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Enjoyed this. It was an interesting fast read.

Each of the five stories in this book is a slice of life, with a (different) musician as the central character, the 1st-person narrator. But I'm not sure what the "and nightfall" of the subtitle refers to. Sure, there are some relationship breakdowns, and a number of people whose lives are not going the way they'd hoped. But I did not find any of them to be particularly dark. I love how Ishiguro's writing seems so simple and straightforward, but at the same time takes you deep inside the characters, so you see hopes, dreams, frustrations, illusions. Each story is a little gem that leaves the reader with much to ponder.

Have you ever read an obscure book that no one you know has heard of, and felt that it was so good that it should be required reading for every human being? That's how I felt about this book. Wendell Berry is a hero for many, including Barbara Kingsolver, who references many of Berry's ideas in her novel "Animal Vegetable Miracle". I've been meaning to get into his stuff for quite some time, and when I read this book it resonated with so many things I have believed or thought of, but never articulated or laid out in so orderly a fashion. A bit of a Michael Pollen from 20 years ago, Berry wrote this essay on the disintegration of the diversified American farm back in the 1970's. Things only seem to have gotten worse in many ways since then. Berry outlines the roots of many problems in agriculture and how they came from government policies. He talks about how the concept of "getting big or getting out" was intended to prevent starvation (supposedly) but has killed off the diversified small farm and created an unhealthy monoculture system of farming. He compares this with the healthy, sustainable, organic Amish traditions, which totally made me want to go hang out with the Amish and learn how to wield a scythe. The one good thing I see that has occurred in our country since the publication of this book is the trend towards farmers markets and CSAs. They are the one ray of hope I see in our current situation, when most of us haven't a clue where or how the food we put in our bodies was grown. The land won't be able to produce forever if large farms continue to misuse it. Bottom line: Grow your own food. If you can't do that, join a CSA or patronize a farmer's market. That is the only way small farms stand a chance, and perhaps the only chance we ourselves have to make a stand for the health of the land, the soil, and our own bodies.

I really hope Ava Gray writes a few more of these books since we are still missing the stories of Silas (Hawk) and the other woman who escaped from Exeter. I know she closed the story line, but I love her writing and characters. Please write me two more?

i am having trouble getting into this book at this time. going to set it aside for now and come back to it at another time.

Beach reading for the brainy set. Keeping in mind that this is one of Yalom’s “teaching novels,” envisioned not to entertain, or even to achieve artistically, but to serve as a type of literary experiential learning tool for therapists and therapists-to-be, really helps with tolerating the expository nature of much of the book. Also, Yalom’s nerdy and passionate enthusiasm is infectious, and if one surrenders to it, it allows the reader to join in with the fun he clearly was having writing this imagined relationship, strengthening the ideological connection he swears by between psychotherapy and existentialism.