Books, not flowers

So here goes - Kazuo Ishiguro. . .

. . . his eight books (in order of publication from earliest at the top) and here are my thoughts on them, for anyone interested. If not interested, just ignore the words, admire the books and pass on.


There is one huge caveat - in no way am I saying ‘these are great books, everyone should read them’, not at all. They just happen to be books I love, but they are not to everyone’s taste and it doesn’t worry me in the least when people say they don’t like his writing. There are readers like me who read and reread all his books - to us he can do no wrong. On the other hand there are readers who don’t get on with them at all and I can understand why. Some people like one or two of them, but not the others.

Many people say they are underwhelmed by his books - I can see that. His writing is polished and elegant but can appear flat and lacking in emotion. The books mostly have very little plot, they are about character and basically about the stories we tell ourselves about our place in the world.

The books usually start out in a straightforward fashion - someone perhaps telling a story, thinking about the past - but at some point you stop and think - ‘come on, what’s going on here’ - you sense that something isn’t quite right. Eventually you realise you have an unreliable narrator and what you are being told is questionable . . . but is it? Often you are left pondering even after the book is finished. My kind of quiet, thoughtful book - but certainly not everyone’s kind.

Of the books, the most well-known is ‘The Remains of the Day’, probably because of the excellent film. Many regard this book as the perfect novel. Similarly, ‘Never Let Me Go’ is known because of the film. I like ‘The Unconsoled’ because of its very strange, dreamlike quality. I like ‘The Pale View of Hills’, the one I mentioned yesterday.

But I like them all. If you want to try his work - take a lucky dip - you might be lucky. Or you may think - what on earth is she on about!!