First: Who decided to give a melancholy book called “Nocturnes” a bright white cover?
Check out the British cover — much more evocative.
But aside from quibbles over cover art, I enjoyed Ishiguro’s latest very much. Slow, stately prose reminiscent of Jhumpa Lahiri, and highly readable.
Also, “Nocturnes” holds together remarkably well. In fact, almost too well. This might be the only collection I’ve ever read that seemed too tightly themed. Every story hit upon the exact same themes, to the point where new plots disappointed me because of their familiarity. It’s like reading your favorite author’s fourth or fifth book and feeling like they are just repeating themselves.
Almost without fail, each story includes:
- Musician protagonists.
- Disintegrating Marriages/relationships with crabby wives
- A single man intervenes/comes between the couple
- Ambition to gain/re-gain career heights
Still, taken by themselves, these are remarkable stories, especially “Come Rain or Shine,” in which a married man recruits his best friend to temporarily live with his wife so she can see that her husband is not as bad as a failure as others. It has quite a humorous ending, unlike the rest of stories, which seem to be steeped in reflection and melancholy.
