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tighills's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Confusing to read. About the life of pianist Ryder and his time in a city for a performance. You have no sense of why or where, what comes next. Absorbing world but took some while to get into the style of writing. Something about being out of control, not living in the moment, and the conceit of talented people.
justinkhchen's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars
The reading experience reminds me of Alain Resnais' film Last Year at Marienbad, timeless, hypnotic and defies logic.
The Unenclosed is an intentionally unbreakable literary puzzle; some readers might be frustrated by its narrative fickleness and the absence of an identifiable end goal, but Kazuo Ishiguro's quietly stylish writing and the 'stumbled-upon' discussions on talent, fame and human nature ensure there are plenty of relatable substance worth savoring under its sliding dreamscape.
The reading experience reminds me of Alain Resnais' film Last Year at Marienbad, timeless, hypnotic and defies logic.
The Unenclosed is an intentionally unbreakable literary puzzle; some readers might be frustrated by its narrative fickleness and the absence of an identifiable end goal, but Kazuo Ishiguro's quietly stylish writing and the 'stumbled-upon' discussions on talent, fame and human nature ensure there are plenty of relatable substance worth savoring under its sliding dreamscape.
sidharthvardhan's review against another edition
5.0
It is one of hardest book to rate. I think if you are of sort who likes Ulysses because of all the clever tricks of narrative Joyce brings up in his work, you will like Unconsoled too because those tricks are the best selling point of Unconsoled for me. The centeral theme of not finding a closure or satisfaction is what you feel on reaching the ending of the book.
To begin with there are tricks relating to, of course, memory. IMO nomally Ishiquro uses the forgetful narrator thing rather well. In this book though, our protagonist and narrator seems to have forgotten that he had a wife and son among other things. In fact, he is sort of guy who could benifit a lot from keeping one of those google calendars to remind him everything he must do. He is forever forgetting his appointments and when he does remember them fails to keeep them for some other reason.
Narration itself has some tricks. At times narrator can't seem to remember his own past and then there are times our narrator forgets that he is not omniscient - and narrates events he had no way of knowing. Then again, at one point, he listens to two people planning to fool enough clear enough and yet acts oblivious and gets fooled by them. Another trick is when it start seeming that novel is building itself on the go. Narrator may meet a character that would seem a stranger at first but that would later turn out to have a common past wirh him. Sometimes he may not rememer it after having had whole conversations with this person.
Then there is the tricks relating to English manners. One of the reasons that the book is so long and sometimes difficult to read is these English manners which means characters take a lot of time to say something simple and then feel compelled to repeat it. They are repeatedly sorry and grateful to each other for trifals. Yet, at one point narrator attends a sort of party in his evening robe and no one seems to care .... not even when the robe comes open revealing everything.
There are also tricks relating to altering time-space continoum. For example, our narrator once started on a journey on a car only to later find that his destination was in the same hotel he had started his journey from.
The community of the town is seen behaving stangely. Too much importance is being attached to town needing to find a pianist particularly now that they can no longer pretend that the last one was medicore. Narrator's being one of best known pianists makes them act well toward him generally and yet, there are times when they act almost hostile to him. At one point these people are hypocritical enough to want to build a statue of a dog to please a man. In same meeting later, our protagonist had got attention of gathering and was about to make a speech, a woman distracts him with a personal conversation and he seems to forget about the public address .... yet everyone is praising the opening sentence he did manage to say.
Then there is whole dream-like nature of events which arise from display of all the tricks mentioned above. One example of dream like turn of events is when protagonist finds himself physically unable to speak at an important point in a meeting.
One of themes of the book is suggested by the title itself. A big part of book is confessions of failures, disappointments, hopes and guilt. The confessors are always wanting something from protagonist who manages to fail them all. In fact, in the end, all his attempts turn out to be completely useless. The inaility of these characters to come to consolation with their past has rendered themselves incapable of coming to terms with present.
LIke with 'When we were Orphans', the narrator is trying to come to terms with his past (read 'his parents' in both cases) but in trying to do so fails to come to terms with his present (In 'When We Were Orphans', he fails to elope his female friend, here he loses his wife and family). The new pianist whom narrator is to introduce to the town as the face of their culture ends up appearing drunkard at the event.
There are a lot of parallels within the book - his desire to impress his parents is mirrored in Stephen, his parent-child-no-longer-talking-with-each-other relationship with his son is mirrored in relationship between Gustav and Sophie. His failure to hold on to affections of his wife and son is mirrored in hotel manager's failure.
To begin with there are tricks relating to, of course, memory. IMO nomally Ishiquro uses the forgetful narrator thing rather well. In this book though, our protagonist and narrator seems to have forgotten that he had a wife and son among other things. In fact, he is sort of guy who could benifit a lot from keeping one of those google calendars to remind him everything he must do. He is forever forgetting his appointments and when he does remember them fails to keeep them for some other reason.
Narration itself has some tricks. At times narrator can't seem to remember his own past and then there are times our narrator forgets that he is not omniscient - and narrates events he had no way of knowing. Then again, at one point, he listens to two people planning to fool enough clear enough and yet acts oblivious and gets fooled by them. Another trick is when it start seeming that novel is building itself on the go. Narrator may meet a character that would seem a stranger at first but that would later turn out to have a common past wirh him. Sometimes he may not rememer it after having had whole conversations with this person.
Then there is the tricks relating to English manners. One of the reasons that the book is so long and sometimes difficult to read is these English manners which means characters take a lot of time to say something simple and then feel compelled to repeat it. They are repeatedly sorry and grateful to each other for trifals. Yet, at one point narrator attends a sort of party in his evening robe and no one seems to care .... not even when the robe comes open revealing everything.
There are also tricks relating to altering time-space continoum. For example, our narrator once started on a journey on a car only to later find that his destination was in the same hotel he had started his journey from.
The community of the town is seen behaving stangely. Too much importance is being attached to town needing to find a pianist particularly now that they can no longer pretend that the last one was medicore. Narrator's being one of best known pianists makes them act well toward him generally and yet, there are times when they act almost hostile to him. At one point these people are hypocritical enough to want to build a statue of a dog to please a man. In same meeting later, our protagonist had got attention of gathering and was about to make a speech, a woman distracts him with a personal conversation and he seems to forget about the public address .... yet everyone is praising the opening sentence he did manage to say.
Then there is whole dream-like nature of events which arise from display of all the tricks mentioned above. One example of dream like turn of events is when protagonist finds himself physically unable to speak at an important point in a meeting.
One of themes of the book is suggested by the title itself. A big part of book is confessions of failures, disappointments, hopes and guilt. The confessors are always wanting something from protagonist who manages to fail them all. In fact, in the end, all his attempts turn out to be completely useless. The inaility of these characters to come to consolation with their past has rendered themselves incapable of coming to terms with present.
LIke with 'When we were Orphans', the narrator is trying to come to terms with his past (read 'his parents' in both cases) but in trying to do so fails to come to terms with his present (In 'When We Were Orphans', he fails to elope his female friend, here he loses his wife and family). The new pianist whom narrator is to introduce to the town as the face of their culture ends up appearing drunkard at the event.
There are a lot of parallels within the book - his desire to impress his parents is mirrored in Stephen, his parent-child-no-longer-talking-with-each-other relationship with his son is mirrored in relationship between Gustav and Sophie. His failure to hold on to affections of his wife and son is mirrored in hotel manager's failure.
giunic's review
challenging
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
darbo's review against another edition
I simply felt like I started the book too long ago that I didn’t quite remember all of its plot points. When I tried reading it again after a few months, I found the writing very dense and the events not interesting enough to keep me hooked. Those two factors combined, unfortunately, made me DNF this book.
alexandre_rl's review against another edition
3.0
Il est assez rare qu'un livre de 900 pages que j'ai traîné pendant deux mois me laisse sans émotion. Pourtant, le sujet m'interpelait beaucoup. Un pianiste émérite du nom de Ryder arrive dans une ville sans nom de l'Europe de l'Est où il doit donner un concert censé redorer le blason artistique de l'endroit. Malheureusement, les habitants s'accrochent sans cesse à lui pour qu'il leur rende de menus services qui l'empêchent de se consacrer à son art.
On s'aperçoit rapidement que l'histoire se situe dans un univers kafkaesque qui obéit à la logique du rêve et où les réactions des personnages sont improbables. Ryder, qui est supposé mettre les pieds dans cette ville pour la première fois, y a pourtant un fils et une femme qu'il ne semble nullement surpris de retrouver. L'architecture de la ville n'a aucune structure logique. Les habitants semblent tout à fait imperméables aux réticences de Ryder qui lui paraît incapable de refuser quoi que ce soit.
Certains passages sont amusants et le livre est admirablement bien écrit. Le problème, c'est que le personnage de Ryder intéresse peu et que son mutisme devant les dérangements interminables qu'il endure devient lassant. Sur 200 pages, le projet aurait tenu. Mais sur 900, c'est assez difficile de trouver une raison de continuer, en dehors de la beauté de l'écriture et d'une volonté de savoir si Ishiguro nous conduit vers un grand dessein qui nous échappe. Malheureusement ce n'est pas le cas, et j'ai fermé le livre sans rien ressentir.
On s'aperçoit rapidement que l'histoire se situe dans un univers kafkaesque qui obéit à la logique du rêve et où les réactions des personnages sont improbables. Ryder, qui est supposé mettre les pieds dans cette ville pour la première fois, y a pourtant un fils et une femme qu'il ne semble nullement surpris de retrouver. L'architecture de la ville n'a aucune structure logique. Les habitants semblent tout à fait imperméables aux réticences de Ryder qui lui paraît incapable de refuser quoi que ce soit.
Certains passages sont amusants et le livre est admirablement bien écrit. Le problème, c'est que le personnage de Ryder intéresse peu et que son mutisme devant les dérangements interminables qu'il endure devient lassant. Sur 200 pages, le projet aurait tenu. Mais sur 900, c'est assez difficile de trouver une raison de continuer, en dehors de la beauté de l'écriture et d'une volonté de savoir si Ishiguro nous conduit vers un grand dessein qui nous échappe. Malheureusement ce n'est pas le cas, et j'ai fermé le livre sans rien ressentir.
sbtariq's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Very dream-like, bit hard to keep up at the beginning but overall a very splendid read.