In a sublime story cycle, Kazuo Ishiguro explores ideas of love, music and the passing of time. From the piazzas of Italy to the Malvern Hills, a London flat to the 'hush-hush floor' of an exclusive Hollywood hotel, the characters we encounter range from young dreamers to cafe musicians to faded stars, all of them at some moment of reckoning. Gentle, intimate and witty, this quintet is marked by a haunting theme: the struggle to keep alive a sense of life's romance, even as one gets older, relationships flounder and youthful hopes recede.
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[THE MORNING I spotted Tony Gardner sitting among the tourists, spring was just arriving here in Venice - CROONER]***
(@FaberBooks, 1 June 2009, 221 pages, hardback, borrowed from @GlasgowLib)
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I've read novels by Ishiguro before so thought I knew what to expect with these stories. They are very different than his other work. I enjoyed all of the stories. They were all very sad and I found them unexpectedly moving. Ishiguro uses music in all its forms and facets to explore far reaching themes of loss, uncertainty and change. The stories are all set at a turning point in the musician's life and these all happen to take place in the evening. The best stories were Crooner and Malvern Hills.
