Shadows of Distant Mountains (work by 2017 Nobel Prize Winner Kazuo Ishiguro)
by H
About This Novel
This is a memory full of mist, both real and illusory. After the war in Nagasaki, a mother and daughter who suffered a lot longed for stability and rebirth, but they could never escape the shadow of the war and their inner demons. At the end of the play, the remembrancer peels off his disguise, and the story is full of tragedy. "Shadow of a Distant Mountain (Series of Works by Kazuo Ishiguro)" is Kazuo Ishiguro's debut work that shocked the literary world. It is a masterpiece that is still being reprinted 30 years after its publication. The fusion and balance of "sentimentality and irony" are still memorable.
What Readers Think
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Official(36)Scraped 4d ago
I really feel sorry for Murakami, a writer I have never heard of before!
No matter which country's works, don't look at them through colored glasses. We should treat them correctly so that we can make progress.
Nobel Prize winner
As expected, Ishiguro's writing style is not something that most people can understand.
Write something with nothing
"Writing something out of nothing" is a favorite technique among writers. In the sixth chapter of Dream of Red Mansions, Zhou Rui's family went to deliver palace flowers to the sisters. When they arrived at Sister Feng's courtyard, they saw the wet nurse patting Sister Qiao to sleep. Zhou Rui's family thought Sister Feng was taking a nap, thinking that she should wake up but she still didn't come out. Then immediately write about Jia Lian's laughter and the maids coming out with big copper basins to scoop out water. What did Duke Cao hide in this paragraph? Love is strong. Zhi Yanzhai commented on this paragraph: "Wonderful article! How could Ah Feng be a human being who doesn't care about the word 'Feng Yue'?" However, the writing was too explicit and offended Ah Feng, so he simply concealed the love affair between her and Jia Lian while taking a nap at noon, and only wrote that the girls came out to scoop water afterward for cleaning the body. In classical Chinese novels, this is known only in the language of parrots. It is also common in Western novels. In The Red and the Black, Julien holds Madame de Rainer's hand, and only writes Julien's inner drama but does not write about Madame Delaine's thoughts at all. In fact, it is not that it is not written. Stendhal concealed this part. Writers will still leave some clues, waiting for the person who understands. The faint shadows of distant mountains almost push the technique of "writing something with nothing" to the extreme. The narrative of the novel creates a lot of smoke and clouds, and all the past events are distorted and displaced. On the surface, they are almost fragmented. But once you take a closer look, you find that Kazuo Ishiguro almost built the structure of the entire text with a craftsman's spirit. The foreshadowing and hints of the gray lines of grass and snakes, the connections and coincidences that stretch thousands of miles, are like hidden buttons that are not at all uncomfortable, gathering back the scattered memories like smoke and clouds, and each part is tightly connected. What is easier to see through is the relationship between the first story and the second story. When we read Chapter 11, we will find that Etsuko is Sachiko in the scene of passing the cable car: "Keiko was very happy that day. We took the cable car." It seems that it was not until the end of the novel that Kazuo Ishiguro clearly gave the answer: It turns out that all the stories about Sachiko, In fact, they are all just Etsuko's self-narration. Due to the distortion of memories and the inability to face the past, she invented the "I Have a Friend" series - this is the only path that people can choose in escaping and narrating, casting those unbearable memories on an other invented out of thin air. As Kazuo Ishiguro said, "At some level, they must know what they are trying to avoid, which determines whether their route will be carried out through memories or through the past... The reason why they are worried is because they feel that the original decision was not so correct." Therefore, Etsuko's story and Sachiko's story constitute the first and second floors of Toyama Akage.
Long lasting memories
I saw this book at the Binhai Library over the weekend. After reading it, I slowly realized what the so-called "faint shadows of distant mountains" mean. The memories are really long, and the many days of rain cast a touch of sadness on them, which makes people feel sad. The writing technique of the whole novel is unique. The time and space of the past and the present overlap with each other. I am constantly immersed in it and occasionally withdrawn from it. Isn't this just memory, like the indifferent shadow of the distant mountains.
The whole story is very calm to read but it is attractive to read on. Why did Keiko commit suicide? Why did Etsuko leave Jiro and come to the United States? What kind of person is her American husband? Who is "that woman" that Mariko mentioned? Wait for questions. I want to read on to get the answer. There was no result until the end. The entire book is mostly told through Etsuko's memories. At the end Etsuko said, "She was very happy that day when she took Keiko on the cable car." I was hit in the heart. Isn't this Wanlizi? We often rely on superficial reasons to convince others and ourselves that we are right. But actually I don't know what's right or wrong, it's just that things have developed like this.
I have this book, but I haven't opened it yet.
I never want to appear unfriendly to you, but I also have a hard time appearing friendly. --To my seven aunts and eight aunts.
Literature without borders
War is only started by some people for their own selfish desires, and they follow what others say.
Life has no borders, it is all human life, a sigh for the environment.
Rating
Community(0)
Official(36)Scraped 4d ago
I really feel sorry for Murakami, a writer I have never heard of before!
No matter which country's works, don't look at them through colored glasses. We should treat them correctly so that we can make progress.
Nobel Prize winner
As expected, Ishiguro's writing style is not something that most people can understand.
Write something with nothing
"Writing something out of nothing" is a favorite technique among writers. In the sixth chapter of Dream of Red Mansions, Zhou Rui's family went to deliver palace flowers to the sisters. When they arrived at Sister Feng's courtyard, they saw the wet nurse patting Sister Qiao to sleep. Zhou Rui's family thought Sister Feng was taking a nap, thinking that she should wake up but she still didn't come out. Then immediately write about Jia Lian's laughter and the maids coming out with big copper basins to scoop out water. What did Duke Cao hide in this paragraph? Love is strong. Zhi Yanzhai commented on this paragraph: "Wonderful article! How could Ah Feng be a human being who doesn't care about the word 'Feng Yue'?" However, the writing was too explicit and offended Ah Feng, so he simply concealed the love affair between her and Jia Lian while taking a nap at noon, and only wrote that the girls came out to scoop water afterward for cleaning the body. In classical Chinese novels, this is known only in the language of parrots. It is also common in Western novels. In The Red and the Black, Julien holds Madame de Rainer's hand, and only writes Julien's inner drama but does not write about Madame Delaine's thoughts at all. In fact, it is not that it is not written. Stendhal concealed this part. Writers will still leave some clues, waiting for the person who understands. The faint shadows of distant mountains almost push the technique of "writing something with nothing" to the extreme. The narrative of the novel creates a lot of smoke and clouds, and all the past events are distorted and displaced. On the surface, they are almost fragmented. But once you take a closer look, you find that Kazuo Ishiguro almost built the structure of the entire text with a craftsman's spirit. The foreshadowing and hints of the gray lines of grass and snakes, the connections and coincidences that stretch thousands of miles, are like hidden buttons that are not at all uncomfortable, gathering back the scattered memories like smoke and clouds, and each part is tightly connected. What is easier to see through is the relationship between the first story and the second story. When we read Chapter 11, we will find that Etsuko is Sachiko in the scene of passing the cable car: "Keiko was very happy that day. We took the cable car." It seems that it was not until the end of the novel that Kazuo Ishiguro clearly gave the answer: It turns out that all the stories about Sachiko, In fact, they are all just Etsuko's self-narration. Due to the distortion of memories and the inability to face the past, she invented the "I Have a Friend" series - this is the only path that people can choose in escaping and narrating, casting those unbearable memories on an other invented out of thin air. As Kazuo Ishiguro said, "At some level, they must know what they are trying to avoid, which determines whether their route will be carried out through memories or through the past... The reason why they are worried is because they feel that the original decision was not so correct." Therefore, Etsuko's story and Sachiko's story constitute the first and second floors of Toyama Akage.
Long lasting memories
I saw this book at the Binhai Library over the weekend. After reading it, I slowly realized what the so-called "faint shadows of distant mountains" mean. The memories are really long, and the many days of rain cast a touch of sadness on them, which makes people feel sad. The writing technique of the whole novel is unique. The time and space of the past and the present overlap with each other. I am constantly immersed in it and occasionally withdrawn from it. Isn't this just memory, like the indifferent shadow of the distant mountains.
The whole story is very calm to read but it is attractive to read on. Why did Keiko commit suicide? Why did Etsuko leave Jiro and come to the United States? What kind of person is her American husband? Who is "that woman" that Mariko mentioned? Wait for questions. I want to read on to get the answer. There was no result until the end. The entire book is mostly told through Etsuko's memories. At the end Etsuko said, "She was very happy that day when she took Keiko on the cable car." I was hit in the heart. Isn't this Wanlizi? We often rely on superficial reasons to convince others and ourselves that we are right. But actually I don't know what's right or wrong, it's just that things have developed like this.
I have this book, but I haven't opened it yet.
I never want to appear unfriendly to you, but I also have a hard time appearing friendly. --To my seven aunts and eight aunts.
Literature without borders
War is only started by some people for their own selfish desires, and they follow what others say.
Life has no borders, it is all human life, a sigh for the environment.
