A Twisted Enigma... A Pale View of Hills...

Kazuo Ishiguro's first novel, A Pale View of Hills (1982) is told by Etsuko, a woman who has left behind the remains of the destructed city of Hiroshima and settled in the quiet English countryside. She brought with her fragmented memories of Japan, of mosquito infested ditches left behind by bombs, of people adjusting to the ways of the enemy, of a nation gazing towards the horizon. She is haunted by the recent suicide of her older daughter, Keiko. The story unfolds when her younger daughter, Niki comes to visit her mother and, in spite of her absence at her half sister's funeral, makes an attempt to be 'there for her' through her recent tragedy. Etsuko finds herself reminiscing a friend she knew during the summer she was pregnant with her first child.
This friend, Sachiko appears as a strong and independent widow who has been reduced to poverty in the aftermath of the war. She is plagued by her ambivalence, sometimes determined that her lover Frank will take to America, sometimes, disappointed by his failing promises, deciding that she does not need him anyway. Sachiko's young daughter, Mariko is caught in her mother's irresponsible tangle of life. She grows up on her own, running along the river banks and ditches of the fallen city. She leads a strange life of solitude, distancing herself from others. She carries the reader with her, into a silent world of her own.
Etsuko attempts to build a friendship with this strange child, but Sachiko says she should ignore her daughter's eccentricity as it is only the way of children. Sachiko is inconsiderate of her child's emotions but claims to think of the girl's future, insisting that she will have a better life in America and that she can become a 'business girl' one day.
Reflecting on her own life, Etsuko attempts to understand the perplexity of her own daughter's suicide. I found it difficult to determine her feelings towards her older daughter. Through the fragments of her story, we understand that her daughter had spent her initial years in Japan, and that Etsuko had left her first husband, Keiko's father, and come with her daughter to England. It seemed to me that Etsuko had long since accepted her daughter's life of solitude could never have a happy ending. Discussing Keiko's life with her younger daughter Niki, Etsuko says, "But you see, Niki, I knew all along. I knew all along she wouldn't be happy over here."
Apart from the haunting characters, the enigma of this story lies in the parallels between Etsuko's and Sachiko's stories. Their daughters, strange girls of solitude, seem to depict the beginning and the end of the same life story.
A Pale View of Hills also serves as a shred of history, depicting the physical and ideological reconstruction of Japan following the Second World War. Etsuko's relationship with her hardworking yet emotionally-absent first husband Jiro and affectionate father-in-law Ogata reflect the changing views of people. On her trip to the city of Hiroshima, Etsuko, for the first time in her life, with much astonishment, sees couples holding hands in public.
A Pale View of Hills, like Kazuo Ishiguro's other novels The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, is a story that will tarry within the realms of your mind, attempting to define the line between destiny and volition.