Details
Synopsis
Kazuo Ishiguro's THE UNCONSOLED (1995) is the story of a famous pianist named Ryder, who visits an unnamed European city to give a recital. Ryder, who is suffering from a kind of amnesia, seems to be well known in the city, and in fact discovers that a woman and a young boy living there may be his wife and son--but he has no memory of either of them or of ever being there before. And, though he seems to be somewhere in Central Europe, surreal glimmers of English settings and of Ryder's life there haunt him as he travels around the city. In the course of his visit, he meets many people who want his help with various problems, and he begins to think he remembers these people from somewhere--or does he? The day is unusually long, and night seems never to arrive, as--in a book that resonates with wit, humanity, and elements of Kafkaesque satire--Ishiguro explores the nature of memory and of fame.
| Size | | Length: | 535 pages | | Height: | 8.8 in | | Width: | 6.8 in | | Thickness: | 2.0 in | | Weight: | 27.2 oz |
Publisher's Notes
First Line: "The taxi driver seemed embarrassed to find there was no one--not even a clerk behind the reception desk--waiting to welcome me."
Industry Reviews
"[Ishiguro] is an original and remarkable genius, and although he will write greater books, 'The Unconsoled' is the most original and remarkable one he has so far produced....Mr. Ishiguro's indifference to conventional notions of literary excellence is so thorough that it becomes a kind of excellence itself....'The Unconsoled' is, in short, a cross between 'The Twilight Zone' and 'The Hobbit', and Mr. Ishiguro's achievement is to have made this world as palpable and inevitable to us as it is to its narrator."
New York Times Book Review - Louis Menand (10/15/1995)
"This is a searching book, engaged in a passionate, elaborate exploration of painful questions. It offers no concessions to those who are faint of heart or short of time. But readers will come away with admiration for a writer who uncompromisingly follows a rather frightening vision."
San Francisco Chronicle Book Review - Monua Janah (10/08/1995)
"A brilliant novel that will almost certainly be remembered as one of the best of the decade."
Britell
"A work of great interest and originality....Ishiguro has mapped out an aesthetic territory that is all his own...frankly fantastic [and] fiercer and funnier than before."
Lehmann-Haupt
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