Nocturnes

Nocturnes is a 2009 fiction collection -I can't quite call them short stories, as they seem longer than that, by Kazuo Ishiguro. This book of 221 pages contains 5 pieces which all have a connection to music. They aren't so much focused on linear plot development as they are pictures of situations, episodes in the characters' lives. I enjoy the way this author writes, but this wasn't as much to my taste as other books I've read by him. It may be that my general prejudice against short fiction is responsible for that.

description from Wikipedia:

As the subtitle suggests, each story focuses on music and musicians, and the close of day. All of the stories have unfulfilled potential as a linking theme, tinged with elements of regret. The second and fourth stories have comic undertones. The first and final stories feature cafe musicians, and the first and fourth stories feature the same character. All five stories have unreliable male narrators and are written in the first person

The NYT says, "... these five too-easy pieces are neither absorbingly serious nor engagingly frivolous". The Telegraph concludes, "... his prose is notable for what, in music, would be described as upper partials – intervals that resonate after a note is struck. One turns away, thinking the narratives one-note. Yet they resonate long after the book is set aside". The Independent says, "Ultimately this is a lovely, clever book about the passage of time and the soaring notes that make its journey worthwhile".

This counts towards my TBR book challenge.