Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall

Ishiguro writes his novels with rare power and grace. In the short story form, this power is diluted but still definitely there. The stories in this collection are linked by music, by failing relationships and by failing careers. The tales all play in a minor key; even the comedic sections are farce rather than sprightly wit. A has-been singer engages a younger guitarist to serenade his wife, but not for the reasons the guitarist thinks. A man finds that his old college friends think of him- *need* to think of him- as a loser, with his taste in music his only redeeming quality. A singer/songwriter finds himself in the middle of the marital discord of a couple he's only just met. A cellist is tutored by a self declared virtuoso cellist with a secret. A gifted jazz musician who has never gotten a break lets himself be convinced that a new face will solve his career problems. Simple ideas, but made into stories with depth and insight.

I love Ishiguro's novels in large part because of his artistry -- he can make me "see" a character before my eyes in fewer and better-chosen words than scores of other novelists I've read and admired. And when I've finished reading one of those scenes, some part of my mind tells me, "yes, that's exactly the way it had to be written; there was and is no other way this could have been expressed." I wasn't sure how well this would carry over into the shorter form of these set-pieces, five works that are part short story, part novella and pulled together by the overarching themes of music and the night as well as several of Ishiguro's trademark themes, such as the difficulty of understanding the nature of reality, of understanding one's relationship to others. The book was an impulse buy, and one that I am very glad I made. All five stories are told through the eyes of an individual whose life and relationships are somehow defined by music -- a struggling sax player, a 40-something teacher whose sole tie to an old friend seems to their love of the same music, a young would-be songwriter, a cellist, an Eastern European playing in the bands of San Marco square in Venice.`The tone, to put it in musical terms, is that of an elegy -- a plaintive lament for what might be, what never can be, what might have been. Ishiguro does a wonderful job of capturing the essence of music in his writing, as when he describes the Eastern European accompanying a former star crooner as the latter serenades his wife from a Venetian gondola. "Like all the best American singers, there was that weariness in his voice, even a hint of hesitation, like he's not a man accustomed to laying open his heart this way." Later, the struggling sax player, whose manager describes him as "dull, loser ugly" reflects on how his plastic surgeon will sculpt his face to match his persona. A top surgeon, he muses "would have thought through carefully the requirements of a serious jazz musician"; perhaps, he think, he will have been given "something to give me that vaguely haunted quality" like Chet Baker before drugs devoured him. This was a five-star book for me; I realize that it might not be the same for other readers. For starters, while the narrators of each piece are carefully drawn and feel as vivid as any of the characters in Ishiguro's longer novels, the shorter form he uses here seems not to give him enough time to shape those of the other characters. Two of the female characters, in "Nocturne" and "Come Rain or Come Shine" in particular feel unconvincingly volatile. Moreover, those who prefer their fiction to move at a rapid clip and to be driven by events rather than internal monologue, are in for a disappointment -- that isn't Ishiguro's style. The turning points in the plots are upon you almost before you realize that they are in the offing. What compensated for this, in my eyes, was the wonderful prose and the wry tone, particularly evident when the narrators in "Come Rain or

Nightfall, the end of the day, stands as a symbol for the breakdown of human affections in the five stories in this bundle: a brief and happy encounter in `Nocturnes', a burnt out love in `Crooner', a strained relationship in `Come Rain or Come Shine', a struggling musician confronted with a quarreling old couple in `Malvern Hill' or a wrecked ambition in `Cellists'. They are melancholic tales about `how the bosom pals of today become lost strangers tomorrow.' The tensions between the estranged partners are sometimes extremely roughly projected on common friends or strangers who were sometimes called in to repair the broken vases. In a subdued, but just therefore strong emotional, undertone, K. Ishiguro creates a remarkable atmosphere of sadness about the fragility of human relations. These stories constitute a perfect introduction to the author's literary masterpieces, like `The Remains of the Day', `Never let me go' or `An Artist of the Floating World'. Highly recommended.

A nocturne, according to Wikipedia, can be defined as a musical composition that evokes the night. However, "{n}octurnes are generally thought of as being tranquil, often expressive and lyrical, and sometimes rather gloomy, but in practice pieces with the name nocturne have conveyed a variety of moods." And so it is with this collection of interlinked short stories, all with a connection to music, quiet yet evocative, melancholy for the most part with interspersed brief touches of pathos, humor and searing anger and bitterness. Although music does appear in each story, the major theme of these stories is the relationship between two people, and how the pursuit of one's career and passions, the expectations we have for those we love, and how we view ourselves in relation to the loved one can often undermine and even destroy the relationship. In all of the stories there is an outsider who views and comments dispassionately on a troubled relationship. The stories are separate, yet closely connected. One character from the first story, "Crooner", will reappear later in "Cellists", and the location of the first and last stories are identical. The moods differ within and between stories, but Ishiguro's unique ability to gently convey a story is always present. Like a well written piece of music, I believe that the reader of these stories will gain greater appreciation of the characters and what Ishiguro is trying to tell us with repeated "listening". This is a beautiful collection, and is very highly recommended.

Kazuo Ishiguro is back to his bittersweet, witty but sensitive original style. The five brief novellas of Nocturnes are intense and beautiful; they are packed with detail, never waste the readers' attention, and are entirely engrossing. In the first: Crooner, a Polish café musician comes to the assistance of a vynil-era singer who was once his mother's idol. Another story pits a greying ex-hippie against his brash and shallow university friends in a comedy of missed meanings. The third peels the multiple layers of an unexpected encounter in the Malvern hills. I hesitated to get Nocturnes. After the awkward plot of When We Were Orphans, the controversial The Unconsoled, the gothic / sci-fi Never Let Me Go, I thought: sure, this is interesting, but maybe this is an author running out of inspiration, maybe this is someone flailing for the next idea, and now all we're getting is a collection of stories. This is what I had in the back of my mind, especially when I saw the title, with the vaguely corny musical theme, the Chopin prop. But it isn't like that. This book is in the style of Ishiguro's first three novels, and it is new at the same time. The musical theme is an excuse; it even works. These are all moving stories with an eye for verisimilitude - the infuriating fragmented mobile-phone conversation, customer rage at the sandwich bar - and humour. Two of them got me laughing to tears - I know reviewers say that, but literally. And Ishiguro can have you laughing to tears and two pages later falling respectfully silent. Some people say they don't like short stories because it is difficult to build characters within their brief span. But this author can pack a character in fifty pages where others would take 300. And the stories aren't entirely unconnected... but I won't spoil it for you. Don't miss this!