I’m a big time Ishiguro fan and can’t for the life of me understand why his books are rated so low on Goodreads?

My hunch is that he doesn’t always go for the happy endings, not always a perfect resolution, and can leave someone unsettled but the books themselves are great works of literary art. It won’t end like some superhero movie with the good guys saving the world from the bad guys

But am I missing something?

Also no spoilers on any of his books!

  • stripysailor@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I hated The Remains of the Day so much that it’s probably one of the worst books I’ve ever read, it was so bland and just nothing. I was surprised that he won the Nobel prize to be honest. I don’t really trust Goodreads ratings, but at least they got this one right!

    It’s not about the lack of happy endings, I enjoy sad endings of all kinds and above happy ones, it’s just that his plots don’t captivate me and I just get bored reading his monotone voice. It feels like pure torture. I try to be compassionate with certain books or writers, Ishiguro gets none.

    I know you did a superhero movie comparison but I’d say superhero movies are a low bar already, but Ishiguro isn’t far off. His books are just a grade above said equivalent of superhero movies, just make it bland with no redeeming feature. There’s nothing innovative, it’s just “this is deep, bruv” tumblr post captions. He doesn’t go for innovative methods, he doesn’t do unique. There’s so many other great writers that people can choose to read, but instead we’re all glued to him because he won the Nobel Prize.