Review: An Artist Of The Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro

Although I'd previously very much enjoyed the film adaptations of Kazuo Ishiguro's work - The Remains Of The Day & Never Let Me Go - this was my first reading of one of his books.

I absorbed the slim yet satisfying volume over the course of a week and was almost immediately entranced by this quietly potent view of family life in Japan after WWII. Through the narrator Ono's considerations of his past reputation as a reasonably well known artist and how he fits into the new Japan, we are drawn into a world where past convictions, guilt & shame mix uncomfortably with newer more globalised sensibilities & ways of being.

I found the implicit misogynism in conversations between Ono and his grandson - in regard to Ono's daughters and their perceived inherent weaknesses - somewhat uncomfortable to read, yet it also felt authentic to have Ono express such views which reflect the culture & era in which he was raised and the competing attitudes between the older and younger generations.

The measured deference combined with careful defiance in the voices of Ono's daughters - Setsuko & Noriko - is well written and fascinating to read. The young women's strengths are palpable in Ishiguro's descriptions of their differing mannerisms and approaches in dealing with their father's often seemingly wilful & stubborn refusal to understand their perceptions. The pull & tug of changing times is drawn well.

I admire the subtle brush strokes of Ishiguro's writing, the way with just a few seemingly simple lines of observation & conversation, we are giving insight into a whole world of possible meaning & definition. Reading his work is akin to spending a series of sweet stolen half hours in your favourite gallery staring at the same beautifully mysterious piece of art, each visit opening up new layers of previously hidden-in-plain-sight depth, pattern & meaning.

Reviewed here on Goodreads.com