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The Unconsoled Paperback – October 1, 1996

3.8 out of 5 stars 1,264 ratings

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From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and author of the Booker Prize–winning novel The Remains of the Day, here is a novel that is at once a gripping psychological mystery, a wicked satire of the cult of art, and a poignant character study of a man whose public life has accelerated beyond his control.

The setting is a nameless Central European city where Ryder, a renowned pianist, has come to give the most important performance of his life. Instead, he finds himself diverted on a series of cryptic and infuriating errands that nevertheless provide him with vital clues to his own past. In
The Unconsoled Ishiguro creates a work that is itself a virtuoso performance, strange, haunting, and resonant with humanity and wit.
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A renowned pianist finds himself in a mysterious and dreamlike urban maze.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A work of great interest and originality.... Ishiguro has mapped out an aesthetic territory that is all his own...frankly fantastic [and] fiercer and funnier than before."—The New Yorker

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 1, 1996
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ Reprint
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 535 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0679735879
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679735878
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 1 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.8 out of 5 stars 1,264 ratings

About the author

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Kazuo Ishiguro
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KAZUO ISHIGURO was born in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1954 and moved to Britain at the age of five. His eight previous works of fiction have earned him many honors around the world, including the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Booker Prize. His work has been translated into over fifty languages, and The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, both made into acclaimed films, have each sold more than 2 million copies. He was given a knighthood in 2018 for Services to Literature. He also holds the decorations of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star from Japan.

Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars
1,264 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book enjoyable for fans and appreciate its humor. The writing style receives mixed reactions - while some find it well written, others describe it as wordy and difficult to read. Moreover, the story quality and readability are also mixed, with some considering it a masterpiece while others find it frustrating like a bad dream. Additionally, the character development receives negative feedback, with customers noting there are no relatable characters. The book's emotional content is mixed, with customers describing it as sad, and the mystery aspect is also mixed, with one customer describing it as a complicated dream/reality plot.

6 customers mention "Humor"6 positive0 negative

Customers find the book humorous, with one mentioning its deadpan irony.

"Great novel! So funny and so sad in the same time, just the real life is. The language is great, sentences are beautifu - I enjoyed reading it." Read more

"...On the other hand, some parts are downright funny, whether it be the childish -and numerous-outbursts from Ryder (he has so many responsibilities!)..." Read more

"...but Ishiguro manages to infuse Ryder's narrative with many miraculous moments of comedy, pathos, and deadpan irony...." Read more

"...Funny, brutal, heartbreaking, - a book that makes one think and reflect, and will stay with me for a long time ." Read more

4 customers mention "Enjoyment"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book enjoyable, with one describing it as deeply rewarding and another mentioning it as reading to live.

"...Not his best but very enjoyable for fans." Read more

"...But I hope you will also find that it is deeply rewarding." Read more

"...It's fun, frustrating, sad, really weird, and yes, now you can be certain you're not the only one who thinks like this...." Read more

"...amazing story as an extended lucid dream, containing anxiety, grief, exuberance, humor, hope, and resignation. A truly remarkable performance...." Read more

38 customers mention "Story quality"22 positive16 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the story quality of the book, with some finding it brilliant and dreamlike, while others describe it as boring.

"Great novel! So funny and so sad in the same time, just the real life is. The language is great, sentences are beautifu - I enjoyed reading it." Read more

"...The main difference though, seems to be that the story symbolic is never truly uncovered. There's no "ah ah" moment here...." Read more

"I am an Ishiguro fan and have thoroughly enjoyed his other novels, especially the failure to communicate between protagonists, which characterizes..." Read more

"...almost as if it were a dream narrative, with all the frustrations of a bad dream...." Read more

23 customers mention "Writing style"9 positive14 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the writing style of the book, with some finding it well written while others describe it as wordy and filled with endless monologues in simplistic language, making it a hard read.

"...Streets lead to hotel rooms, minds are read, places magically connect, childhood friends appear, family ties are blurry, to say the least and the..." Read more

"...And his prose is an unqualified marvel: an elegant, controlled, and precise writing that casts a fragile veneer of sanity over a disturbing and..." Read more

"...In fact some of the monologues were so agonizingly detailed and went on for so many kindle pages that I found myself skimming to get past it..." Read more

"...set in motion by the first of a series of fascinating, if somewhat long-winded monologues...." Read more

17 customers mention "Mystery"7 positive10 negative

Customers have mixed reactions to the mystery elements of the book, with some finding it intriguing and one describing it as a complicated dream/reality plot, while others find it mystifying in a bad way.

"too strange!...well written but I kept waiting for an illness revelation of some kind to explain the very strange behaviors" Read more

"...with characters he's seemingly encountering for the first time are intriguing and dreamlike, and there are shades of Kafka in the way people and..." Read more

"...No continuity in thoughts or goal is present and he is permanenty jumping from one thing to the next in a chaotic dance that leaves us breathless..." Read more

"...years after its first publication, this book continues to infuriate, mystify and beguile readers...." Read more

9 customers mention "Emotional content"4 positive5 negative

Customers have mixed reactions to the emotional content of the book, with some finding it sad, while others describe it as disturbing.

"...apply to all the characters, there is NO resolution, they start the story being miserable and end up as miserable, as if they were all acting in a..." Read more

"Great novel! So funny and so sad in the same time, just the real life is. The language is great, sentences are beautifu - I enjoyed reading it." Read more

"Reading "The Unconsoled" was quite disturbing...." Read more

"...It's fun, frustrating, sad, really weird, and yes, now you can be certain you're not the only one who thinks like this...." Read more

7 customers mention "Character development"0 positive7 negative

Customers criticize the character development in the book, noting that there are no relatable characters, with one customer specifically mentioning that the protagonist is a very important white man.

"...aware, as one ploughs through this book, how little the characters know about each other, how wrong all their impressions of each other are...." Read more

"...My biggest criticism so far is just that the protagonist is a very important white man in the center of a world that (at least so far) is extremely..." Read more

"...The characters are constructed rather than encountered...." Read more

"...And yes, I’ll admit that the character behaviors are surreal and unorthodox, it certainly adds to the dream-like atmosphere...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2015
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    The Unconsoled tells the story of Ryder, an acclaimed pianist, who comes to play in an European town as part as what looks like a tour.
    And that's -or is it???- about the only clear cut fact of the book.

    From Ryder's arrival to his hotel, we are -reader and Ryder- embarked in a roller coaster of events, thoughts, interactions, with a narrative following a dream pattern. The sense of time and space are suspended, as are logic and rationality. Streets lead to hotel rooms, minds are read, places magically connect, childhood friends appear, family ties are blurry, to say the least and the anxiety is rising.

    The dream quickly turns into nightmare as we are trying to make sense of the what, when, who and where. Many parts reminded me of a When we were orphans gone mad, with common themes and characterization.
    Ryder needs to play a huge part in many events leading to a key performance - the famous Thursday night- but has no idea of any of it. He tries to get a sense of his schedule but is always a step behind, pulled out of his unknown main tasks by constant side line emergencies.
    Ryder never seems to be acting, but only reacting to external events, pushing him around like a leaf in the wind. No continuity in thoughts or goal is present and he is permanenty jumping from one thing to the next in a chaotic dance that leaves us breathless and on the brink of a claustrophobia attack! That's the teeth grinding bit... Yes, some parts are quite frustrating and you wish Ryder would just suddenly wake up and get on with a "normal" life. Kazuo Ishiguro is literally plunging us in this never ending bad dream and the sense of absolute lack of control is quite something to experience.
    On the other hand, some parts are downright funny, whether it be the childish -and numerous-outbursts from Ryder (he has so many responsibilities!) or some of the characters' monologues, like Brodsky's.
    Embodiment of surreal literature, the Unconsoled echoes of course Kafka, but also Sartre and Vian .
    The main difference though, seems to be that the story symbolic is never truly uncovered. There's no "ah ah" moment here.
    Moreover, many tantalizing hypothesis seem to disappear as you go on reading.
    To start with, I wondered if Ryder was in a coma... Then if he was dead and living in his own personal hell. Then if he was in a highly dissociated state and experiencing simultaneously all his personae. And then again, if he was meeting his own self at different stages of his life. Or I f the story was experienced from the perspective of a 2 years old.
    I hoped the ending would provide some kind of answers, but grew less and less hopeful as I went on reading.
    And no, it didn't. There is no neat red ribbon tying everything nicely together. The interpretation is only down to us, readers.
    What is truly masterful though, is that for Ryder, all the events he goes through do not constitute a journey. He seems to be exactly the same at the very end and at the very start. There's no learning. Events just pass through him and he remains unchanged. Upsetting things are forgotten, replaced by what comes next, hurt and emotions give way to present needs. Without spoiling the end, the last few pages are such a vivid demonstration of the latter...
    The same apply to all the characters, there is NO resolution, they start the story being miserable and end up as miserable, as if they were all acting in a forever circular pattern.
    When it came to giving it some sense, I chose to think that this work of literature was an allegory of our own mind. That it shows how we get caught up in things lacking utter relevance to help us live our present. How we obsess about trivia and are self obsessed. How we can be prisoner of our own concepts, ways, limitations.That we are made of dozens of contradictory pieces, pulling us in different ways and making clear vision and action difficult. Or may be, it's all about letting go of our mental pieces of luggage, which would put Gustav and his porter job in a interesting new light!
    So, a very original read, to embark on with an open mind...
    18 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2007
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    This is an unusual novel, written almost as if it were a dream narrative, with all the frustrations of a bad dream. I would like to discuss three aspects of the novel; the use of a dream narrative to form the basis of the novel, Perl's dream theory, and the modern sense of anxiety and neurosis.

    The narrative of this novel is dream-like in many ways. A dream has its own sense of time and space and sequencing of events. Oftehn in a dream the sense of time is distorted and space is bent and shortened. That is certainly the case in this novel. The anxieties of everyday life are taken into the dream and thus the dreamer feels a sense of emergency or urgency around nonsense in a dream. Logic,which follows rules in the real world, no longer follows those rules in the dream world. There were wonderful clues to this process throughout the novel. For example, early in the novel Ryder and Boris try to keep up with Sophia as she walks through a maze of old-town streets. No matter how they try to hurry, she always turns a corner ahead of them and they become anxious trying to catch up to her. In another scene, Ryder goes to a movie but the movie seems to be a conglomeration of several films including 2001: A Space Odessey as well as a Clint Eastwood western. In another scene, Ryder responds to an emergency in his bathrobe, ends up in a formal partly, is invited to speak, and when he does the bathrobe opens exposing his nude body. All of these images tell the reader that he is in the world of the dream. Dreams don't necessarily resolve issues. They usually only point to problems and hint at answers. In the Jungian approach the hints are big. However in our modern existence, when we search for a myth to live by, the sense of anxiety becomes the predominant feature of the modern dream. Jung's dream theory indicates that dreams can be used to enrich or existance whereas Perl's dream theory indicates that the anxiety and dread experienced in dreams are symptoms of a larger neurosis, caused by the conditions, pace, relationshis of modern life, to say nothing of the need in modern existance to find meaning in life since we can no longer rely on the dominant forces of the church or state to define our reason for living.

    I think the dream theory developed by Fritz Perls and revealed in his Gestalt Psychotherapy would shine light on the meaning of this odd novel. Perls would say that everyone and everything in the dream is actually a part or aspect of the dreamer. One way to interpret this is that the young boy Boris reflects Ryder's childhood, the young pianist Stephen reflects the artistic awakening of Ryder, and the elderly drunken Brodsky reflects the despair and end of the artist, no longer able to produce with vitality and creativity. Another piece of evidence that everyone in the dream reflects some aspect of Ryder's personality is the similarity of voice of many of the male characters in the story. They had this extremely polite way of manipulating. Perl's thought that uncertain vague anxiety was a symptom of neurosis, the psychological state of modern man. This dream was full of the anxious dread characteristic of neurosis.

    Which comes to the point of my review that if a dream reflects the anxiety of modern existence and a novel should reflect modern existence, then the novel should be as anxious as a neurotic dream. This aspect of the novel obvious drove many readers and reviewers to distraction, as evidenced by their scathing reviews of this novel.

    But what is the source of the anxiety? This novel would indicate that it is our inability to be all things to all people. Ryder is continually asked by strangers to help with this issue or that issue, all of which divert him, cause him discomfort, and yet always help him understand himself better. When modern man is in the state of anxiety, he looks for authoritarian answers. Ryder, a great musician, is seen by others an a wise authority figure and Ryder knows that he has not real expertise in the live and troubles of others.

    Another interpretation may be that Ryder is a rider, that he is the human soul, continually bouncing from one illogical and nonsense experience to another.

    Ryder has dream amnesia, not clinical amnesia, since he easily flows from situations where he has no member to a realization that he is familiar with the situation and the persons and flows back into uncertain illdefined relationships with the other characters.

    Who are the unresolved? I think the unresolved are the vast range of characters, searching for the expert, the wise old man, the artist, the star to in some way address their issue and solve their problem.

    I did not give this book 5 stars because I found it overly long and overly frustrating. It got on my nerves, as it was suppose to do.
    15 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2025
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    I confess I did not read the whole book. Endless conversations with strangers who will never be happy, or at least not during the 2 or 3 days during which the book takes place. I did read about half and then skipped to the last part, only to discover that nothing except long conversations, one after another, were about all that was in between. The main character, writing in first person, wants to help each of these people but seemed helpless to do so. I can see the similarity to "Remains of the Day."

Top reviews from other countries

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  • allemande
    3.0 out of 5 stars Cover different from what is shown here.
    Reviewed in Singapore on February 3, 2022
    It was in good condition. But the cover is different from what is advertised - it sort of matters to me given it now doesn't match the rest of my set and needs to be given away and is thus a waste of money.
  • Omer Cust
    1.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary
    Reviewed in France on April 4, 2022
    This is the most extraordinary literature that I have ever read. I should say incomprehensible. It seems as if the author has finished each scene, asking himself “What is the most illogical and ridiculous thing that could happen now?” And then answering himself by putting it to paper. It is a structure that I have never come across before. It must be unique and is obviously meant to be, creating a new “ism”. It will without doubt generate an endless flood of theses in the future and literary circles and university café customers will talk of of nothing else. That said , unless you are a masochist I would hesitate in purchasing it.
  • Giovanni Dominoni
    5.0 out of 5 stars Libro non complesso, non difficile, semplicemente originale
    Reviewed in Italy on May 19, 2019
    Non mi ha annoiato come molti altri romanzi che raccontano storie in modo lineare. Complesso? No, per nulla. Originale. Basta usare la propria testa, invece che sedersi a leggere come se si andasse al cinema a vedere un blockbuster con i popcorn in mano. In realtà questo libro è tale e quale tutti gli altri libri dell'autore, ci sono sempre gli stessi leitmotiv, le stesse pulsioni di fondo. È solo lo stile ad essere più radicale. Ma se non capite questo libro, allora non avete capito nessun altro libro di Ishiguro (anche se pensate di averlo fatto).
    Report
  • Kindle Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars masterpiece
    Reviewed in Germany on November 6, 2015
    Brilliant piece of writing. Style is quite confusing at first ,but once you let go and just experience it - you revel in Ishiguro's wit and wisdom
  • harald kjellin
    2.0 out of 5 stars A book about not being contact with reality
    Reviewed in Sweden on August 21, 2022
    Once you have read the first chapter you can get a thrilling insight when you realize that what is going on in the book is very much the same as what you can experience in a dream where you continuously get lost.
    Then the whole book repeats itself chapter after chapter which makes it very boring unless you have an autistic diagnosis. In such a case the book can provide you with a mirror of your own life.