I recently returned from a visit to Miami, where I scored two books from the sale table at Books & Books in Coral Gables, one of my favorite indie booksellers in the U.S.
Given my habit of reading lightly on holiday, I packed but one when I left for another journey, this time to the Bahamas. That book, Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall is by Man Booker Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro, the Japanese-born, British author of such acclaimed novels as The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go. Both those novels were adapted into feature films, the former by the late, lamented James Ivory, of "A Room with a View" fame.
I was an Ishiguro virgin before I picked up Nocturnes and decided to give it a whirl. The book, Ishiguro's first collection of short stories, comprises five related tales involving music and night time. Given the thematic unity suggested by the book's description, I anticipated a serene collection that might bear a resemblance to the austere, haunting tale of the repressed butler in Remains of the Day. What I discovered instead is a collection that is both intriguing and quirky, but not the pensive meditation on life and art the book's title might indicate.
The stories are involving and all sport protagonists with interesting back stories, yet at least a couple seem to grapple with unusual plots that seem intent on elevating the sense of significance of each story. In particular, the story about a musician who undergoes cosmetic surgery to ostensibly augment his career begins as an intriguing psychological study that evolves into a tale of a chance encounter with an aging movie star and the theft of an award. The talent and skill involved with this collection is obvious, yet I couldn't help but feel like I had stumbled upon a writer's less distinguished work. If Nocturnes is more than the literary equivalent of an album of previously unreleased tracks like Odds & Sods by the Who, it nonetheless is likely to leave the reader with a sense that there is greater work to be discovered elsewhere.
The most memorable story is that of an itinerant musician who plays in a combo in Venice while befriending an elderly American woman who is apparently a cello virtuoso. What makes the story so successful is the plausible central relationship that is both wistful and tender, and as such is unlike most of the other stories. This is the final story in the collection, and it is a suitable ending to a collection that works best as a sampler for those eager to dive in and read one of Ishiguro's six acclaimed novels, which include four Man Booker Prize finalists. I for one am eager to read his recent Never Let Me Go, and curious to know where this gifted storyteller leads us next.
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