Is it possible to feed revenge to the full? And what will happen if the pain, violence, death of loved ones, betrayal, cruelty is just … forgotten? In the new novel, Kazuo Ishiguro explores the ethical category of revenge, collective and private, by referring to the semi-mythological past of sixth-century England.
Then the Saxons, almost destroyed by the Britons of King Arthur, for some reason did not begin to take revenge on them at the first opportunity. What stopped the flywheel of war? Two Britons, an old man and an old woman, Axel and Beatrice, leave their village to visit their son. They do not remember where he is, or what his name was, or what he looked like, on this earth for a long time no one remembers the events of this morning and the distant past. On the way, they will find out that general oblivion was sent by the spell of Merlin on the orders of King Arthur, so that, forgetting the bloodshed, people live in peace and harmony. But after the knight Wistan, obsessed with the idea of revenge, defeats the knight Gawain, guarding oblivion, the Saxons will remember the horrors of war and chaos will come. For Axel and Beatrice, who dreamed of getting rid of unconsciousness in order to regain precious moments of mutual love, memory will return, and with it the pain of the past, so strong that it will destroy their present boundless tenderness …
The entire novel, written as a gripping psychological thriller with a slowly-slowly revealing clue, Ishiguro forces us to choose between amnesia and revenge. But something inside, of course, resists this terrible choice — to remember is terrible, because it hurts, and not to remember is even worse, until we exclaim in despair: wait, there must be some other solution! Ishiguro doesn’t give an answer, but apart from forgiveness I have no idea. It’s hard to forgive. And it doesn’t work right away. But it’s better than throwing our life away for hurting and hurting others. And it’s better than spending your life on revenge.