Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro might be best known for his Booker Prize winner The Remains of Day, but the novel that best expresses both his Japanese inheritance and his beautifully structured English prose is his second work of fiction, An Artist of the Floating World.
Set in post-Second World War Japan now under American occupation, it follows the life of retired painter Masuji Ono, and it sways between a hauntingly sweet tranquility, and the remains of a visceral disaster that surely overcomes it.
Ono spends his days quietly: tending to his garden, the repairs of his house, and his two daughters, one of whom is still unmarried and lives with him. He opens the narrative of his story just as quietly: “If on a sunny day you climb the steep path leading from the little wooden bridge still referred to around here as ‘the Bridge of Hesitation’ you will not have to walk far before the roof of my house becomes visible between the tops of two gingko trees. Even if it did not occupy such a commanding position on the hill, the house would still stand out from all others nearby, so that as you come up the path, you may find yourself wondering what sort of wealthy man owns it. But then I am not, nor have I ever been, a wealthy man.”
It is, without a doubt, an unsettling opening. It presents the peaceful seclusion and apparent prosperity of the artist’s life, and yet it tells another, darker, underlying story. As the novel progresses, it becomes clear that Ono really is not a wealthy man. His house, once grand and beautiful, has been damaged during the bombing. He has lost his son and wife in the war, but never speaks of his grief. And, in the aftermath of the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while the American occupation is crushing Japan’s national pride, he has to make peace with the newly appointed way of life.
His could still be a peaceful retirement, with the war over and one of his daughters married off. But it is quickly revealed that having to spend most of his time alone at home, Ono has to face some very troubling reflections.
Slowly oscillating between childhood memories and the young artist’s choices, Ishiguro masterfully peels the layers of his protagonist’s past. We learn that Ono was trained as a decadent artist, illustrating the night-time “floating world” under the mastery of artist and patron of the arts Mori-san. In the 1930s, however, during the “China crisis” he is approached by nationalist and art-appreciator Matsuda, who encourages him to abandon the ukiyo-e tradition and create a more patriotic, propaganda art. Following his suggestions, Ono becomes a pro-government artist who advised the Committee of Unpatriotic Activities, and who, once, even betrayed one of his proteges to the secret police for imprisonment and torture.
As he grapples with the challenges of peacetime and his daughter's marriage arrangements which may suffer because of his past decisions, Ono is forced, through revising his own memories, to face the reality of who he is.
Exploring the themes of loss, hypocrisy, secrecy and regret in a world devastated by the hand of war, Ishiguro certainly managed to create a story which still speaks of hope. “But to see how our city has been rebuilt,” he writes towards the end, “how things have recovered so rapidly over these years, fills me with genuine gladness.”
An Artist of the Floating World is a truly great read that will, as summer slowly folds into shortened September days, reignite the reader's belief in better days ahead.
Order the paperback edition of An Artist of the Floating World from Bookshop.
More Essential Books by Kazuo Ishiguro
Klara and the Sun (hardcover)
DESCRIPTION NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER - Once in a great while, a book comes along that changes our view of the world. This magnificent novel from the Nobel laureate and author of Never Let Me Go is "an intriguing take on how artificial intelligence might play a role in our futures ... a poignant meditation on love and loneliness" (The Associated Press). - A GOOD MORNING AMERICA Book Club Pick!
"What stays with you in 'Klara and the Sun' is the haunting narrative voice--a genuinely innocent, egoless perspective on the strange behavior of humans obsessed and wounded by power, status and fear." - Booker Prize committee
Here is the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in the store, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her. Klara and the Sun is a thrilling book that offers a look at our changing world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator, and one that explores the fundamental question: what does it mean to love?
Order the book from Bookshop
The Remains of the Day (paperback)
DESCRIPTION
BOOKER PRIZE WINNER - From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, here is "an intricate and dazzling novel" (The New York Times) about the perfect butler and his fading, insular world in post-World War II England.
This is Kazuo Ishiguro's profoundly compelling portrait of a butler named Stevens. Stevens, at the end of three decades of service at Darlington Hall, spending a day on a country drive, embarks as well on a journey through the past in an effort to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving the "great gentleman," Lord Darlington. But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlington's "greatness," and much graver doubts about the nature of his own life.
Order the book from Bookshop.
Never Let Me Go (paperback)
DESCRIPTION NOBEL PRIZE WINNER - From the acclaimed, bestselling author of The Remains of the Day comes "a Gothic tour de force" (The New York Times) with an extraordinary twist--a moving, suspenseful, beautifully atmospheric modern classic.
One of The New York Times's 10 Best Books of the 21st Century.
As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were.
Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life. And for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special--and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together. Order the book from Bookshop
Recommended Listening: Wild God, the New Album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
August really ended on a great note with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds releasing their new album Wild God. With songs such as Song of the Lake (featured in this week's PFSP Series), Wild God, Cinnamon Horses, Long Dark Night, and Joy, it is yet another attestation of the band's unyielding creative force. It really is a great joy to be alive at the same time as these incredible people who time and time again, give such intricate parts of themselves to those who'll listen. So, listen and buy their new album here and discover more music in our Music Archive.
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