 First edition | |
| Author | Kazuo Ishiguro |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Faber and Faber |
Publication date | 1995 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 535 pp (paperback edition) |
| ISBN | 0-571-17718-2 (paperback edition) |
The Unconsoled is a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, first published in 1995 by Faber and Faber, and winner of the Cheltenham Prize that year.
Ryder, an English pianist, arrives by invitation to an unspecified European city. At his hotel, he is greeted by Hilde Stratmann of the city arts council, who alludes to his full schedule over the coming days to meet with the eager and admiring public, leading up to a highly anticipated "Thursday night". Unable to remember the schedule, Ryder diplomatically feigns knowledge.
With no time to rest, Ryder is accosted by a procession of locals who politely, yet insistently, beg him to fulfill various personal requests. Gustav, an old porter at the hotel who is not on speaking terms with his daughter, Sophie, asks Ryder to intervene to resolve her private worries for the sake of Sophie's young son, Boris. Despite meeting Sophie and Boris for the first time, Ryder paradoxically remembers himself as already being Boris's stepfather, indignantly shielding Boris when others impose adult responsibilities upon the boy. Likewise, he and Sophie treat each other as long-term partners, confiding over Sophie's struggle to house-hunt for the three of them, and bickering over Ryder's frequent travel obligations and absences. Throughout the city, Ryder also recognizes, improbably, various people, places and objects from his childhood in England.
The locals expect Ryder to deliver a piano recital and a lecture to address their ongoing cultural crisis, precipitated when Christoff, a once-fêted celebrity cellist, fell from favor. The city has laid its hopes for an arts revival on the shoulders of Brodsky, a disgraced, inactive conductor and an alcoholic, who will conduct an orchestral concert on Thursday night after undergoing rehabilitation. Hoffman, the hotel's manager, is personally overseeing Brodsky's rehearsal, pledging that Thursday night's proceedings will be impeccable. However, because Brodsky yearns for the company of his estranged ex-wife, Miss Collins, the concert planners privately beseech her to reconcile with him, despite her misgivings.
Over days, Ryder is ushered from place to place, accidentally arriving for appointments never made, while missing appointments that Stratmann explicitly arranged. At the same time, he promises to advocate for Gustav and his fraternity of fellow hotel porters in his address. Ryder also evaluates the piano skill of Stephan, the Hoffmans' son, endorsing his plan to perform a difficult piece on Thursday night. Believing that his noncommittal to piano caused his parents' marriage to break down, Stephan hopes to redeem himself, despite learning too late that his mother dislikes his chosen piece. Amidst all this, Ryder is surprised by the reminder that his elderly parents, who require caretakers, will arrive for a stay in the city. As Thursday night approaches, Ryder struggles to compose his address, practice for his recital, and confirm his parents' arrival and accommodation.
Ryder is further delayed when Gustav suddenly falls to ill health, while Brodsky, with Hoffman's approval, relapses to drink and crashes his bicycle after his persistent overtures to Collins prove futile. Ryder chaperones Sophie and Boris to Gustav, then leaves them. A doctor performs an emergency amputation of Brodsky's leg, not noticing that it was a prosthetic all along. At the concert hall, even though his parents cannot bear to watch his performance, Stephan perseveres in his recital and is applauded. Brodsky, comically using an ironing board as a crutch, conducts the orchestra while drunk, missing a leg and bleeding, humiliating himself and being publicly spurned by Collins. Hoffman, likewise chastened by his failure, grovels before his wife, to no avail. Stephan, gaining newfound confidence, plans to seek his fortunes outside the city.
Still intent on performing for his parents despite the derailed concert, Ryder confronts Stratmann, but realizes that unlike the rest of his schedule, his parents' visit had been his own idea. He also learns that his parents visited this city long ago without him ever knowing. Meanwhile, Gustav has passed away, believing to the end that Ryder would speak on the porters' behalf. Shrugging off his negligence, Ryder follows Sophie and Boris to a departing tram. A fellow passenger, reminiscing about Ryder's parents' past visit, fails to remember any impression of Ryder's father. Sophie finally forsakes Ryder for his absence at Gustav's passing. Ryder is consoled by the fellow passenger, and partakes contentedly in a breakfast buffet being served aboard the tram.
The Unconsoled was described as a "sprawling, almost indecipherable 500-page work" [1] that "left readers and reviewers baffled". [2] It received strong negative reviews with a few positive ones. Literary critic James Wood said that the novel had "invented its own category of badness". However, a 2006 poll of various literary critics voted the novel as the third "best British, Irish, or Commonwealth novel from 1980 to 2005", [3] tied with Anthony Burgess's Earthly Powers , Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children , Ian McEwan's Atonement , and Penelope Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower . John Carey, book critic for the Sunday Times, also placed the novel on his list of the 20th century's 50 most enjoyable books. It has come to be generally regarded as one of Ishiguro’s best works. [4]
Sir Kazuo Ishiguro is a Japanese-born British novelist, screenwriter, musician, and short-story writer. He is one of the most critically acclaimed contemporary fiction authors writing in English, having been awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its citation, the Swedish Academy described Ishiguro as a writer "who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world".
Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter was a Soviet and Russian classical pianist. He is regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time, and has been praised for the "depth of his interpretations, his virtuoso technique, and his vast repertoire".
Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz was a Russian and American pianist. Considered one of the greatest pianists of all time, he was known for his virtuoso technique, timbre, and the public excitement engendered by his playing.
Leopold Mordkhelovich Godowsky Sr. was a Lithuanian-born American virtuoso pianist, composer and teacher. He was one of the most highly regarded performers of his time, known for his theories concerning the application of relaxed weight and economy of motion within pianistic technique – principles later propagated by his pupils, such as Heinrich Neuhaus.
Josef Casimir Hofmann was a Polish-American pianist, composer, music teacher, and inventor.
Victoria de los Ángeles López García was a Spanish operatic lyric soprano and recitalist whose career began after the Second World War and reached its height in the years from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s.
Boris Christoff was a Bulgarian opera singer, widely considered one of the greatest basses of the 20th century.
Boris Vadimovich Berezovsky is a Russian pianist.
Ignaz Brüll was a Moravian-born pianist and composer who lived and worked in Vienna.
Heinrich Gustav Neuhaus was a Russian pianist and teacher. Part of a musical dynasty, he grew up in a Polish-speaking household. He taught at the Moscow Conservatory from 1922 to 1964. Neuhaus was also awarded the People's Artist of the RSFSR (1956).
Eduard Steuermann was an Austrian-born American pianist and composer.
Isador Goodman AM, frequently misspelled Isidor Goodman, was a South African-Australian Jewish pianist, composer and conductor. He became a household name in Australia in the 1930s-1970s, taught at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music for 50 years, introduced many Australians to classical music, and contributed hugely to music making in his adopted country.
Stéphan Elmas was an Armenian composer, pianist and teacher.
George Copeland was an American classical pianist known primarily for his relationship with the French composer Claude Debussy in the early 20th century and his interpretations of modern Spanish piano works.
Cathal Breslin is a concert pianist originally from Derry, Northern Ireland, now living in Phoenix, Arizona in the United States. He has performed extensively in solo recitals, as a concerto soloist with orchestra and a chamber musician in major concert halls throughout Europe, North America, South America and Asia.
The Sonata in A major for Violin and Piano by César Franck is one of his best-known compositions, and is considered one of the finest sonatas for violin and piano ever written. It is an amalgam of his rich native harmonic language with the Classical traditions he valued highly, held together in a cyclic framework.
Anna Borysivna Fedorova is a Ukrainian concert pianist. Fedorova performs as soloist, chamber musician and with symphony orchestras in the major concert halls of the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, UK, Ukraine, Poland, the US, Mexico, Argentina, and parts of Asia. Fedorova is a David Young Piano Prize Holder supported by a Soiree d'Or Award and Keyboard Trust.
Sidney Foster, born Sidney Earl Finkelstein, was an American virtuoso pianist and teacher. He studied with Isabelle Vengerova and David Saperton at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and in 1940 became the first winner of the Edgar M. Leventritt Award. He concertized over four decades in the United States and performed in Europe, the Soviet Union, Israel and Japan. He was Professor of Piano at Indiana University from 1952 to 1977. He was described as "a virtuoso and a great interpreter of great music," and affirmed as "everything the connoisseurs claim he is: an interesting, original pianist, the master of tonal shading and an artist."
Gitta Gradova was an American pianist.
Boris Kroyt was a classical violinist and violist. He was the violist of the Budapest String Quartet from 1936 until the ensemble disbanded in 1967. Kroyt was born to a Jewish-Ukrainian family in Odessa, but spent his early life and career in Germany where he had been a child prodigy violinist. From the outbreak of World War II until his death at the age of 72, he lived in the United States and had become a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1944.
 | This article about a 1990s novel is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. See guidelines for writing about novels. Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page. |
