Ishiguro, Kazuo: Nocturnes
Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall (2009)
Written by: Kazuo Ishiguro
Genre: Short Fiction
Pages: 221 (Hardcover)
Even though I read and thoroughly enjoyed Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go back in 2006, I've never really had the urge to check out more of his work. However, when he released Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall, I was intrigued. 1) Pretty cover! 2) I was a music major, and the term "nocturnes" appeals to my music major sensibilities. So what if the reviews really weren't all that awesome? I was convinced that was due to the fact that said readers weren't "in tune" with what Ishiguro was doing musically (because I assumed that his use of the term "nocturnes" meant he was using classical music), and that I, of all people, would be able to enjoy this collection just fine. Also, it didn't hurt that Amazon had a really nice discount on this puppy right after Christmas. :)
The premise: ganked from BN.com: A once-popular singer, desperate to make a comeback, turning from the one certainty in his life . . . A man whose unerring taste in music is the only thing his closest friends value in him . . . A struggling singer-songwriter unwittingly involved in the failing marriage of a couple he’s only just met . . . A gifted, underappreciated jazz musician who lets himself believe that plastic surgery will help his career . . . A young cellist whose tutor promises to “unwrap” his talent . . .
Passion or necessity-or the often uneasy combination of the two-determines the place of music in each of these lives. And, in one way or another, music delivers each of them to a moment of reckoning: sometimes comic, sometimes tragic, sometimes just eluding their grasp.
An exploration of love, need, and the ineluctable force of the past, Nocturnes reveals these individuals to us with extraordinary precision and subtlety, and with the arresting psychological and emotional detail that has marked all of Kazuo Ishiguro’s acclaimed works of fiction.
Review style: to be honest, there's really not that much to spoil, and I feel no urge to do a story-by-story review either. So read onward and feel safe, as there are no spoilers, save for my commentary on what unites these pieces.
So yes, I'll be honest: I was pretty disappointed in this. The use of the term "nocturnes" ended up being a way to classify these stories: all of them involve music (but not classical, save for one piece) and all of them--at some point during the story, take place at night.
Also? Most of them feature really unlikable narrators, men who are too self-centered and emotionally immature that reading anything from their POV becomes painful, because you know that even when the story is over, the men will not have changed.
And here's the thing: I have a certain amount of trouble with short stories no matter what the genre. I want them to be compelling. I want them to hit me hard, and I want them to be more than metaphors, more than slices of life. After all, they're short stories, so shouldn't a story be told?
In this case, these slices of life encapsulate someone's story, but not necessarily that of the narrator, which begs certain questions: why do we get someone else's story through the eyes of an observer who makes no difference in the outcome of that someone's story ("Crooner," "Cellists")? Why do I want to read the "story" of a narrator who's so self-absorbed and obsessed with his own talent that he lashes out and hurts everyone around him ("Malvern Hills," "Nocturne")? The most interesting story was "Come Rain or Come Shine," for what was happening between the lines (come on, you know Emily and Raymond are wondering what might have been, right?), but nothing INTERESTING happened between the lines. It just showed us that there was something that could've been acted upon by the characters, but nothing ever comes of it. Nothing! And that's true for each of the stories: none of our narrators come out at the end any different than they started the beginning. At least, not mentally or emotionally, and that's just tiring.
And the connections between these tales--music, night, immature, self-centered men, broken relationships--make this collection become very predictable. There's no surprises from page to page, and the Ishiguro's prose is serviceable but forgettable. Oh sure, I laughed during "Come Rain or Come Shine," and I felt my heartstrings tug a little in "Crooner," but those are afterthoughts now in the fact of what's ultimately a bland collection. And I wanted to love this, but I never felt the music of the prose, and I felt the music referenced in the stories was a gimmick and nothing more: something to unify the whole, but not in an interesting way.
My Rating
Wish I'd Borrowed It: if you're interested in Ishiguro's work, don't start here, not even if you're a fan of music. These tales never have a strong resolution on any note (pun intended), and the unifying factors quickly made the stories predictable and stale. The writing did not enchant or delight me, whereas I was glued to the voice used in Never Let Me Go. Part of the problem is that pretty much all of the narrators in these stories are selfish, whiny men, and let's face it, whether they're brilliant artists or not, I just don't have the patience to read a slice of their life. I'm not going to let this collection sour me on Ishiguro's work as a whole, but I will pay closer attention to reviews of his work in the future. I should've listened to them for this one, but no... I thought I knew better, since I used to be a music major. ;) 'Fraid not. This is pretty forgettable, whereas Never Let Me Go still sticks with me.
Cover Commentary: Love it! It reminds me of the cover to China Miéville's The City & The City (cityscapes in blue with similar fonts), but in a good way. This one is just beautiful, and probably swayed my decision to buy more than the unifying theme of music. :)
Next up: The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson