"Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall" by Kazuo Ishiguro (published 2009)

Kazuo Ishiguro's "Nocturnes" features five light and entertaining anecdotal stories concerning music and the rocky lives of traveling classic and classical musicians. The characters in each story vary, yet each is a bit of an odd, awkward bird trying to make it in the music world.

The book is very enjoyable and would be the perfect read for a flight. I say this because of the various geographies described, though all European, they are also all not shy in taking liberties of opinion on said cultures and their people: a refreshing take. Nocturnes is reflective of the relationships of ordinary people, and their dreams and goals. Though there was some lack of passion here. The passion of the musicians within the stories was dulled by obstructions of frustration and insecurity. In short, the fire within them, that must live on and grow within any musician's heart and soul, was burning them out. Throughout the book there is a pity underlining the text that wasn't so much focused on the art of music but on the plight of musicians who struggled to create a career out of what should have been understood as a vocation.

That being said: Nocturnes is a perfect book for a light read on the imbecility of the music industry and the cynicism of that industry's victims. But, as a book about music and musicianship, there is a certain sobriety lacking here. If Ishiguro's aim was to write a book about music without its pomp and circumstance, Nocturnes succeeded. Poignancy and ardor, though, were not quite infused with the words enough.

Synopsis: The five stories are finely crafted, intriguing, and suspenseful. The first story features an unknown guitarist, playing in Venice for while, who meets a famous singer ("Crooner") during one of his performances. This leads to a predictable yet unconventional gondola ride where music is suspiciously crafted for the crooner's wife. The second is about the love for jazz two people share in their younger years and how this love links them in meaningful ways much later on, even when nothing else does. The third captures how place can affect the quality of the music one writes. A story unfolds, telling of a young singer/songwriter who visits his sister and husband in the mountains to break his writer's block. He happens to meet a very odd German couple. They unexpectedly touch him emotionally, the way his music does to them. The fourth is about, bluntly, a very talented but very ugly musician who comes to his wit's end and agrees to plastic surgery in order to boost his career. The last, about a relationship between a musician and non-musician, surprising because the tutor is actually unable to play the cello, the musician's given instrument, at all.