Friday, November 09, 2012

Ten of the most difficult books to finish

At the Observer, Robert McCrum came up with ten of the most difficult books to finish, including:
The Unconsoled
by Kazuo Ishiguro

A long and hypnotic novel by the author of The Remains of the Day, to which it was unfavourably compared, this sad, strange comedy is only now beginning to be recognised as a masterpiece. Ryder, a famous musician, checks into a hotel somewhere in central Europe. He knows he’s due to give a concert in a few days’ time, but, as the hotel porter shows him to his room, it occurs to Ryder that there is rather more to his visit than he had at first anticipated. The influences of Kafka and European cinema are unmissable, but the novel occupies a central place in Ishiguro’s work
Read about another title on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue