I have read four books by Kazuo Ishiguro: Klara and the Sun, The Remains of the Day, Never Let Me Go, and The Buried Giant. Each of these novels has a clear plot, but each one also contains some kind of central mystery that the reader must slowly unravel. In Klara and the Sun, the mystery involves a futuristic society where artificial beings serve as companions to humans. In The Remains of the Day, the mystery centers on Stevens, a reserved butler who gradually reveals both the truth about his former employer and the emotions he has spent his life suppressing. In Never Let Me Go, the main characters appear to have grown up in a strange dystopian society, and over time the reader discovers the awful truth behind their childhood. In The Buried Giant, the story takes place in a medieval, almost mythical world where a strange mist has caused people to lose their memories.

These plots seem as different as they can be. How can there be a unifying theme to each of these? Something I realized about Ishiguro’s books is that they all deal with memories. Ishiguro seems to suggest that memory is one of the main ways people give meaning to their lives. In fact, some of the books are almost predominantly flashbacks.

And a lot of the time, the flashbacks are to positive experiences. I wouldn’t say positive in the sense that it would be a life that you and I would want, but to the characters themselves, it either is truly a flashback to a positive memory or at least a memory where life was more innocent and naive.

Now the reason why this theme of memory is important is because most of the characters never utter phrases even close to, “I am so depressed; I am so sad; woe is me!” However, by the way the author writes such characters, it is so clear that they are depressed. And I think the way Ishiguro depicts the characters reflecting on their lives signal that. Some of them may not even know that they are depressed, but by their actions it is abundantly clear. As you read his books, you realize that many of Ishiguro's characters did not grow up in a society where they had the resources to become extremely emotionally aware of themselves. So this may tempt the reader, who observes these characters from a third person perspective, to jump in and speak to these characters.

Moreover, some of them are in their current situation beyond their control, but they must thug it out in life, in hope of a better life—pause. Actually, let me backtrack. Not everyone is hoping for a better life. I realized I can’t even make that assumption. Maybe they’re simply trying to live. Worse, maybe they’re not even trying. Maybe they’re living without even thinking of the future, but only in the present. Or maybe, worse, they’re not even thinking of the present! They’re so preoccupied with the past, that they don’t even seem like they care about the present. Their present is simply a past that they will see in the future. And maybe this is subconscious because maybe some people don’t want to focus on the present.

And what’s crazy is I think many humans actually live this way. For whatever reason, they are somehow stuck in a situation in life that they are not satisfied in at all. But they also have had fond memories of the past, or least an easier past. I think fundamentally, we all yearn for the past, because youth represents opportunity. As you grow older, you feel more restrained, your freedom and optimism naturally shrinks.

I think in his books, the characters usually reach their breaking point by the end of the book and they break down.

Because of Ishiguro, I now have a fear of becoming like one of his characters. Right now, in my young life, everything seems pretty fun. In addition, I didn’t have to go through any dystopian trauma as a child either, and I grew up in a situation that gave me a lot of opportunities to not end up in a dump-like situation. Plus, even when things don’t go well, at last you have the hope of time and that youthful energy. But sometimes, I wonder, what if I get myself into a rut that stays with me until the future? Will I always be reminiscing about the past? That would be a great torture for my soul.

I also wonder, what about Kazuo Ishiguro himself? Is he trying to say something about himself through these books?