و شخصیت ها. راوی مطمئن و قابل اعتماد نیست، و بارها در حین بازگویی خاطرات به این اعتراف میکنه که حافظه همه چیز رو دستکاری میکنه و تصاویر رو تغییر میده.

"خطر لو رفتن داستان"
در واقع اتسوکو و ساچیکو یه نفره و چون اتسوکو از خودش و گذشته اش متنفره برای همین در به یاد آوردن خاطرات، خودش رو همسایه مظلوم و مهربون به یاد میاره. دختر عجیب و جن زده، ماریکو همون کیکو ست. که رفتار عجیبش بی ربط نیست با تربیت اشتباه و برخوردهای نادرست مادرش. ساچیکو بارها در داستان میگه که دخترم برای من اولویت اول رو داره و بارها برخلاف این حرفش عمل میکنه، اون فقط به فکر خودشه به فکر داشتن یه زندگی خوب و جذاب.
البته نویسنده، قضاوت رو به عهده ی ما میذاره. از طرفی سرنوشت دخترک رو خودکشی نشون میده، یعنی تاثیر مستقیم رفتار مادرش. و از طرفی اتسوکو از طرف دختر دومش که بزرگ شده ی لندنه به خاطر شجاعتش در تغییر مسیر زندگی مورد تحسین قرار میگیره‌‌‌‌. اما خود اتسوکو زندگی بی عاطفه ای داره که از گذشته گریزانه و فکر میکنم در محاکمه دائمی خودش به سر میبره‌.
اما سوالی که برای من حل نشده و فکر نمیکنم نویسنده میخواسته بهش جوابی بده، اینه که جیرو شوهر اتسوکو چه اتفاقی براش میافته ؟ اصلا چرا از هم جدا میشن؟ و این که فرانک، آیا دوست اتسوکو بود در حین زندگی مشترکش با جیرو. اینو بر اساسی شایعاتی که پشت سر ساچیکو بود میگم.

در کل فوق العاده لذت بردم از قلم خوب و روان نویسنده. از داستان پردازی و این معمای ذهنی و حل جالبش!
ترجمه هم خوب و روان بود. ...more

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Feb 14, 2020 Greta G rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ebook, fiction, owned-in-english, japan

As with a wound on one’s own body, it is possible to develop an intimacy with the most disturbing of things.

Review to come.

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Nov 16, 2010 Brinda rated it liked it · review of another edition

This is my third Ishiguro and at the risk of sounding presumptuous, I think I'm beginning to detect a pattern. His works so far have been mysteries and thrillers, but not in the traditional who dunnit sense. As a reader, the mystery lies in trying to figure out the true motivation of the narrator, since one is never really certain whether to trust them or not because they appear to make such odd choices. The mystery also lies in figuring out what the "it" is, ie, the nugget, the game-changer, th This is my third Ishiguro and at the risk of sounding presumptuous, I think I'm beginning to detect a pattern. His works so far have been mysteries and thrillers, but not in the traditional who dunnit sense. As a reader, the mystery lies in trying to figure out the true motivation of the narrator, since one is never really certain whether to trust them or not because they appear to make such odd choices. The mystery also lies in figuring out what the "it" is, ie, the nugget, the game-changer, the reason why all the characters are behaving somewhat strangely, not saying exactly what they mean because they all understand the implications of a certain unspeakable factor. And it's thrilling because of the buildup and the moment where he reveals the answers to these questions, reminiscent of an Agatha Christie novel, where all the guests are gathered in the parlor room and either Miss Marple or Hercules Poirot start to unpeel the layers revealing the murderer - who is in that very room with them.

And therein lie both the wonder and the disappointment of Ishiguro's novels for me - the wonder, because mysteries are always fun to read and it always keeps the reader hooked to find out a reason why a particular character is making choices that you find totally bizarre or tragic. But disappointing because, like in "A Pale View of Hills", I get the sense that Ishiguro relies too much on these interesting literary devices, and not enough on the literature part, so that the devices are exceptionally presented and engaging, but once they reveal the "it", you begin to feel cheated. I don't want to beat this point to death - it just seems to me that the novel was written in this haunting, ethereal, and slightly creepy style...but for no real good reason. Why was Etsuko so obsessed with Sachiko and her daughter? The obsession part was great, but as reader, I was not satisfied with the WHY. Why did Jiro leave Etsuko? I can guess, but unlike other novels, I don't get the sense that "there are no wrong answers." Why did Keiko kill herself? Are she and Mariko the same person? Is this whole novel a dream sequence of Etsuko where she is actually Sachiko and imposing her own thoughts and regrets onto a second character?

The novel was beautifully written, in terms of tone, word choice and topic. I love that Ishiguro sets his novels admidst world-altering events - whether it be WW2, or the discovery of human cloning, or the atomic bomb destroying Nagasaki. But what I liked about "Remains of the Day" is that he used the event magnificently in the plot, revealing how Lord Darlington was actually a Nazi sympathizer but the butler did not really want to see that because he was such a subservient person. In "Pale", I wanted him to use the backdrop of the bomb drop more powerfully. It seemed that he was trying to draw a link of the Japan of the past with the Japan of the now, describing that tug of remaining a traditional, proud, and proudly Japanese society, against the desire of the younger generation to explore beyond Japan's borders and re-build post-war, and not focus its energies on making Japan a great military power. But where "Remains" was a mystery of the soul, of the character, of love, with the butler's relationship to his master serving as a perfect allegory for fascism and the war, this book - as well as Never Let me Go - for me did not do enough with the amazingly rich backdrops in which the writer decided to set these stories. He wrote fairly mundane plot lines set in completely life-altering time periods and topics, without giving enough of a nod to those explosive times and subjects.

That said, Ishiguro's greatest gift as a writer, in my view, is in setting the tone. The tone of all three novels I have read - Remains of the Day, Never Let Me Go, and A PaleView of Hills - were positively gorgeous in their overarching sense of dread without ever quite becoming truly dreadful, and description of characters' expressions and interactions with each other. It's the plot development that I had an issue with in this novel. But I still want to read more of this truly gifted author.

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Dec 06, 2020 Inna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Много интересно как на пръв поглед нищо кой знае какво не се случва в цялата книга, а ми хареса толкова много.

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Oct 31, 2020 Boris rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Безкрайно изненадан съм от това, че първият роман на Ишигуро е толкова смел. Този автор го влече да рови в паметта, спомените и непрекъснато да подлага на съмнение кое е реално и кое не в опит да открие някаква истина. И го заявява категорично и ясно още с първия си роман. Излишно е да казвам, че страшно много ми хареса.

На феновете на “Художник на променливия свят” ще се харесa.

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Mar 19, 2007 Jess rated it liked it · review of another edition

Possibly someone murdered a baby, possibly someone hung herself.

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Reading 1001: A Pale View of Hills	2	13	Dec 10, 2020 01:26PM
What could have happened to Keiko [SPOILERS/TW]	1	21	Jul 12, 2019 04:28AM
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About Kazuo Ishiguro

Kazuo Ishiguro

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Sir Kazuo Ishiguro (カズオ・イシグロ or 石黒一雄), OBE, FRSA, FRSL is a British novelist of Japanese origin and Nobel Laureate in Literature (2017). His family moved to England in 1960. Ishiguro obtained his Bachelor's degree from the University of Kent in 1978 and his Master's from the University of East Anglia's creative writing course in 1980. He became a British citizen in 1982. He now lives in London.

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“As with a wound on one's own body, it is possible to develop an intimacy with the most disturbing of things” — 68 likes

“Memory, I realize, can be an unreliable thing; often it is heavily coloured by the circumstances in which one remembers, and no doubt this applies to certain of the recollections I have gathered here. ” — 26 likes

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