Come Rain or Come Shine by Kazuo Ishiguro Review

I almost didn’t read this one because I wasn’t in the mood for what I thought would be a maudlin monologue told from the perspective of a regretful old person involved in the fascist side of World War 2, a la The Remains of the Day and An Artist of the Floating World.

I am so glad I took a chance and went for it anyway because Come Rain or Come Shine is nothing like that at all - who knew Kazuo Ishiguro could write comedy so brilliantly? This is like a lost episode of Fawlty Towers or a French comedy like The Bird Cage. Oh, I loved it!

Ray, a teacher in Spain, comes to London to visit his old university friends Charlie and Emily - except their marriage is going through a rough patch. Charlie’s going off for a few days on a business trip and tasks Ray with fixing his marriage by cheering Emily up somehow. But then she goes to work, leaving Ray all alone in the flat and… well, Ray does something stupid, then tries to fix it, makes it even worse, and things spiral downwards hilariously from there.

I really loved how over the top Charlie and Emily were. I imagined Charlie as a forty-something Rik Mayall character who goes from zero to sixty at the drop of a hat - one moment he’s calm, the next he’s screaming and mentioning suicide! Emily was just as nutso - one minute she’s aloof, the next she’s friendly, then she’s treating Ray like he’s a mental patient (though to be fair Ray really doesn’t help dissuade the comparison)!

This could be an amazing one act play. All the action takes place in a flat, there’s only three characters and the lunacy involves everyday stuff but the dialogue and the silly situations Ray finds himself in are so inspired.

The title comes from the Ray Charles song and the two male characters are called Ray and Charles though I’m not really sure why either detail is important to the story. Ray and Emily both liked jazz at university but that’s about it, I think? It’s an odd aspect to emphasise.

Come Rain or Come Shine is one of the funniest short stories I’ve ever read and I highly recommend it to anyone after a laugh - a highly entertaining and totally unexpected turn from this normally staid literary writer.