The guy is probably my favorite writer on the planet. Most recently we’ve been talking the film adaptation of his fantastic Never Let Me Go at BSC. Today, I ran across this book trailer for Nocturnes, a collection by Ishiguro coming out this month.
I have no specific reason that draw me to this title particularly. Point blank, Ishiguro has to be on everyone’s must buy list anytime he puts product out, and if you haven’t read him before you need to pick up the full catalog. Because we’ve had and SF/F slant you’ll hear us mention his Never Let Me Go a lot (don’t sleep though, it was Time’s list of the 100 greatest English language books since the magazine formed in 1923) and because of the Hopkins starring movie The Remains of the Day – which still might be his best book – that gets noted a bit, but truly there is no waste of time with his name on it. When I look at a lot of the newer writers I enjoy now – the Chris Barzaks of the world and such – I’m fairly conscious of the fact that I’m enjoying writing that I can trace to Ishiguro in the terms of reading fiction that engages emotions, not the motions. Most authors (some very talented) put us in places and position and expect us to react. The Ishiguro’s know we will, understanding the difference between characters and character, between protagonists and people.
Nocturnes is an automatic choice on the Tomio Want List.
Synopsis:
In this sublime story cycle, Kazuo Ishiguro explores love, music and the passage of time. This quintet ranges from Italian piazzas to the Malvern Hills, a London flat to the ‘hush-hush floor’ of an exclusive Hollywood hotel. Along the way we meet young dreamers, café musicians and faded stars, all at some moment of reckoning.
Gentle, intimate and witty, Nocturnes is underscored by a haunting theme: the struggle to restoke life’s romance, even as relationships flounder and youthful hopes recede.
- Jay Tomio
Jan-ken-pon is the time traveling, force-walking, multiverse crossing column of Jay Tomio, owner of 1/3 of everything you see currently on screen, and the editor of Heliotrope. Some call him the Bodhisattva.
