Warning: Contains spoilers.....
Preamble: The Observer called this work 'Heartbreak in Five Movements'. I think that is a bit bleak and an exaggeration; each story has a character who is a victim, who is let down, betrayed perhaps but surely not heartbroken?
Nocturnes is Ishiguro's first collection of short stories, after six novels. He has said in interviews that he conceived the book holistically, almost as a piece of music in five movements. Like a cycle, the collection begins and ends in the same place – Italy – and it contains modulations of tone that would be awkward within a single narrative. There is also linkage of one character across some of the stories.
In Nocturnes, Kazuo Ishiguro writes about a cast of characters who range from young dreamers to café musicians to faded stars. This quintet of short stories deals with some of the superficialities in human behaviour and there is manipulation by some characters of others which gave each story at least one 'victim' At times I thought why can these victims not see through the opportunists, that they are being used and played with?
In the opening story, "Crooner", a mood of quiet melancholy is established and this mood pervades the book. From the moment you meet Tony Gardner's wife, Lindy, and from the cleverly constructed dialogue between her and Tony you know that things between the couple are not good. Jan, the narrator, is a guitarist with a band who are street performing and he is thrilled to be in Gardner's company; his records, he tells Gardner effusively, were one of the only sources of comfort to his beleaguered single mother as she was raising him in communist Poland. The Gardner's trip to Venice is not as the musician supposes it to be, it is not an anniversary, probably more of a rescue mission. No wonder Tony Gardner is amused at the idea. We find out why towards the end of the story. In the end it is a moment of disillusionment for the musician who has been delighted to meet a musical hero.
In 'Come Rain or Shine' Raymond is dragged into a sordid bit of theatre played out by Charlie and Emily whose marriage is apparently a bit wobbly. There were moments of high farce in this story that made me laugh out loud, at the same time as I was willing Raymond to grow a backbone and stand up to the couple's devious actions.
In 'Malvern Hills', the third story, I heard the Ishiguro's voice clearly in that of the narrator. Told in the first person I heard the questioning introspection and self justification that Ishiguro conveyed in his portrayal of the butler in The Remains of the Day.
The fourth story, "Nocturne", reintroduces an element of absurdity where a talented saxophonist, whose wife has left him, is persuaded to have facial surgery to make him more marketable. He meets Lindy Gardner from the opening story (recently divorced from Tony) in the exclusive wing of the hotel where they have both been sent to recuperate. The story contains the collection's funniest moment, as the saxophonist finds himself embarrassed on a stage with one arm up a turkey. This was reminiscent of a scene in one of the Mr Bean episodes - the Christmas one - where Rowan Atkinson is obliged to answer the front door wearing a turkey on his head!
In "Cellists", the final story, an American woman pretends
to be a world-famous cellist and agrees to tutor a promising young Hungarian in
her hotel room in an unnamed Italian city. It soon emerges that she cannot play
the cello at all: she merely believes she has the potential to be a great
cellist. "You have to understand, I am a virtuoso," she tells him.
"But I'm one who's yet to be unwrapped." But she is a shallow person. In the end, she marries someone she does not love, while the
young Hungarian takes a second-rate job playing in a chamber group at a hotel
restaurant. They both remain unfulfilled. This is, perhaps, what most binds
these stories: the conflict between what life might have promised and what life ultimately delivers.
No comments:
Post a Comment