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839 ratings, 3.73 average rating, 70 reviews
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published
September 19th 1989
(first published 1986)
by Vintage
binding
Paperback, 208 pages
literary awards
1986 Booker Prize Nominee, Whitbread Prize Winner
isbn
0679722661
(isbn13: 9780679722663)
description
In An Artist of the Floating World, Kazuo Ishiguro offers readers of the English language an authentic look at postwar Japan, "a floating ...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1186)
Steady, measured, gentle, sure-handed, slightly seductive.
Ishiguro's narrator is fooling himself for sure throughout his tale, but you almost believe him.
Some wonderfully graceful pacing, with the situations and pages melting into one another, which as one reviewer here remarked, makes a "floating world" all its own.
It sort of reminds me of the thing said about Flaubert's "Sentimental Education"- the main theme is largely heard in the background. For Flaubert it ...more
Ishiguro's narrator is fooling himself for sure throughout his tale, but you almost believe him.
Some wonderfully graceful pacing, with the situations and pages melting into one another, which as one reviewer here remarked, makes a "floating world" all its own.
It sort of reminds me of the thing said about Flaubert's "Sentimental Education"- the main theme is largely heard in the background. For Flaubert it ...more
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Read in May, 2008
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Read in November, 2007
A well-written story of an aging Japanese artist who looks back on his career and his role in the "patriotic" movement toward imperialism and war. He struggles to understand the changing Japanese culture, the shunting aside of the older generation that is distrusted by pro-American factions, the attitudes of his two daughters and grandson, and his own faulty memories. There are wonderful insights into post-war Japan, the role of loyalty, the struggles between teacher and pupil. He is ...more
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Great story, but even better writer. His stories are seamless and he really gets at character development, but in a way that you don't think you're reading fiction, it seems completely natural and real...in terms of writing, he's fantastic.
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Read in September, 2008
While I admire something about Ishiguro, I also find his novels a bit too constructed. Reading them, I feel like everything has been carefully laid out, all the plot turns and events. Though there isn't an "exciting plot" at play in this novel, Ishiguro was able to reveal it in a way that hides critical info at just the right points to keep your interest. While traditionally that is seen as a good thing, showing the author's mastery of the novel, I feel it stifles the novel a bit. ...more
Ishiguro, Kazuo. AN ARTIST OF THE FLOATING WORLD. (1986). ****. The only other book I’ve read by this author was, “The Remains of the Day,” and this novel is very much like it. The plot and setting are, of course, very different, but the way the story is told and its central thrust are the same. Masuji Ono is a retired artist who is now in the middle of trying to marry off his second daughter. The time is just after WWII, and some of the old traditions still persist; the prospective...more
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Read in July, 2008
A good book that uses the annoying trope of a narrator pretending the reader knows things the reader can't possibly know. The narrator then goes back to the event he assumed the reader knew about and explains it, since of course the reader didn't know what he was talking about in the first place. Used once or perhaps twice, such a narrative technique would have been okay. Used as the primary way of telling the story though, and it's just irritating.
On a more positive note, the pace of the bo...more
On a more positive note, the pace of the bo...more
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Read in August, 2008
Great book! A bit difficult, however, especially if you are an artist. Postwar Japan, I can't think of a more difficult time artistically.
You really have to feel for the main character, who seems rather disrespected by his daughters, although he tries very hard to do good by them. He is a famous artist, who is continually underesteemed by his daughters, who act as though his artistic achievements are trivial, at best.
Ishiguro's depiction of Japanese family life seems a bit off the mark. ...more
You really have to feel for the main character, who seems rather disrespected by his daughters, although he tries very hard to do good by them. He is a famous artist, who is continually underesteemed by his daughters, who act as though his artistic achievements are trivial, at best.
Ishiguro's depiction of Japanese family life seems a bit off the mark. ...more
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Read in October, 2007
I don't know what to say. I really enjoy Ishiguro's novels, but they really are the same. The same fixations on memory over and over again. Still beautiful, but I feel that an author should be exploring new arenas with future works. He writes about different subject matter, from a man in Japan who was pro WW2 feeling guilty after the war to a butler in England in the 50s to a clone in the present-future (a present where human cloning, a futuristic idea, is commonplace), but the style is much...more
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Read in April, 2007
Ishiguro almost perfectly captures the rambling discursive narrative of an old Japanese artist reflecting on his life and work in the context of the subsequent defeat and American occupation. In Ishiguro's spare prose there is a lethality in understatement and what is vital if often not said. There are many parallels to his subsequent novel The Remains of the Day and it is quite telling to me that the style and mechanics of both novels work so similarly in their vastly different settings. Japane...more
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Read in November, 2008
A nice portrait of Japan, and a glimpse of they way things were before the war, based on the memories of a doddering grandfather as the unreliable narrator. There is no strong sense of place, but it is fitting for the "floating world" of vanishing pleasure districts the artists Ono and Mori try to capture in their painting. Ono's thoughts about his fellow artists like Shintaro and the Tortoise are used to contrast his own vision of himself as an ambitious artist who will change the w...more
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Read in April, 2008
This is a very short (200 pages) and delightful novel. It is like a Zen meditation on the effects of WWII on Japan. It is set during the occupation of Japan and concerns an artist who must come to terms with his actions during the war. I was fascinated by the author's ability to translate the many layers of Japanese manners into English. For example, Mr. Ono's daughters speak with him very formally, in the third person while his friends and colleagues use a different form of address.
Thro...more
Thro...more
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Read in May, 2008
Hmm, perhaps reading two Ishiguro novels right after one another wasn't such a good idea. They really are remarkably similar!
Now that I properly look back on Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day, I see that all three novels are: written in the first person, by someone at the end of their life, someone who's narrating and reminiscing about their life, someone with regrets for things they did and didn't do, two of whom lost their big love, two of whom committed war crimes a...more
Now that I properly look back on Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day, I see that all three novels are: written in the first person, by someone at the end of their life, someone who's narrating and reminiscing about their life, someone with regrets for things they did and didn't do, two of whom lost their big love, two of whom committed war crimes a...more
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Read in April, 2008
I read this immediately after finishing A Pale View of Hills, which left me rather disappointed. This left me slightly less disappointed, though not at all enthusiastic. The protagonist here is more compelling than in Pale View, since he grapples with the effect his career and beliefs have had on his career, the lives of his children and colleagues, and the way he sees himself as an elderly man. It may be that Ishiguro's language is too sparse, too precise - too much like what Ono should be; ...more
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Read in November, 2008
I couldn't help but think about my grandfather.
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The book jacket uses the word "courtly" to describe Ishiguro's writing in this book, and I agree completely. One has a better appreciation of interpersonal relationships in Japan after reading it. The artist of the book title finds himself in the awkward position of having participated as an artist in the imperialist strivings of Japan that led to World War II, and afterwards is regarded as a traitor even though he tries to make amends. So much is unsaid but sensed as difficulties w...more
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recommends it for:
anyone interested in how good young writers become great older ones.
One of his earlier novels. His aesthetic is in place — the narrative myopia he casts over the reader, letting us come to terms with his character's misdeeds and traumas as they do — but it's not yet as crisp as it will be in later works, esp Remains of the Day. The effect is that the book drags in points, and keeps the reader out of the loop on things that needn't be left out. A little confusing and a little muddy, but a fascinating juxtaposition for anyone interested in how good young writ...more
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Read in March, 2008
Ishiguro is a master of subtle, meaningful writing. I would have probably given this five stars had I read it, instead of listened to it. David Case, the narrator was a little bit off-putting at first, with his very prahpah British accent, but he grew on me. About a third of the way in, I wasn't bothered by it at all.
I have cassette tapes in a cardboard mailing container that I purchased from Books on Tapes when they gave up renting their titles. So if anyone wants to trade with me for somet...more
I have cassette tapes in a cardboard mailing container that I purchased from Books on Tapes when they gave up renting their titles. So if anyone wants to trade with me for somet...more
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This might be my favorite of Ishiguro's books. As in "The Remains of the Day," we have the unreliable narrator who has repressed certain dubious acts and rationalized them using appeals to higher duties. Unlike Stevens, however, Ono appears to deceive only himself, both under- and overestimating his worth, his contributions to society, and his morally questionable activities in wartime Japan. The result is, strangely, a Quixote-like figure, but much less sympathetic.
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Read in August, 2008
The unreliable narrator could have been much more appealing. I enjoyed the way that the story slowly unfolded, but I could have used some more details. The narrative was very slow and measured, with little flashbacks that illustrated the actual story. It does have some subtle details that emerge in an interesting way and take time to seep in. Maybe if I knew about Japan circa WWII it would have had more appeal.
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