In this Alice in Wonderland meets Kafka farce. Ryder, a world famous pianist, arrives at a hotel somewhere in Central Europe. He hasn't even put his bags down before a porter begins trying to recruit him as a champion for downtrodden hotel porters everywhere. Every person Ryder meets wants his help. This is curious because the stiff, formal and confused pianist appears the least obliging of individuals and also seems to be suffering from serious amnesia. The dialogue is absurdly pompous; these characters don't speak they declaim.
Ishiguro's literary reputation has previously rested on elegant, if mannered understatement in novels such as the 1989 Booker winner, The Remains of the Day. The unconsoled is a big, silly, disjointed, offbeat narrative, possibly intended as stylistic rebellion, but the extended joke degenerates into authorial self parody. It does becomes - funnier and funnier, almost ridiculously hilarious - but many may have already abandoned ship.
