Betty Confetti answers “I believe the ending can be interpreted...”

Mitch Davidson asked this question about The Buried Giant:

I believe the ending can be interpreted different ways. What did it mean to you?

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)[Well, I have a totally different take on this book and the ending. Axl and Beatrice live in a convalescent home and head out toward something they can't exactly articulate. Along the way, they meet dangers....people who help them...people who hurt them....people who offer them goodness despite being somewhat evil....people who offer them evil despite being somewhat good. The shards of memory come and go as an Alzheimer's patient...but all the while, they are focused on moving forward together. At some point, a memory comes that their son has died, and this reminds me of those final moments for my father who died of Alzheimer's. He had a revelation, looked at my mother, and then was gone forever. Axl was never as ill. He was her caretaker. He needed that journey to accept her fate to pass alone before he did.
This book is like The Unconsoled in that it treats a concept--sanity for The Unconsoled, memory for Buried Giant. (The Unconsoled is about a man living in an insane asylum, not some great pianist who travels the world and gives a concert....sorry if that's what folks think it was about.)
The Buried Giant offers a beautiful relationship of an older married couple. How many novels does one read today that has octogenarians as the hero? It doesn't play into silliness by having the old couple adopt the young boy. That's too predictable and impossible given their health. It's about grudges. It's about hate. All of those things for Axl and Beatrice have died as they have aged. Much as my old next door neighbors are just trying to keep their heads screwed on straight and don't give a care about politics, property issues, wealth......
This book is a beautiful read. It is firmly in place in the style of Ishiguro...We see a reality as in Remains of the Day....but is it fact or fiction? Ultimately comes down to perspective. We see the humanity of love, just as we saw it in Someone to Never Let Me Go. Love can not conquer all. For the Unconsoled, it is that self-purpose can come from within, no matter the surroundings. These are all themes of Buried Giant. If you're looking for swashbuckling, ain't here. It's gentle, careful, thoughtful, masterful. (hide spoiler)]

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Neil Nicely stated.
Feb 16, 2018 11:47AM · flag

Eloquent I agree. It plays with the imagery of the river of forgetfulness and the river Styx of death in Greek mythology. They had to journey in order to come ...more
May 14, 2018 07:47AM · flag

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The Buried Giant

by Kazuo Ishiguro (Goodreads Author)

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