A Pale View

Kazuo Ishiguro's plaintive novel A Pale View of Hills is marked by clarity and mystery at the same time. The main character Etsuko, who lives in England, is trying to come to terms with her daughter's suicide. Simultaneously, Etsuko keeps remembering a certain summer in her native land Japan just after the Second World War.

Different readers certainly find different aspects of interest in this novel. I found it touching how inadequate the interaction between generations can be. How parents do not know who their children really are. That is why the rebelliousness of Etsuko's younger daughter seems almost life-saving, although a lot still remains unsaid.

The reader may unwillingly compare the daughter's rebellion against the mother to the mother's memories from post-war Japan: the horrors of the atomic bomb and how the war scarred people and their families.

The picture soon focuses on Etsuko's friend Sachiko and her daughter Mariko. Etsuko becomes a witness of their painful search during a difficult period in their lives. Again, the greatest pain seems to be crystallized in the experiences of the child, whereas there are even tragi-comic features in the lives of the adults.

Why should one read this novel? The answer cannot be put into words. The book is like a painting, a whole that is more than the sum of its parts. As if you were looking at hazy hills in the distance, almost understanding something. Almost.

Kazuo Ishiguro: A Pale View of Hills. 1982.