In Kazuo Ishiguro's The Buried Giant the central characters are husband and wife Axl and Beatrice. They are on a journey to find, and be reconciled with, their long-lost son. Who is thought to live in a not too distant village. But enveloping everyone and everything is ... a mist. Which appears to cause forgetfulness in everybody. And may or may not itself be caused by Querig the she-dragon. It's a tale of Britons and Saxons, orcs and pixies, all of which may or may not be real - or figments of mist-addled illusion.
There are warriors and Authurian knights but it seems that it is down to simple peasants Axl and Beatrice to slay the she-dragon and release the mist. But they are ambivalent about whether this would be universally beneficial or would cause them to bring back memories which they might regret.
The tale proceeds at Ishiguro's usual pace: slow. Axl and Beatrice link up with Wistan, a warrior claiming to be on a mission for his King from a kingdom in the west, who is himself attached to a young boy Edwin, who exhibits strange behaviours but seems to be training with Wistan for warriorship. Then there is Sir Gawain (of course), an aged devotee of the long-dead Arthur, who clomps about in full but rusting armour, astride his trusty steed Horace.
This motley crew somehow find themselves joining together to try to kill Querig. Possibly by persuading her to eat a goat that has been infected with some kind of poison. By three children, living without their parents. It's clear that each of them has a back story which they may or may not be happy to be revealed and much of the story telling includes hints as to what those histories might be. Beatrice nervously reveals "I'm thinking I'm the one to fear most the mist's clearing ... it came to me there were dark things I did to you once, husband." And Axl muses "What became of our son, princess? Does he really wait for us in his village? Or will we search this country for a year and still not find him?"
They climb a steep mountainside towards the giant's cairn, where they tie the goat to a stake. It's not clear to me at this point whether the giant is the same entity as the she-dragon or exists just in the book's title. We'll see. Horace, by the way, has been left behind, being as old and lacking in mobility as his master. For some reason, Edwin has also been left behind, tied to the same stake as the goat.
Finally they reach the dragon's pit. And she is a sorry sight, "so emaciated she looked more some worm-like reptile accustomed to water that had mistakenly come aground and was in the process of dehydrating." "'Can this really be her, Axl?' Beatrice said quietly. 'This poor creature no more than a fleshy thread?'"
Now Wistan and Gawain prepare to battle each other, for the former wishes to complete his mission whilst the knight wants the dragon to be allowed to live out her remaining months in peace. And Wistan sees Gawain as "a kin of the hated Arthur".
Wistan kills Gawain and then Querig. He reveals a prediction that the death of the dragon and the clearing of the mist will result in Saxons and Britons, long at peace and living alongside one another, will recall their violent histories, rise up and fight a dreadful war. "The giant, once well buried, now stirs."
Very early in the book, at the beginning of their journey, Beatrice and Axl come across a sad couple, apart by virtue of their wish to be transported to a nearby island by a boatman who will only take one of them. The island only allows individuals to live separately rather than as a couple, other than in exceptional cases of extreme love and devotion, proven by each answering a question out of the hearing of the other in the same way. As they now descend Querig's mountain to the valley, helped by Horace, they again come across the boatman. He can take them to the nearby island, on which Beatrice hopes to find their son, but - purely as a formality - he must ask them each questions, out of earshot of the other.
As he does so, their back stories are revealed by their answers. Long ago, Beatrice was unfaithful to Axl. As a result, their young son left home, soon to be taken by the plague. Axl forbade her to go to his grave. Many years later, as old age mellowed them, he relented and they agreed to go on a journey to visit the grave. The boatman now carries Beatrice, too weak to walk, and places her in the boat. As Axl tries to board the boatman says "this is but a small vessel. I daren't carry more than one passenger at a time." Arguments ensue between Axl and the boatman but it is Beatrice who insists that she trusts the man and being transported separately is the only way they can be together for ever more. They say farewells.
The boatman has the final word: "I hear him coming through the water. Does he intend a word for me? He spoke of mending our friendship. Yet when I turn he does not look my way, only to the land and the low sun on the cove. And neither do I search for his eye. He wades on past me, not glancing back. Wait for me on the shore, my friend, I say quietly, but he does not hear and he wades on."
For me, this is a 3½ out of 5 book because, despite the supreme story telling and wonderfully detailed descriptions, the subject matter simply doesn't interest me enough. Nor am I attracted to any of the characters. Nevertheless, I am glad I read this book. If you haven't read it and, as a result of my endeavours, are thinking of doing so, you might easily come to different conclusions.
