I quite liked this collection of short stories by Kazuo Ishiguro, all based on the theme of music and musicians. I especially liked the way how - within the confines of one evening or one weekend - an entire slice of life with all its hopes and regrets is presented. A fading singer serenades his wife in a gondola ... to mark a dying marriage. A young guitarist runs away from life ... and meets an old couple wistfully reminiscing the passing of youth, of life, and the slow onset of the end.
My absolute favourite of this collection was the title story, “Nocturnes”. It is the story of a saxophonist who cannot get famous, not for any lack of talent, but because - as both his manager and his wife tell him constantly - he is too ugly. Tired of being called a 'loser' by both, he finally gives in to the pressure and accepts a donation by his wife's rich lover.
I was expecting this story to run the usual course of social pressures, and become yet another generic moral lesson on outer versus inner beauty. But, as the artist recuperates in a room next to a very rich and famous socialite out on a routine face lift, what Ishiguro presents in this story is a very unique relationship between two people who have absolutely nothing in common other than - ironically - faces hidden under bandages the entire time they are together. With each passing moment, a little bit more of a hitherto buried characteristic reveals itself in this off-key note of music, that lasts but for a short while.
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