tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691416.post2116085374477541229..comments2023-08-21T09:54:44.260-05:00Comments on wrestling entropy: The Remains of the Dayallisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11306695897219837503noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691416.post-57323748987856179052009-06-30T03:14:38.506-05:002009-06-30T03:14:38.506-05:00I am probaby also partial to The Unconsoled becaus...I am probaby also partial to The Unconsoled because the main character is a touring piano soloist and the book does a fine job mocking the highbrow avant-garde European modern "classical music" scene.Brendan McNamarahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12973952919773503789noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691416.post-28469373582165225292009-06-30T03:10:22.894-05:002009-06-30T03:10:22.894-05:00The Unconsoled is one of my favorite novels. It is...The Unconsoled is one of my favorite novels. It is the unreliable narrator tour de force. It is nowhere near as easy to read (or as short) as Remains of the Day, however. But I recommend it highly, fwiw.Brendan McNamarahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12973952919773503789noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691416.post-43384476033413510442009-04-27T11:51:00.000-05:002009-04-27T11:51:00.000-05:00Also, you're right that C-Reeve is the highlight o...Also, you're right that C-Reeve is the highlight of the movie. I've always wanted to tell a banquet table of English nobles that they're nothing but amateurs.Michael O'Dhttp://www.michael-odonnell.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691416.post-7221944628680984712009-04-27T11:48:00.000-05:002009-04-27T11:48:00.000-05:00I'm a big fan of the novel "The Remains of the Day...I'm a big fan of the novel "The Remains of the Day" too, so much so that I seem to keep reading Kazuo Ishiguro's other novels even though they're not very good. "When We Were Orphans" is really boring; "Never Let Me Go" is just dumb; and "The Unconsoled," which I recently read about 100 pages of and then put down, is bizarre and fantastical (not my type of stuff). I think I've pinpointed the problem. That stilted, repressed, I'll-declare-everything-including-the-obvious-in-precise-declarative-sentences voice that works so well for the butler in Remains of the Day isn't, as I had initially thought, a really clever literary contrivance. Instead, it's just the way Ishiguro writes, always. Reading that exact same voice in other contexts is therefore not only strange, but disappointing too. <br /><br />Ah so, old chap.Michael O'Dhttp://www.michael-odonnell.comnoreply@blogger.com