Book 173: A Pale View of Hills

A Pale View of Hills, by Kazuo Ishiguro, G. P. Putnam & Sons, 1982.

A Pale View of Hills is one of the few non-children's books that I bought recently for myself.  I bought it for a reading group because it wasn't available at our library.  I intended to donate it to the library after I finished reading, but I can't quite let this one go.

A Pale View of Hills is a confusing book.  By the time I reached the final page of the book, I found that the story had not resolved for me.  Instead of annoying me, this intrigued me.  It made me want to set this book aside for a while and then read it again.  A Pale View of Hills is also a linguistically beautiful book.  The scenes painted with the words are, at times, mesmerizingly beautiful, and at other times, hauntingly sad, and at still other times, both.

The dialogue in this book is so well-defined that the speaker is almost instantly clear.  And this quality adds to the mystery and confusion that infuses the story.