The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro

[kev67]

Does anyone have an opinion of The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro? I went through a phase of reading his books. I read Remains of the Day, An Artist of the Floating World and A Pale View of the Hills. These all had similar themes. A narrator would look back over his life and eventually conclude that he had made some very bad life decisions. Recurring themes included self-deception and self-aggrandisment. Then I read When We Were Orphans, which annoyed me because it was not anchored in reality like the other books. I was getting bored with his style of writing when I looked up The Unconsoled, which seemed even more experimental and less rooted in reality than When We Were Orphans. It was a thick book and the reviews were poor, so I decided not to read it. Therefore, I was surprised to read just now that someone had placed it on a list of 10 heavy-weight must-reads (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/feb/26/classics.features) (bottom of page). Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unconsoled) says various literary critics voted in 3rd best British, Irish or Commonwealth novel from 1980 to 2005.

[mona amon]

I read it many years ago and thought it was OK, but I'm not a big fan of dream type narratives. I don't even like Alice in Wonderland.

I loved An Artist of the Floating World and Remains of the Day, but like you I didn't like When we Were Orphans which was sad without being meaningful or relevant.

[kev67]

I read it many years ago and thought it was OK, but I'm not a big fan of dream type narratives. I don't even like Alice in Wonderland.

I loved An Artist of the Floating World and Remains of the Day, but like you I didn't like When we Were Orphans which was sad without being meaningful or relevant.

A dream type narrative is a good description of it. It was puzzling to read the narrator discuss whether he was remembering an incident clearly or was guilty of putting a positive spin on it when he then recounts incidents that could not have happened.

Actually, after examining my memory and some serious introspection, I don't think I did read A Pale View of the Hills after all.