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3.42 AVERAGE
3.42 AVERAGE
informative
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
People seem not to like this one as much as his novels but the way I see it this man can do no wrong. Great short read.
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I bought this book to make friends. I never would have, otherwise. I’m the nerd in the movie — or the novel — at home alone studying up on ways to meet people. An open book club in my neighborhood, says the internet! In my new city, in my new country. A grand idea. What are they reading this January? Ta-da.
I’m pleased, because I’ve never read Kazuo Ishiguro before, famous as he is. So this was a great choice, although it’s true that I would have been rather unlikely to pick this particular one out myself. “Five Stories of Music and Nightfall.” Sweet, but will it be cloying? Will it be facile and samey?
No and yes. Five is a good number of stories; they feel connected by the theme without making you read something similar too many times. They also went so quickly, I feel like I hardly spent any time at all finishing this book. It was easy and so pleasant to read, I really enjoyed it a lot.
Nos. 2 and 4 did the best for me, and here is why: they are about crazy people. “Come Rain or Come Shine,” in particular, it takes you a little while to notice that everyone is insane, but once you do, suddenly the stilted way they are conversing and handling everything becomes hilarious and suspenseful. I got excitedly on board to slide all the way downhill with these weirdos. It went pretty well, though it was more like a sled ride and less like a cliff tumble. That was okay, but it could have gone off an even deeper end, I’m sure. I’d brought my cliff-tumbling gear, I was all padded up and really wanted to head down to rock bottom with them. (And I wonder why it’s hard for me to meet people?)
“Nocturne,” the 4th and semi-title story, also pushes a bit of these wackadoo buttons, which has a nice way of interplaying with the sentiment and melancholy in the characters. The thing is, though, that most of these stories do play with sentiment quite a lot — what you might expect, wouldn’t you say, from a book about “music and nightfall” with a dancing couple on its cover — and don’t really deliver something in full. They do try: the last story is the only one out of the five, I noticed, that doesn’t involve the death throes of a marriage somewhere in the bones of the story. All the others have, somewhere in their premise, a relationship falling apart, and then something else goes on with music and nightfall and that’s really the thing you’re paying attention to. But it’s there, it’s smart. It smarts.
Particularly, the middle story “Malvern Hills” deserves a mention for this, because it spends most of its time making you feel it’s about one thing — a young singer-songwriter, not yet completely out of his “nobody understands me” teenage years — but the gut punch comes from somewhere else well outside him. Really well done, and easily the saddest of the stories for me.
In general, I used to use books to connect with people, and I’ve fallen out of these habits since a lot of life changes have been going on with me. Can it be a coincidence that I’ve also been having trouble connecting with books? I've missed both, and I’m claiming them back, I am. Here’s my review, now, of a book I never would have read, and thoughts to share with people I haven’t even met yet.
I’m pleased, because I’ve never read Kazuo Ishiguro before, famous as he is. So this was a great choice, although it’s true that I would have been rather unlikely to pick this particular one out myself. “Five Stories of Music and Nightfall.” Sweet, but will it be cloying? Will it be facile and samey?
No and yes. Five is a good number of stories; they feel connected by the theme without making you read something similar too many times. They also went so quickly, I feel like I hardly spent any time at all finishing this book. It was easy and so pleasant to read, I really enjoyed it a lot.
Nos. 2 and 4 did the best for me, and here is why: they are about crazy people. “Come Rain or Come Shine,” in particular, it takes you a little while to notice that everyone is insane, but once you do, suddenly the stilted way they are conversing and handling everything becomes hilarious and suspenseful. I got excitedly on board to slide all the way downhill with these weirdos. It went pretty well, though it was more like a sled ride and less like a cliff tumble. That was okay, but it could have gone off an even deeper end, I’m sure. I’d brought my cliff-tumbling gear, I was all padded up and really wanted to head down to rock bottom with them. (And I wonder why it’s hard for me to meet people?)
“Nocturne,” the 4th and semi-title story, also pushes a bit of these wackadoo buttons, which has a nice way of interplaying with the sentiment and melancholy in the characters. The thing is, though, that most of these stories do play with sentiment quite a lot — what you might expect, wouldn’t you say, from a book about “music and nightfall” with a dancing couple on its cover — and don’t really deliver something in full. They do try: the last story is the only one out of the five, I noticed, that doesn’t involve the death throes of a marriage somewhere in the bones of the story. All the others have, somewhere in their premise, a relationship falling apart, and then something else goes on with music and nightfall and that’s really the thing you’re paying attention to. But it’s there, it’s smart. It smarts.
Particularly, the middle story “Malvern Hills” deserves a mention for this, because it spends most of its time making you feel it’s about one thing — a young singer-songwriter, not yet completely out of his “nobody understands me” teenage years — but the gut punch comes from somewhere else well outside him. Really well done, and easily the saddest of the stories for me.
In general, I used to use books to connect with people, and I’ve fallen out of these habits since a lot of life changes have been going on with me. Can it be a coincidence that I’ve also been having trouble connecting with books? I've missed both, and I’m claiming them back, I am. Here’s my review, now, of a book I never would have read, and thoughts to share with people I haven’t even met yet.
emotional
funny
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“Crooner” and “Malvern Hills” were pretty good, the others all felt varying degrees of slight and were a bit too similar in style.