Nocturnes

Critics

• 'Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall' by Kazuo Ishiguro

  The only Kazuo Ishiguro book I have read is Never Let Me Go, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2005. While I found it a slightly frustrating experience, I was intrigued enough to add a few more of his books to my TBR, where they have stea ... (read full critics)

  readingmatters published on Sat, 13 Aug 2011

• NOCTURNES by Kazuo Ishiguro

  Review by Terez Rose (DEC 9, 2009) Music, musicians, strains of regret and longing for what never will be, come together to form Nocturnes, a collection of five short stories by Kazuo Ishigiro. Winner of the Booker and the Whitbread Prize, Ishiguro, ... (read full critics)

  mostlyfiction published on Thu, 30 Sep 2010

7 Reviews

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  I was really disappointed after having had a wonderful experience with An Artist of the Floating World. The dialogue and, to a lesser extent, the situations were contrived and unnatural. The stories are much more heavy-handed than Floating World and unconvincing.

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  Lucja said on Mar 3, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  I don't know if Ishiguro's editor was giving him grief asking him to write something new, or if it was Ishiguro himself who one day woke up thinking: 'To hell with melancholy! Why can't anybody see how multifarious my creative talent is? I want to show to the world that I have a sense of humour, for ... (continue)

  I don't know if Ishiguro's editor was giving him grief asking him to write something new, or if it was Ishiguro himself who one day woke up thinking: 'To hell with melancholy! Why can't anybody see how multifarious my creative talent is? I want to show to the world that I have a sense of humour, for God's sake!'
  So he wrote this collection of short stories, Nocturnes, with the aim of showing to the whole world that he is able to spice up his usual melancholy Ishigurian atmospheres. In order to be still recognisable, though, he decides to retain an element of that, and reserves that for the endings of his stories, which are appropriately open and ambiguous, so that they won't fail to induce in the reader that charming feeling of 'Oh! How melancholy!'.
  BUT, Kazuo decides, I am going to give my creative genius free rein. I am going to write stories that are humorous, grotesque, funny, unpredictable, yet a little melancholy in the end, so that my sensitive fans won't be disapponted. As he repeats these words to himself, this even sounds like a good idea, because he doesn't realise one basic thing. What Kazuo doesn't realise is that he doesn't really have a sense of humour, although he thinks he does. Or, rather, if he has sense of humour in his personal, everyday life, he doesn't have the sense of humour that he needs to write humorous, grotesque, funny short stories.
  So he comes up with a series of short stories 'About Music and Nightfall', although I am not really sure what that means, and he is so pleased with his new tone that he doesn't realise a few details.
  Such as:
  1) The dialogue is at times so fake that you wonder whether he by any chance hasn't written the book while watching soap operas and tear-jerkers.
  2) When the characters crack jokes, as a reader you feel the sudden impulse to throw the book out of the window.
  3) When he decides to give the story a grotesque turn, though, that's when he unfortunately bottoms out. Because far from being funny, these parts are actually quite embarrassing and painful to read.
  4) Although reading fiction involves a certain level of suspension of disbelief, some plot turns and especially the motivations behind some characters are frankly unbelievable. A couple who decide to split up after decades together in order to favour the man's career although they still deeply love each other? Sorry, but that's just stupid. A cellist who introduces herself to a young musician as a 'virtuoso', is affronted when the latter admits to never having heard of her, and later on reveals that she can't actually play the cello, but she still is a virtuoso, because she feels she is? By the same token, I can go around introducing myself as one of the finest contemporary poets, even though I haven't written a line of poetry in my whole life, but somehow I feel that wouldn't go down well in the real world.
  What I feel like saying to Ishiguro is this: Kazuo, there is nothing wrong with subtlety. I know you can do better than this. Come on, let's forget this book and let's not think about it again. Next time, just ignore your editor, and wait until you actually feel like writing.

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  Blueskiesfrompain said on Oct 8, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

• 

  It's official. I don't like his language.

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  Ashley H. said on Sep 24, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

• 

  This is a collection of 5 short stories on the theme of music. Most of them are quite banal, except for the last one "Cellists". Not my favourite work of Kazuo Ishiguro.

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  Tracy W said on Sep 23, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  http://bubbocine.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/nocturnes-sto…

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  Cassidy said on Aug 29, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  More than about "music and nightfall" these stories are about the crisis of middle-aged couples and the difficulty to fulfil one's youthful dreams. There is also music, of course, and night. Classical music, as in Vikram Seth's "An equal music", but also - mainly - rock and pop music, as in Hornby's ... (continue)

  More than about "music and nightfall" these stories are about the crisis of middle-aged couples and the difficulty to fulfil one's youthful dreams. There is also music, of course, and night. Classical music, as in Vikram Seth's "An equal music", but also - mainly - rock and pop music, as in Hornby's world. Night mainly on the background, except for the story that gives its title to the whole collection. Very different from your ususal Ishiguro, sounds like a divertissement more than a turning point.

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  rayuela said on Jan 23, 2010 | Add your feedback

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Book Details

• Rating:
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• English Books
• Others 222 Pages
• ISBN-10: 0571245013
• ISBN-13: 9780571245017
• Pub date: Jan 01, 2010
• Also available as: Paperback, Hardcover, Audio CD and eBook
• In other languages: other languages 和書, Livres Français, Deutsche Bücher, Libros en Español, Libri Italiani, Ελληνικά βιβλία

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