Mr Ryder arrives in an unspecified European city, one in which the inhabitants are despairing. Mr Brodsky, the local star conductor, has fallen to alcoholism and Mr Christoff, a once popular cellist, has fallen out of favour. They feel a desperation that culture is crumbling around them and that Ryder’s presence and imminent performance will help rectify this. The novel proceeds to take us through Ryder’s time in the city, pulled from one obligation to another, aware that his schedule is very full but unsure of what exactly it entails. The novel starts slowly and seems to shift reality. He goes to meet people he doesn’t know only for them to seemingly be his intimates. He is not from this city but continually bumps into people from his past with unusual regularity. Reality is never quite what it seems. He doesn’t know his way around, unable to find his way to apartments he should be familiar with, and distance and time bend, making him travel long distances only to find himself just around the corner from the hotel in which he is staying. This can be quite disorienting but seems to settle somewhat as the novel progresses, or perhaps you merely become accustomed to the unruliness of reality.
Ryder is an intriguing character. We hear from others that he is an unpleasant, demanding man, but for the most part we don’t see him acting as such, although there are glimmers, and toward the end they become more frequent. He will be within earshot of people planning unfortunate events for him and insulting his personality and yet appears not to hear or care. Every time he tries to rest he is interrupted and sent on another errand, and while he attempts to keep his obligations he is so easily swayed into a new task that he is constantly letting people down. As the performance edges closer he becomes increasingly anxious that he hasn’t had time to practice, and that he hasn’t even settled on which piece he will play. His attempts to reclaim his time are largely unsuccessful as the climax of other character’s stories come to a head and Ryder is always at least partially involved.
Ishiguro does a good job of drawing the characters and their situations in such a way that you feel for them despite only quite brief passages devoted to them. Some characters are fleeting, others repeating. Mr Brodsky is a constant throughout, as is Mr Hoffman, the manager of the hotel. In the final fifth or so we see the realities of their lives unfold, often learning of tragic backstories while they scramble to find a way to make their present and future more satisfying. Relationships are fraught, well worn lies are confronted, and we see how expectations build up unfairly on younger members of families. There are some truly upsetting passages as well as some farce, creating a strange mix of humour and emotion.
There are many examples of bad parenting in this novel. We learn early on that the friendly hotel porter Gustav continues to have a relationship with his daughter Sophie but that he let her down emotionally while she was young and she hasn’t said a word to him since. Ryder, in his sometimes role as father/guardian of Sophie’s son Boris, upsets her by similarly sitting by while Boris suffers. The Hoffmans treat their son Stephan with surface level politeness and feigned support, while completely dismissing his dreams and abilities. Ryder’s own parents, who he has been so eager to ensure are well looked after, don’t show up for him time and again. There are reflections of situations in different characters leading some to suggest they are versions of Ryder at different stages of his life.
In all a very curious novel. It’s a book that demands your attention and reflection but manages to be very readable nonetheless. Many have described it as like reading a long anxiety dream, and although I completely understand this interpretation, I didn’t feel the anxiety transferring to me in the same way as it did in Ducks, Newburyport, for example. My first Ishiguro and I’m well aware it wasn’t an easy one to begin with, but I enjoyed the writing and would be interested to read more of his work.
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