With my new found determination to restart and sustain my use of the local public library despite my reviewing commitments I put my money where my mouth is and selected this book by Ishiguro last week.
And what an enriching experience it has proved to be. Originally published in 2009 this is a collection of short stories with a common musical theme. And that theme is used to further explore themes of loss, love and the passing of time as we search for our dreams. Elements of frustration creep in from time to time in these compelling tales. You could almost see them as word symphonies, each story a different movement in the symphony of life.
I remember reading The Unconsoled and being reminded of Kafka and that feeling returned here quite strongly. There was something both absurd and dreamlike about some of the narrative. As you might expect from Ishiguro it’s multilayered and the music metaphors are seldom far from our conscious and subconscious. I suspect this book may be more for devotees of Ishiguro than new readers but I’d like to be wrong about that!!
Ishiguro is a joy to read. I feel like celebrating this wondrous collection of words and images so ably put together with a cohesion that insists that Ishiguro is one of the finest writers of our age. A most auspicious start to my rekindled library life.
My reflections on my library usage can be read here. https://nudge-book.com/blog/2018/03/libraries-a-reflection-by-gill-chedgey/
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