Kazuo Ishiguro, a Japanese-born author, writing in English and living in England, who's works include The Remains of the Day, When We Were Orphans, and Never Let Me Go (currently being made into a film). His trademark are works of fiction which rarely touch on any major plot twists or turns, in fact the fantastic nature of Kazuo Ishiguro is that he can captivate you for three hundred pages without a single remarkable event occuring.
Kazuo Ishiguro's Technique
The way he does this is to use the plot simply as a device for his narrative, his earlier works, especially Artist of the Floating World a perfect examples of this. Ingenious narrative allows every crevice and cranny of a characterisation to shine through, as if they were transparent, whilst realising at the same time that the nature of people is to withdraw themselves from such transparency. Ishiguro shines a light on which people would rather keep dark: their insecurities, heightened ideas of themselves, irrational fears or twisted views of the world, they all come forward from Ishiguro's characters, bleeding through the cracks in their veneers as the interrelationship of the seeing and the seen slowly come together for the reader.
Ishiguro's Modern Approach
In Ishiguro's more recent work, the narrative stream has slowly centralised slightly, accepting more plot into the fold, coinciding with the westernisation of his settings (the first few works are almost exclusively Japan/ China), which helped to launch him into the public eye. This was, however, by no means an artistic compromise, Ishiguro still churns out work of unstinting and subtle genius. Despite this, Nocturnes seems to be a return to his earlier stylistic days.
What Happens in Nocturnes
The truth about Nocturnes is that, should anyone ask what happened, there is no answer which does not radiate dullness, one could only answer: "well, there's a guitarist... and he meets a foreign couple... and they chat a bit..." or, "there's this saxophonist, right, and he recognises someone he knew a while ago... and, well, it's incredibly sad," one will arose looks of confusion and worriment from friends and colleagues. It would be an accurate answer, however, at least concerning plot. There is very little which actually goes on.
This is Ishiguro's genius, for an equally accurate answer would be, "we see a man's dreams shatter in a beautiful incandescence." Though this might arose those same looks. The truth of the matter is that, like all of Ishiguro's work, he has written nothing, and managed to encapsulate the entirety of humanity in a fragile, paperback shell.
Written in easily readable chunks and in prose so beautiful it will make your eyes shine with pride that language should achieve such simple beauty, Nocturnes is a piece of literary gold that can not slip past you.
Nocturnes: pub. Faber and Faber, 2009
ISBN - 978-0-571-24498-0
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