Books of the Month

'The Unconsoled' by Kazuo Ishiguro

Though this book is now over ten years old, I recently read it for the first time and have no hesitation in naming it my first Book of the Month for 2007. Hopefully some of you will give it a try too.

The Unconsoled is a huge, rambling, frustrating, brilliant book. I might as well say right now that if you like your novels to have a clear structure and a logical approach, then you'll probably want to throw this one out of the nearest window before you reach page fifty. If, like me, you’re already an Ishiguro fan, then you won't be disappointed, but if you haven't read anything by him before, you might be advised to start with one of his more naturalistic novels, like The Remains of the Day.

The novel’s central character, Ryder, arrives in an unnamed city with very little apparent recollection of what he's doing there. There's some sort of performance he's agreed to give, and maybe a speech... but what is the crisis that seems to be gripping the city, and why does everyone keep making demands on his already limited time? Is Ryder suffering from some sort of amnesia, or is the whole thing a dream or a deeply surreal trip? When doors start leading directly from the city to the countryside, and when twenty minute conversations take place in the space of an elevator ride, you begin to realise this is no ordinary story. My advice is to surrender yourself to the tangential and the illogical and just go with it. Forget anything you may have heard about the book being ‘difficult’. Far from impenetrable, it’s actually very easy to read, and very funny a lot of the time. Go with the flow and trust that Ishiguro isn’t wasting your time. He’s not. This is a hugely impressive, hugely enjoyable book.

Susan Tranter

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