Brief Introduction to Ishiguro

The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go are two of the chef-d’oeuvre of British author Kazuo Ishiguro. The former was one of the books in our reading list for a college course on the English literature. It was the pandemic and sadly the course had ended before we could get to read The Remains of The Day.  However, I have always remembered it since the course readings were quite intriguing and I knew I would read the last book in the list.

It was after I returned home from mandatory military service that I decided to finally complete the task after four long years. I was book shopping at a second-hand book store, looking for another book but I also caught a glimpse of The Remains of The Day in its original language and bought it along with the one I was looking for.

I set about reading it at home. It was a cloudy winter day in Istanbul, just the weather to fit in the ambiance of the book. I finished the book in an about a week, feeling as if I had taken a bite off a delectable food and I was now craving for more.

So I looked for another book to read from Ishiguro. Never Let Me Go seemed to be one of the most read and most liked by his fans. So I bought it in its original language from another second-hand book store.

Once I had fully read Never Let Me Go, I was again left with that missing taste in my mouth. I wanted more, but this is all I could get. Do you know the feeling of criticizing yourself for delaying too long to read a book that you have known for years? That’s the sensation I had for both of the books.

Now I must admit it is not always an easy start with Ishiguro books; however, the way he weaves his narratives gradually, creating suspense through the conversations of his characters who are no different than regular people with regular jobs or common backgrounds, is what encourages the reader to delve deeper into the book and to understand how he will lead us to the end or how the events will turn out.

Mystery lingers in all pages, everything is blurry from the outset till the end. You sense what is happening, yet you are unable to put a label on it. It is not a mystery that you see in a thriller theme. It is a love story with no happy ending. A love that develops between two unlikely people, naturally bonding them over time. Maybe we can say just like in the real world, and on my part this closeness to the outside world, a good observation of human relationships, is what made the books stand out.

If you want to get a taste of good literary work, especially if you have exhausted your brain with a pile of unnecessary personal development books, these two will certainly mend your soul and help you gain what you have lost in a period where personal development books, uninspiring biographies fill the shelves of the book stores.