Unconsoled

I finished reading The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro. As I got towards the end, I kept picking it pack up to read more and more 'cuz I was into it and so finished a little faster. I hadn't thought he could have topped The Remains of the Day, but I think this did it for me. Though it does just kinda push my own buttons. It's like Ishiguro wrote a Kafka novel (while still being very much Ishiguro). The whole thing runs on a dream logic. And it doesn't just go to the stereotypes that are hit when people are compared to Kafka, but it really captures the way the characters talk and the way they respond (or don't) to the absurd changes in direction. It's also very funny (I mean, sad too, of course) and I laughed out loud quite a good bit. Yeah so, really excellent book. At night Mary Beth and I went to see the Blueshift Ensemble do their annual collaboration with the Iceberg Collective from NYC. That was at the Beethoven Club which we'd never been to and always wondered about. (It seems so exclusive and secretive! I mean, I'm sure it's not, but it's mysterious when it just sits there and you don't know anything about it!) So yeah, it was a really excellent concert. There was first a piece for kind of a string quartet (violin, viola, cello, and harp). Then Jenny did a solo flute thing with electronics so you got your flute and bleep bloop-ish stuff. There was a minimal solo piano piece with some very interesting chords. There was a duet with flute and clarinet that was good though very short. And it finished with a definite string quartet (two violins, viola, and cello). And everything was great!