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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
Ishiguro is one of my favorite authors but I hated this. I just read Number9Dream by David Mitchell, who I also usually love, and they felt very similar. And there's even a lot of references to number nine in this book. Both play with dreams and memories and both were excruciating to get through.
I have no idea what I just read. You know that dream in which you suddenly learn you have another exam, in a class that you don't remember signing up for, and certainly know nothing about? And you get swept along, without any control, and you look down, and your clothes are missing, and everything is happening to you (I mean, nothing is under your control) ... that dream? those dreams? I think that's what this was. Maybe?
Ryder has arrived in a city somewhere, apparently to give a piano performance, and this novel tells the story of the days leading up to (and the day of) the performance.
It's a good thing I didn't read anything about this book before I started. I was naive. I had no expectations, only prior experience with other books of his. And so I assumed: unreliable narrator and obsession with memory. It's Ishiguro. But pretty soon, I started to wonder about my own sanity. (Gaslighting by an author, that's clever.) People were acting weirdly. People don't really talk like this, do they? They don't behave like this? Perhaps it's just the unreliability of the narrator, I thought, but can he be this unreliable? I mean, you don't go a long ways in a city and then discover a door that leads right back to the first floor of your own hotel, do you? Pretty soon I was doubting myself and even asked my husband to double check that Clint Eastwood actually wasn't in 2001: A Space Odyssey , and that's when I knew I was in trouble. Or, rather, when I knew that it was Ishiguro, that it was meant to be off in some way, and the real question is why.
I thought it was fantastic, but I do understand why some critics felt it to be an immense practical joke. Ryder was just along for the ride, I think, in this story. Swept along by the narrative over which he had literally no control. Did he ever do anything, take action, in any real sense? I think he was swept along the whole time. By other people's expectations, in part, but also by whatever crossed his field of vision. Is it supposed to be a dream? I don't think so, but I know now that some people do.
Anyway, I have no idea what I just read, but it was excellent none the less.
Ryder has arrived in a city somewhere, apparently to give a piano performance, and this novel tells the story of the days leading up to (and the day of) the performance.
It's a good thing I didn't read anything about this book before I started. I was naive. I had no expectations, only prior experience with other books of his. And so I assumed: unreliable narrator and obsession with memory. It's Ishiguro. But pretty soon, I started to wonder about my own sanity. (Gaslighting by an author, that's clever.) People were acting weirdly. People don't really talk like this, do they? They don't behave like this? Perhaps it's just the unreliability of the narrator, I thought, but can he be this unreliable? I mean, you don't go a long ways in a city and then discover a door that leads right back to the first floor of your own hotel, do you? Pretty soon I was doubting myself and even asked my husband to double check that Clint Eastwood actually wasn't in 2001: A Space Odyssey , and that's when I knew I was in trouble. Or, rather, when I knew that it was Ishiguro, that it was meant to be off in some way, and the real question is why.
I thought it was fantastic, but I do understand why some critics felt it to be an immense practical joke. Ryder was just along for the ride, I think, in this story. Swept along by the narrative over which he had literally no control. Did he ever do anything, take action, in any real sense? I think he was swept along the whole time. By other people's expectations, in part, but also by whatever crossed his field of vision. Is it supposed to be a dream? I don't think so, but I know now that some people do.
Anyway, I have no idea what I just read, but it was excellent none the less.
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
The Unconsoled is a surreal and perhaps unsettling novel that seems poised to be disliked but quickly becomes entirely engrossing. I could spend hours discussing possible interpretations, but I will simply say that this strangely daunting yet invigorating book is certainly worth the effort of reading.
I love Ishiguro, and I loved all the critical literature about this book. I also loved the themes of memory and regret, forgiveness, forgetting and sorrow, mistakes and woundedness. Near the end of the book, Mrs. Hoffmann’s monologue about how she has dreams of “incredible tenderness” shortly before waking up, and determines to set about life differently, only to be thwarted daily by some “force” could have been channeled from my diary. The last 150 pages of this book improve and manage to re-engage the reader but for the most part the story is a frustrating slog as the protagonist is led about by the nose. There is an emotional reward, but I’d recommend the book only to true Ishiguro fans.
The Unconsoled is a remarkable creation in so many ways, not least in the technical feat of setting such an odd mood and pursuing it with theme and variations at such great length, never straying into straight-out Monty Python style absurdity, but always remaining within hailing distance. It is, I think, more "Kafkaesque" and more successfully Kafkaesque than anything I have read in Kafka.
It is also spectacularly successful surrealism. Ishiguro willfully breaks rules of verisimilitude that are so deeply engrained as to be obeyed unquestioningly by much more overtly experimental writers, few of whom would dare to have a conversation of at least fifteen minutes take place during an elevator journey from the first floor to the second floor, which is virtually the first scene here. Indeed, a fun student exercise would just be to list the spatial, temporal, and architectural impossibilities in the book, as well as the overt absurdities of personal behavior and relationships. It would be a very long list. But despite this, The Unconsoled is not only coherent but true-to-life. Indeed, it may be the most "realistic" book I have ever read about how intention, action, and memory really work in human life.
Like anything exceptionally beautiful, it is of course not going to be to everyone's taste.
It is also spectacularly successful surrealism. Ishiguro willfully breaks rules of verisimilitude that are so deeply engrained as to be obeyed unquestioningly by much more overtly experimental writers, few of whom would dare to have a conversation of at least fifteen minutes take place during an elevator journey from the first floor to the second floor, which is virtually the first scene here. Indeed, a fun student exercise would just be to list the spatial, temporal, and architectural impossibilities in the book, as well as the overt absurdities of personal behavior and relationships. It would be a very long list. But despite this, The Unconsoled is not only coherent but true-to-life. Indeed, it may be the most "realistic" book I have ever read about how intention, action, and memory really work in human life.
Like anything exceptionally beautiful, it is of course not going to be to everyone's taste.
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated