MY TWENTIETH CENTURY EVENING AND OTHER SMALL BREAKTHROUGHS The Nobel Lecture

In his acceptance speech for the 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature, Kazuo Ishiguro gracefully negotiates revealing his personal past and sharing his take on the political present. He does so at a pace that makes it easy to listen to his insights about changing cultures, the power of memory, and the efforts needed to attend to relationships that make life matter. At the podium, he tells stories of his childhood, adolescence, and early years as a writer, and of his marriage, several home offices, and, always, his need for a continuing relationship with literature. His wit is dry, apparently easygoing, and well delivered in unexpected nonpareils; his call for diversity, specific and actionable. This speech is accessible to all listeners older than 12 and is of import to those who know Ishiguro's body of work and those for whom the attraction is a short listen. F.M.R.G. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2018]