Kazuo Ishiguro - The Unconsoled

‘Clearly, this city was expecting of me something more than a simple recital. But when I tried to recall some basic details about the present visit, I had little success . . .’

Somewhere in Europe, celebrated pianist ‘Mr Ryder’ has arrived at his hotel, where he is greeted with a high pitch of expectation. During the next few days he encounters many demands on his time, both personal and professional, and is whisked around the city and surrounding countryside in a way that is both bewildering and strangely dreamlike. Time and space appear malleable, apparently led less by the laws of physics than those of the emotions. Assailed by troubling memories of childhood, Ryder gradually realises that his upcoming performance will be about much more than the challenging postmodern music he will play . . .

When The Unconsoled was published in 1995, readers of Ishiguro’s previous works, and in particular those who loved his Booker-winning The Remains of the Day, reacted with a mixture of bafflement, confusion and sometimes downright hostility. Just what was this exactly?

While James Wood famously wrote: ‘Kazuo Ishiguro’s new novel has the virtue of being unlike anything else; it invents its own category of badness’, the New York Times Book Review described it as ‘the most original and remarkable book he has so far produced’ and, writing in The Times, Rachel Cusk declared it ‘A masterpiece. It is above all a book devoted to the human heart.’

Many have read The Unconsoled in relation to Kafka, assuming it was intended to emulate that writer’s work in some way. Other reference points suggested by readers include cubism and surrealism (in particular the work of Giorgio de Chirico), or the logic (or illogic) of dreams and nightmares; others have read it as a series of music-like ‘variations’ on a theme, or as a magical realist allegory, or an exposure of the wounding and trauma at the heart of modern society. Michael Wood pithily called it a ‘long metaphor for deferred and displaced anxiety’.

There is much pleasure to be had in the reading of this book. The absurd sometimes descends into hilarious farce, and Ishiguro’s celebrated prose is as delightfully lucid as ever. The cumulative effect of the strange narrative shifts, impossibly overheard conversations, and increasing anticipation is ultimately extremely moving.

On this eight-week study we will also take time to consider the background to Ishiguro’s writing of the novel. The enormous success of The Remains of the Day led to the author going on an 18-month international book tour, with its attendant disorientation and confusing, absurd demands on his time. Ishiguro has also said that the book’s genesis was a comment from his wife that dreams are a kind of universal language, which sparked his interest in ‘the grammar of dreams’. As he worked, he says, he ‘started to see parallels between memory and dream, the way you manipulate both according to your emotional needs at the time’. Thus, like all his work, this can be read as a study of memory, and how it can dominate our lives, for both good and ill.

JOINING DETAILS:

• Eight week study, live on Zoom, led by Lewis Ward
• Mondays, 5.30-7.30pm (UK), 13 April – 1 June 2026
• £280 for eight meetings
• Recommended edition: The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro, Faber & Faber, ISBN 9780571283897

REDUCED COSTS: we are committed to making our studies as affordable as possible. We have a fund in place to support anyone who would like to register for a study but finds the cost difficult to afford. We can’t promise to help, but please email litsalon@gmail.com in confidence if you would like to request a reduction in the cost of a study.