From the Author of The Remains of the Day. A sort of psychological mystery.

RELEASE NOTES:

I'm glad my hunt was a successful one because the streets were full of snow today. Thank you for releasing this book, gstaas!

Thank you for sharing your treasure with me Savotar :)

Other Japanese authors whose books I've got in touch with are at least Banana Yoshimoto and Kenzaburo Oe.

(loaned, will be returned to Savotar)

With my essay I take part in one challenge in Finnish forum, where the purpose is to write the journal of at least 3500 characters. Nice that the book gave so much to think of that this writing task was almost easy :-)

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Book told of Mr Ryder, who was the main character and at the same time the narrator. He didn't seem very important person in the beginning, but along the way he seemed to get more and more important role. I started to wait his speech and what he was going to do. I started to wait at some point, what actually was the "red string" in this story, how everything will culminate. Then I understood when it was going to happen and started to wait even more.

It was a bit mysterious how the things were revealed to the reader. First Mr Ryder was complete stranger in the city, and later on he seemed to have lived there, have family there, and know it pretty well, and despite that didn't remember or was not so aware of anything. In addition there were situations where some characters were driving to certain place which was supposed to be far away. When they were finally there, it seemed that the building was in connection to some other building, or was actually the same building that was in the city itself. Quite strange. Sometimes, it seemed like Mr Ryder was able to flow through the walls to follow some discussions. That kind of tricks gave the atmosphere of science-fiction novel, like Mr Ryder was an alien from another planet with some kind of mysterious abilities – this shows how the book made my imagination fly.

The vocabulary felt a bit like "civilised", and Mr Ryder was in his dialogues quite punctual and articulative - I got that kind of feeling. The situations were described quite intensively, with lots of details of people's emotions and feelings. It also had a captivating rhythm, which made the reader to wait anxiously what should happen next. Especially, when Mr Ryder seemed to be in hurry to next place and next people, there came sudden changes, new people in between. And I started to wait anxiously, how long he will stay jargoning and will he get in time to important meetings, and how awful that his friends had to wait so long. It was in a way irritating, how badly organised he was, and how he didn't know where to be, and how he couldn't say "no" to suggestions even though he seemed to know that there was no time. He tried to keep all possible promises and seemed to end up to mild disaster :) In a way I forgot the flow of time, everything felt so long, and my anxiety was surprising (to myself). People were able to talk so much in a few minutes of time, or otherwise I am a slow reader. Sometimes I became a bit bored of the monologues, and tried to fast read or skip. At least when the character in question seemed to be frustrating and even stupid, and didn't seem to let Mr Ryder say a word in between.

Mr Ryder seemed to be wise and clever. He didn't become an idol, however, because at some point his behaviour and attitude seemed quite the opposite. It was interesting to analyse him in relation with other characters and all different thoughts. The author of the book did not comment anyone's behaviour or thoughts at all, but seemed to give lots of material for the reader for doing that.

The whole book had pretty short time frame, and in that sense the number of pages is big. The book ended so that I became a bit stunned, "that was it?". I don't know why I had some kind of expectations and why I felt like nothing actually had happened. And the role of Mr Ryder and the meaning of his actions were quite unclear after finishing the book. Maybe it was the purpose to question the kind of professionals that travel from one place to another with quick schedule, and who gain important role in healing communities and solving problems; whether they really have deserved that kind of position, and whether their contribution is so valuable and necessary. Maybe the people in the city just had such admiration towards Mr Ryder, the purpose of which was to fake the reader to believe something extraordinary of him.

In a way nice that book was enjoyable reading experience, even though after finishing it, the magical touch has disappeared.

Will be back home today; to be found in mailbox. Thank you, and happy reading to you, Savotar!

The book is back here. Nice to know you had a good reading experience, AspenYard. I think I will read this book myself in the near future and find it more readers.

Since this is an Ishiguro book, I had high expectations but unfortunately I didn't like this book very much. :( Maybe it was just me being tired when reading this book in the evenings, but I found the storyline patchy and at the same time the description was too detailed. It just didn't keep me interested. At times the text caught my interest and towards the end the book improved greatly. (The very beginning was also good and promising.)

Anyway, the book is now available and ready for new adventures. :)

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Will bring this along to bc-convention.

Picked it up at one of the tables of temptation.
Thanks for bringing this with you, Savotar!
It's in Bremen now.

This seems to be one of those love-it-or-hate-it books – and I loved it, I was totally fascinated by this surreal, bizarre, haunting masterpiece which hooked me after only a few pages. It certainly needs some perseverance, it’s absolutely no easy, shallow read, but has the feel of a classic. Sometimes there is a dreamlike quality to it, but at the same time the novel is very detailed – there are amazing, precise descriptions of places and people and – mainly – mindscapes. Then often it’s rather Kafkaesque, very unsettling, mysterious, frustrating. With a weird sense of geography and time (just forget about logic, it’s the logic of dreams). It’s all about sensitivities, about people occupied with how to influence moods, manipulate others’ feelings and attitudes, it’s about memory and its malfunction, amnesia, about obsessiveness, alienation – simply about human nature. Brilliant. Provoking.

This book will be released
at the 2012 Bookcrossing Anniversary Convention in Dublin, Ireland.
Or somewhere in Dublin during a release walk.

ETA: Second BC Convention this book attends :-)

Released on the long release walk treasure hunt.