NOCTURNES BY KAZUO ISHIGURO

Never let me go is one book that never fails to pull my heart strings. With that said, I believe that it is very difficult for Ishiguro to top that book. However, in Nocturnes, it makes me feel as if I am getting to know more about him through five stories that have the same central theme – MUSIC.

This book is for music lovers. This book is for music makers. The five stories revolve around music makers, music listeners and how these two groups intertwined. Some of the stories have love and friendships intertwined in music. It makes it seem as if Ishiguro’s purpose for this book was to show that music is the thing that connects love and friendship. Though the stories are very similar, they have differences as well and therefore to do them justice, I should talk about each of the stories with care. So here goes.

Crooner

Out of all the five stories present in this book, this story to me is the most heartbreaking. It focuses more on love, but not in a cliche way. It shows the love between a woman and her husband who used to be really famous. They go on a holiday and meet a man who grew up listening to the husband’s songs. He is a guitar player. The husband asks for this man’s help in playing the guitar for his wife as he sings the songs that she likes. Out of the five stories present, this is the story that made me cry. Mainly because of this quote –

“And what do all these songs say? If two people fall out of love and they have to part, then that’s sad. But if they go on loving each other, they should stay together forever. That’s what these songs are saying.”

As I type this quote out, it makes me tear all over again, because of how much I personally believe in this. Have I revealed too much about the story? Hope not! Well, read on your own and form your own opinions and take aways. Moving on..

Come Rain or Come Shine

The characters in this story are quite quirky to be honest. But it was a hilarious read, one that made me smile and laugh, which was a good thing to have after reading a story that made me cry. This story revolves around a couple and an old friend they have since college. The couple were having some difficulties when the friend decided to come and visit them. So the husband wants this friend to be the buffer between them and comes up with really weird tactics. Let’s just say it involves the friend trashing their apartment and making it smell of dog. Hilarious ain’t it my friends? The story will definitely leave you wondering if such a scenario could really happen in reality.

Malvern Hills

There’s something about stories that involve couples who have been together for such a long time right? Something so special about reading about how a couple who grew up together and lived together till their fifties can be so inspired by a musician who’s probably half their age. In this story Ishiguro paints a beautiful picture of a couple who can sit together with the sun in their face, enjoying music they just discovered mixed with a fight they have with the husband saying that he has had enough of her. Though the story does not tell you that he comes back to her after taking a walk to cool his head, because of that moment they share, the reader will have enough faith to know that he can’t let go of that connection he has with her that easily. How can you let go of someone who sees music the same way as you do? You just can’t even if you try to.

Nocturne

This is one story that I really didn’t like that much because the views that were mentioned in the story were not the views that I shared. But that is the exact same reason why this story is awesome. I have never had a moment where I underlined a quote and then write my counter argument in the same book. There is a line in the story that I didn’t agree with to a certain extend and I felt so strongly for it, that I underlined it and wrote my feelings underneath it. I can imagine myself picking up this book years from now, flipping to the page and reading what I wrote. I knew deeply that my views will not change, cause it is a kind of opinion that brings me right down to my core and no matter how much changes one goes through in life, the core of a human being will never change. That’s comforting to know. Therefore I appreciate this story for giving me that.

CELLISTS

This story was well written in the sense that I could imagine the characters in my mind very clearly and vividly. However, I cannot really understand the purpose of why these characters were created or what I am meant to learn from this characters. Maybe it’s a story about how talented people can get their talent, passion and desire crushed once they have had the wrong teacher. However if they have the right teacher, the exact opposite can happen.