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traceculture 's review for:
The Unconsoled
by Kazuo Ishiguro
Kind of cool being immersed in an Ishiguro novel when the author is awarded the Nobel Prize!
Deviating from his Realist roots, The Unconsoled is a fantasy novel and a groundbreaking representation of consciousness. It’s one long anxiety dream, although he does wake up at the beginning of each part (false awakenings are not uncommon) but taking the form of dream logic, Ryder, an Internationally acclaimed pianist arrives in an Eastern European city without the slightest inkling of what his purpose there might be. Everyone has been expecting him, schedules have been organised and the stage is set but at no point does he ask what it is he’s supposed to be doing. Ryder accepts everything that happens without question or surprise, just like you would in a dream. He remembers things, he forgets, all the while covering up his anxieties. Characters in the novel appear to be aspects of himself - his past and his fears of what he might become in his future and he appropriates these people for his own psychological purposes. Becoming increasingly frustrated at the various demands on his time, Ryder is happiest on the bus or the tram, surrounded by strangers where there are no expectations. This incidentally might have some bearing on his name - a passenger of sorts perhaps? Fitting that the book ends on a continually circuitous tram. A passenger, a dreamer, a writer unable to find his way out of his own novel!
Deviating from his Realist roots, The Unconsoled is a fantasy novel and a groundbreaking representation of consciousness. It’s one long anxiety dream, although he does wake up at the beginning of each part (false awakenings are not uncommon) but taking the form of dream logic, Ryder, an Internationally acclaimed pianist arrives in an Eastern European city without the slightest inkling of what his purpose there might be. Everyone has been expecting him, schedules have been organised and the stage is set but at no point does he ask what it is he’s supposed to be doing. Ryder accepts everything that happens without question or surprise, just like you would in a dream. He remembers things, he forgets, all the while covering up his anxieties. Characters in the novel appear to be aspects of himself - his past and his fears of what he might become in his future and he appropriates these people for his own psychological purposes. Becoming increasingly frustrated at the various demands on his time, Ryder is happiest on the bus or the tram, surrounded by strangers where there are no expectations. This incidentally might have some bearing on his name - a passenger of sorts perhaps? Fitting that the book ends on a continually circuitous tram. A passenger, a dreamer, a writer unable to find his way out of his own novel!