KAZUO ISHIGURO , NOCTURNES , 2009
This volume contains 5 short stories all in the first person, relating small incidents in the narrator's everyday life where he or she is confronted to the inscrutability of another person ,and thus a very thick ambiguity pervades all these stories. The hero is uneasy and tries to understand what goes on, but in vain. So, he asks himself this question : how can we know anyone really and why our certainties about other s, who often are old friends, keep surging time and again. It is very subtle as Ishiguro always is and this psychological obstacle amongst people is a very troubling feeling.
The reader sees misunderstandings amongst old friends that can be very funny but also very upsetting in the sense that no one really communicates with another properly in Ishiguro's world?. We are alone with our own feelings, our conception of the world and mainly our visions of ourselves . We all seem to live under illusions of what our image can be in the minds of our friends and relatives. Often we are seen as utter fools and if we learn this by chance, we are hurt beyond belief and ache to correct this false image. But in vain; it is irretrievable. no one wants to believe us if we say that we are fine and well. Terrible world but a comical effect is found; I found myself laughing hysterically at some clownish scenes, almost like a home movie of gags. Ishiguro can be very funny indeed and this is a surprise.
This volume is a little like Murakami stories where the narrator is remote, a little on the side watching what goes on around him and making you smile , and even laugh. An exquisite writer, and a careful observer of human foibles and follies, Ishiguro is fascinated by the secret workings of human relationship. Comforting normality does not exist among humans.
