A Pale View of the Hills
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A Pale View of the Hills
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Narrated by:
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Roe Kendall
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Written by:
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Kazuo Ishiguro
About this listen
From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and author of the Booker Prize-winning novel The Remains of the Day, here is the story of Etsuko, a Japanese woman now living alone in England, dwelling on the recent suicide of her daughter. In a novel where past and present confuse, she relives scenes of Japan's devastation in the wake of World War II.
©2012 Kazuo Ishiguro (P)2017 Vintage CanadaWhat listeners say about A Pale View of the Hills
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Jamie Charles
- 2022-02-06
Slow Burn, You'll Need To Read Twice
February 2022 | 3.5/5
I'm not sure how I feel about this title. There's nothing to dislike, and plenty of mystery, but it's such a slow burn (just wait for that last page).
This is Ishiguro's first title, and its clear he has skill, but it's wrapped in so much mystery it's likely to be missed.
This is a story of mothers and daughters with an unreliable narrator. Much of the dialogue has chapters reminiscing on past lives, or forecasting to the future. Three interwoven stories that do come together well, on that last page.
I'm going to need a reread to capture all there is in this title. Expect an updated review in the near future.
I think I'd start with another Ishiguro title - and when you've fallen in love, come back and read the book that launched a career.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2020-12-11
Perfect precursor to Ishiguro's later work
Just because it is as good as his later novels, does not mean that its not AWESOME!! It mean Kazuo Ishiguro is a genius.
I have been a fan of Kazuo Ishiguro ever since Remains of the Day. After reading many of his other books, it somehow feels nostalgic to read his first novel. The THEMES in this novel - REGRET, MEMORIES and their inconsistency, the HUMAN COST OF WAR etc. are similar to so many of his other works. One can clearly see how the representation of these themes got better and better with each subsequent novel.
STORY- TWO SEPARATE TIMELINES are interspersed throughout the story: present day in England i.e. the 1980's and the protagonist's recollection of her life in Japan few years after WW2, both centered around two sets of mother-daughter relationships. The protagonist tells us that her recollections are unreliable but we never find out how unreliable. There are MANY UNANSWERED QUESTIONS and a second reading might help (I plan to listen to it again).
NARRATION: The narrator does a very good job of changing her tone and style for each character making it quite easy to follow along.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- danceralison
- 2024-03-11
Japanese pronunciations, please
I would have enjoyed this performer for a different piece, but considering the narrator is Japanese, I was irked by the mispronunciations of Japanese names. Even if the character had gained an English accent, she wouldn’t have forgotten how to pronounce the names of her friends and family in Japanese. It was a distraction.
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