Not every renowned author can strike gold with each novella or short story they create. This is the issue with Kazuo Ishiguro’s “Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall.” It is innocent and creative by showing, while all in first person, how music impacts five lives in both negative and positive cases, but becomes rough around the edges when it comes to connecting with an everyday reader.
“Crooner,” the first short story of the novel, takes place in Venice, Italy and consists of a young Polish musician who runs into an American singer who happens to be an idol of his. He is soon convinced to join this man in an attempt to impress his own wife. This whole situation seems too amazing to proceed as easily as planned and ends up doing exactly that.
The second story “Come Rain or Come Shine” deals with an English teacher visiting his old college friends in London, England. Little does he know he is walking into a couple on the verge of breaking up and is being forced to solve their problems, with about two days to do it.
“Malvern Hills” is the third short story and stars a young guitarist who leaves London, England after a failed attempt of joining a band. He proceeds to stay with his sister and her husband in the Malvern countryside and gets a job at their café. Along the way he meets a Swiss couple who allow him to see a new side of his musical talent.
“Nocturne” begins with a saxophonist in the Beverly Hills hotel in California after facial plastic surgery. His neighbor happens to be a character from a previous story and they embark on a strange journey involving awards and yummy roasted turkey.
“Cellists,” the last story, involves a Hungarian cellist who meets a fellow cellist who is not all she is marked up to be.
Though Ishiguro seems to have a lot of work on his hands, he deals with it efficiently and gives the characters depth. He does in 30 pages what some authors cannot do in 200 by adding back story and feeling to every character. He even goes from the present to the past in “Cellists” and does it without breaking a sweat or creating any plot holes. Ishiguro’s descriptive eye shined bright in every single story, allowing the reader to feel like they were seeing everything through the narrator’s eyes. One example comes from “Malvern Hills” when the main character sees two people standing in front of the sunset and their faces are barely visible, then when they step closer and allow the sun to hit their faces he can make out who they are. He managed not to overpower the reader with too many descriptive details, avoiding mundane descriptions of what every blade of grass looked like or what every color in the sky portrayed.
Being realistic is not the flaw of this novel, as it falls short in its clarity, not its realism. In “Malvern Hills” it feels like the reader had to stop and pull out a map to understand exactly where the story is taking place. Speaking about places like Herefordshire, Table Hill, End Hill and Worcester got confusing, but he did manage to take the best option—getting the details out of the way sooner rather than later to avoid confusing the reader throughout the story.
Seeing past the flaws of this collection is easy enough since it never seemed to drag. After the first story, the reader quickly becomes addicted, reading to see how all of these stories will tie together. Each story has a tone of desperation hovering about it each person has revelations of being understood and heard. Though the reasons behind their destined goal may seem clever or ill-spirited, they all want to make an impact somehow. Some had to be dragged around and pulled out of their shells to understand how to move forward, but in the end they all had a lesson learned.
Ishiguro’s extra spice of detail and realism make this piece of work an addictive read, even if it might not grab the casual reader’s attention.
“Nocturnes: Fives Stories of Music and Nightfall” receives an 8 out of 10.
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