Nocturnes is a collection of five longish short stories, four about musicians and a fifth about friends who once bonded over musical tastes. As the title neatly suggests, the book is filled with characters living in obscurity; the stories are populated by people, often musicians, who have been forced to downgrade their ambitions dramatically. While the title also suggests classical music, however, jazz and its related forms feature more prominently.
The standout success among the five is ‘Malvern Hills’, which features a university drop-out who is trying (like countless others) to write songs, while helping out at his sister’s café in Worcestershire. Ishiguro insightfully portrays both the man’s self-regarding pomposity about his non-existent musical ‘career’, and his underlying bitterness at having failed to achieve in the eyes of those who know him. He befriends an older Swiss couple who work as musicians in continental hotels, and their own inner woes are hinted at with the same skilful restraint.
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