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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
In An Artist of the Floating World, Kazuo Ishiguro offers readers of the English language an authentic look at post-war Japan, "a floating world" of changing cultural behaviours, shifting societal patterns and troubling questions. Ishiguro, who was born in Nagasaki in 1954 but moved to England in 1960, writes the story of Masuji Ono, a bohemian artist and purveyor of the nightlife who became a propagandist for Japanese imperialism during the war. But the war is over. Japan lost, Ono's wife and son have been killed, and many young people blame the imperialists for leading the country to disaster. What's left for Ono? Ishiguro's treatment of this story earned a 1986 Whitbread Prize.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Book Description
A Japanese artist looks back on his life in this celebrated and prize-winning novel.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It is a shame that this book, Ishiguro's second, is still less well read than "The Remains Of The Day." This one says more in a much tinier space, and is elegant, elliptical and intelligent beyond the call of duty.
In "An Artist Of The Floating World" (only when you read the book will you know the proper way to place emphasis on the title) Ishiguro tells the story of a Japanese man, Ono, who has something to hide, something to do with the war... To say more would be to give away the plot, and part of the pleasure of the book - as fans of "Remains" or "The Unconsoled" will know - is in seeing how much you can work out for yourself from how little Ishiguro tells you.
Incidentally, the book introduces Ishiguro's brilliant facility for children's speech, with Ono's grandson (going on to perfect this technique with Boris in "The Unconsoled") - quite the best representation I have read of the illogicality, intemperance and, well, childishness of the way children speak.
A flawless gem, a buoyant confection, and a seemingly effortless work of art.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
`An Artist of the Floating World' is basically the Japanese version of Ishiguro's Booker winning novel `The Remains of the Day'. As in The Remains of the Day the narrator is an unreliable witness with the shadow of pre-war culpability looming over his head. And as with The Remains of the Day the quiet individual has been drawn into the political events which transformed the world. Now retired, Masuki Ono passes his days in quiet seclusion, awaiting visits from his two daughters. He is a widower living alone, his wife and son having been killed during the war. But now it is 1948 and Japan is changing, collective guilt has seized the Japanese psyche, officials in the old regime are committing suicide and a new generation is emerging.
But as Ono works to finalise the marriage of his youngest daughter the issue of his pre-war allegiances arise and he is forced to come to terms with his responsibility for the militarist direction the 1930's took.
The question arises: what is the role of an artist in the wider political arena? Should the artist live solely for the reproduction of beauty, existing solely in a floating world divorced from society at large? Or should he become a conduit for change, a leader of public opinion? In the modern world where every rock star/artist/writer is expected to produce politically conscious work this is a valid and fascinating question.
An Artist of the Floating World produces a beautiful mirage, something like a Monet painting, with ideas and flawed characters flowing together in a silent, uneventful and almost heartbreaking novel. If you liked Remains of the Day then you will love this. It is absolutely fascinating to see the cultural comparisons between two such reserved societies on the verge of change. Kazuo Ishiguro is a rare gem of a writer and his earliest work is the most sparse of his career, he is a master of understatement, so I shall take a leaf out of his book and say nothing more. I enjoyed this book, you may too.
But as Ono works to finalise the marriage of his youngest daughter the issue of his pre-war allegiances arise and he is forced to come to terms with his responsibility for the militarist direction the 1930's took.
The question arises: what is the role of an artist in the wider political arena? Should the artist live solely for the reproduction of beauty, existing solely in a floating world divorced from society at large? Or should he become a conduit for change, a leader of public opinion? In the modern world where every rock star/artist/writer is expected to produce politically conscious work this is a valid and fascinating question.
An Artist of the Floating World produces a beautiful mirage, something like a Monet painting, with ideas and flawed characters flowing together in a silent, uneventful and almost heartbreaking novel. If you liked Remains of the Day then you will love this. It is absolutely fascinating to see the cultural comparisons between two such reserved societies on the verge of change. Kazuo Ishiguro is a rare gem of a writer and his earliest work is the most sparse of his career, he is a master of understatement, so I shall take a leaf out of his book and say nothing more. I enjoyed this book, you may too.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is a beautifully written portrait of life in Japan shortly after the Second World War. You feel you are being given a real insight into the culture and shifting attitudes following defeat. The story telling is subtle, leaving gaps for the reader to fill, a bit like a detective story but without the frustration of realising as you read the last page that you got it wrong! This is the first book I have read by Ishiguro, and I immediately bought another!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A world the reader enters
Superficially, Kazuo Ishiguro's novel An Artist Of The Floating World seems to present a gentle observation of manners. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Philip Spires
Would Not recommend
There is no real flow to the story and just seems to be a load of memories reminisced with no real connection
Published 8 months ago by T Reynolds
A beautiful read
This is a very beautiful novel. Ishiguro uses words to paint amazing pictures and convey real emotions but without falling into pretensious claptrap. Read more
Published on 28 April 2010 by Hayles
More of a Mood than a Book
This elegant book, so carefully paced and politely presented takes us to the then sad country of Japan, just after the end of the second world war. Read more
Published on 17 Oct 2009 by Mrs. Katharine Kirby
A very slow read with no real purpose.
I was recommended this book by a fellow art student and thought I'd give it a read. On reading the first few chapters I was really into the book, but then started to wonder where... Read more
Published on 3 Sep 2009 by Mrs. Razia Welland
A beautiful insight
I bought 'An Artist Of The Floating World' after spotting the title amongst a list of the greatest books of all time and I wasn't disappointed. Read more
Published on 24 Jun 2009 by C. Martin
Dwelling in the past.
The early novels by Kazuo Ishiguro deal with loneliness, isolation ('A Pale View of Hills', 'An artist of the Floating World') and the inability to respond to the feelings of... Read more
Published on 22 Jun 2009 by Jan Dierckx
Elegant exploration of the role of the artist
An elderly, celebrated artist, Masuji Ono, is living in retirement in Japan just after the end of World War Two. Read more
Published on 25 Jan 2009 by Andrew Blackman
Subtle and elegant
Written in Ishiguro's trademark style, this is an elegant, understated and subtle novel. Narrated in a somewhat rambling and not always reliable way by an elderly artist, this is... Read more
Published on 25 Jun 2008 by BookWorm
"We, at least, acted on what we believed and did our utmost"
Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki in 1954 and moved to Britain at the age of five. He was awarded the OBE in 1995 and the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1998. Read more
Published on 31 May 2007 by Craobh Rua
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