I saw the novel as actually taking place in a long-term care facility. Ryder just doesn't know where he is. And since he is the narrator, neither does the reader. He doesn't initially recognize his family. Indeed, he frequently refers to himself as an outsider and uses this self-description as an excuse for both his lack of recognition of those who know him and his distant behavior. People he grew up with in England keep making appearances, which would be unlikely if he actually were visiting an unfamiliar city.
Following this logic, characters like Gustav (an elderly porter at the hotel who is also his wife's father) and Stephan (the hotel manager's son and a aspiring pianist himself) can be viewed as fellow residents in the institution, while Miss Collins (the resident therapist) and Mr. Hoffman (the hotel manager) are members of the staff.
Jim Crace has said that all of his novels are metaphors for life in Birmingham, England, but I also find their facades beautiful and intricate and pleasurable. Understanding the metaphor should increase, rather than be necessary to, the enjoyment or understanding of the story. Unfortunately, I didn't like The Unconsoled until I came upon a metaphor that made the novel work for me. And by then I was so exhausted by it that I had no inclination to start over from the beginning to see if this insight would enhance my reading pleasure. While my interpretation of the novel appealed to me more than that of other reviewers, I just didn't care what happened in the end.
But then maybe I have no appreciation of the role of art in society. As Ryder has warned me, "One should not, in any case, attempt to make a virtue out of one's limitations" (p. 201). After all, this book was short-listed for the Whitbread Novel Award and won the Cheltenham Prize when it was published in 1995.
Article comments
1 - kalyan
I agree with you Jeanne Daniel. It has been an exasperating experience reading this novel. I felt uneasy while going through the book. It evoked memories of a sinking feeling I had when I read Kafka's The Trial. At least, Kafka holds your attention in the sense that you are aware of what is going on, though the reasons for the same are not given. Ryder comes out as an irritating character for whom i have absolutely no sympathy. If Ishiguro wanted to convey the dilemmas that man faces in his life, he has succeeded but at what cost? I wonder how the novel won an award. It seems the author's intellectual part got the better of his instincts. This novel for sure leaves the reader unconsoled.
2 - Tim Susman
Interesting take on it! I too felt rather frustrated reading the book at first, but then as events picked up steam, I found myself engrossed. Just posted my own review and linked to yours.
3 - Sam
I was surprised when I read the reviews of thos book as I have read The Unconsoled twice and had a view on what I thought it all meant. I get the dementia angle however I had interpreted Ryders travails entirely differently as a prolonged dream sequence. The disconnected events, fear that have forgotten important events or commitments, seeming inability to 'get from a to b' in a straight line all seem very much as in a dream.
4 - dr_mabeuse
Why in the world do you feel you have to "explain" this book by saying it happens in a mental institution? It's a story, and stories need no explanation or rationalization. Ryder, Gustav, and all the rest of them are as real as Ishiguro intended them to be, and they exist exactly in the place he set for them, some nameless, timeless surreal eastern European city, not some mental hospital. I really don't understand this need to rationalize what happens as being a dream or delusion. It's magical realism. The story happens just as Ryder describes.
If there is a metaphorical intent, then I think it's probably Ishiguro commenting on the pressure on an artist to produce great work. He killed with "Remains of the Day," and was now expected to produce anther masterpiece. Ryder's in the same position in the novel -- called upon to produce art so great that it'll save an entire city, redeem its citizens, and preserve their way of life.
Instead of an artistic Unbermensch, what we get is a man who both knows and is a stranger to his own life (exactly the position the artist must take towards his life and society in order to create) and a failure as a human being. The story is superficially a farce about art and art culture. But the real theme of the book is the way we human beings let each other down. Knowing and not knowing everyone and quite oblivious, Ryder's unable to meet their needs or play his role in this bewildering society. He's a victim of expectations, a kind of soccer ball of fate, kicked around and used by everyone, totally unable to take charge of his own destiny. And so he fails as a husband, father, lover, citizen, and even artist. In the end he can console no one.
The device Ishiguro uses of putting an oblivious Ryder in a world he both knows and doesn't know makes for difficult and frustrating reading at first because it defies and denies our expectations of what a novelistic narrator should be, but it turns out to be pure genius. Reading the book makes you feel the same kind of bafflement and impotence that Ryder feels (or should feel) as he stumbles through that world intent on maintaining his dignity and preserving his commitment to his "art". Thankfully, Ishiguro's mordant sense of humor kicks in from that first endless elevator ride with Gustav and helps sustain us through what is actually a tragic story of people failing to connect.
But I really don't understand this need to "explain" the story as being anything other than what it is. No one tries to "explain" Borges or Kafka. The delusions Ryder suffers are the same delusions we all suffer, just put in a setting that uses fantasy to establish truth.
As a writer myself, I know how often I write something with no intent of it being anything other than what it is, only to be told later what I meant or what the piece is really about. I used to hate that, but now it's one of my favorite parts of the writing process. I just try to create good reads. I let the reader load in whatever meanings he or she likes. I have a feeling Ishiguro did something similar.