An Artist of the Floating World in Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

Oct 14, 2016 Arukiyomi rated it really liked it

This is a beautifully written novel filled with pathos and written in prose that describes not only Japan and not only the Japanese character but also the post-WW2 Japanese character. Having lived there for 6 years until 2004 and just come back from a two week trip down memory lane there this summer, it was a perfect time to read it.

While living in Japan, I read voraciously anything I could get hold of regarding not just the Japanese involvement in WW2 but how society dealt with the aftermath. I This is a beautifully written novel filled with pathos and written in prose that describes not only Japan and not only the Japanese character but also the post-WW2 Japanese character. Having lived there for 6 years until 2004 and just come back from a two week trip down memory lane there this summer, it was a perfect time to read it.

While living in Japan, I read voraciously anything I could get hold of regarding not just the Japanese involvement in WW2 but how society dealt with the aftermath. In many cases, it was typically Japanese for most people to deal with it by, well, not dealing with it in any way at all.

Artist places you firmly in the mindset of Masuji Ono an artist who, by the 1950s of the novel, is in his dotage having lost his wife and son in the closing stages of the war. He lives in a house still damaged by the bombing with his memories for company. What he doesn鈥檛 live with is any regret for the part he played. If he regrets anything, it鈥檚 that post-war society has either indifference at best or downright hostility at worst towards him for the role he regards as heroically patriotic.

Gradually, you piece together his history, but it takes the entire novel to do so. Thus, Ishiguro has taken exquisite care to reveal only the more disturbing sides of Ono once you have already bonded with him. As it should, this gives the novel an unsettling feel and causes you to question your own relationship to him.

Ishiguro here has masterfully taken us into an era where Japan was waking up each morning and, no matter how beautiful a day it was, the nation found itself weighed down with a horrendous legacy it could not shake. Against that backdrop, he reveals the innermost thoughts of a man who is not only unrepentant but even still proud of his involvement. Ishiguro has forced us to decide how to face individuals like him.

We can be thankful that the Masuji Onos of Japan have pretty much all perished. But there are still plenty of others elsewhere who walk the earth with ideologies that have gone out of favour, raising contemporary disgust. Novels like Artist play an important part in revealing the full range of the human condition and how easily it could be for us to be Masuji ourselves. ...more

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Mar 24, 2008 Suvi rated it did not like it

Shelves: art, 1970-1999, _great-britain, historical, novels, war, _asia

English Philology entrance exam
Gah, I never thought a book of only 200 pages could bore me to tears. The narrative didn't impress me and the plot was pointless. I'm interested to see how I'm going to make up something reasonable for the essay I have to write. ...more

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Apr 16, 2009 Deodand rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, asia

I want to say something dumb, like "could this novel BE any more Japanese?" I think it would be opaque to a person approaching the subject matter for the first time. Or someone who'd never thought about the forces behind the creation of visual art.

Every dialogue in the book is approached sidelong, which I understand is a very Japanese thing to do. Modern Japan is more blunt than the Japan of the 50's portrayed here. But I can't imagine having an important and meaningful conversation with someon ...more

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Nov 07, 2011 Inder rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, 1001-books, fiction, audiobooks, war, japan, read-2013

Ishiguro definitely has a "formula" - unreliable (generally older, male) narrator, careful and thoughtful prose, twisty plot, pervasive uncertainty and ambivalence, deep thoughts on the nature of memory, self-perception, and moral responsibility.

It's a good thing I happen to love this formula. ...more

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