I
loved this book. Any attempt to describe the setting or plot or
characters or themes is likely to encounter something like derision. The
couple are long married, aging, but don't really wish to think of
themselves as old. Their living conditions are rough, primitively agrarian.
They live in something like a cave dug out of the side of a hill. They
share in the work of a community, in the fields or in others sorts of
basic labor, but they speak to, and behave toward, one another with the
gentility and courtesy of lovers in some courtly romance. One recalls that the
author is Japanese, and that one of his previous novels is about the
life of a perfect butler, "The Remains of the Day." The loving couple can't remember
much about the past, but then nobody can. It appears their entire
country is under some spell called "the forgetting." Have I mentioned
that the events take place in Britain shortly after the time of King
Arthur? Our ideal, older pair remember something about the times of
Arthur, but they can't seem to remember anything about their son. Where
did he go? Why did he leave their village? Maybe they should go visit
him -- even though they don't know where he lives. Knights in heavy armor
ride about the countryside. Outlaws are a concern. Supernatural beings
make an appearance. Their only notion of a destination leads them to a Saxon
village, where a "warrior" has just killed "a giant," the mere rumor of
whose existence had terrorized the common people. Then there is the matter of the
boatman.
None of these details help much in conveying the reader's deeply stirring experience of having found a magic doorway into an allegory of age-old, nearly forgotten, still robust wisdom. We learn, in time, that there is a reason for the general forgetting. It is questionable whether the general restoration of memory will do more good than the universal spell of forgetting did. Must there be "truth" before there can be "reconciliation"? Or is a general, communal forgetting the best way to put societal traumas behind us? And what truths must our genteel, loving, deeply bonded couple learn for themselves? ...
This book itself is a spell. A beautiful, enchanting spell like the company of a saint, or a guru, or a hermit on a hill who has seen everything. You never want it to be broken. You wish the story would never end. Sadly, however...
None of these details help much in conveying the reader's deeply stirring experience of having found a magic doorway into an allegory of age-old, nearly forgotten, still robust wisdom. We learn, in time, that there is a reason for the general forgetting. It is questionable whether the general restoration of memory will do more good than the universal spell of forgetting did. Must there be "truth" before there can be "reconciliation"? Or is a general, communal forgetting the best way to put societal traumas behind us? And what truths must our genteel, loving, deeply bonded couple learn for themselves? ...
This book itself is a spell. A beautiful, enchanting spell like the company of a saint, or a guru, or a hermit on a hill who has seen everything. You never want it to be broken. You wish the story would never end. Sadly, however...
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