Ishiguro enjoys slowly revealing his characters through their recollection of events long past. The memories are often fragmented, sometimes hazy, someimes simply untrustworthy. In "An Artist of the Floating World" the situation is further complicated by the tendency of its protagonist, Masuji Ono, to misinterpret his own memories.
"An Artist of the Floating World" is a portrait as Masuji Ono saw himself, and as he believed that others saw him. It is three years after Japan's defeat and Ono is preoccupied with the negotiations around his younger daughter's proposed marriage. Last year Noriko's marriage negotiations with another young man were unexpectedly treminated by the groom's family. Almost without self-awareness, Ono begins to question whether his artistic support of the imperialistic movement in the thirties and during the war now places his daughter's prospects in jeopardy.
Although Ono sees himself as a modest man, he overstates the impact that his military and patriotic art had in conditioning the Japanese people for the impending imperialistic war effort. It is never quite clear just how popular and widespread his war posters actually were. In contrast, Ono seems incapable of recognizing the magnitude of his crime against his best student, Kuroda, whom he betrayed to the authorities. He rationalizes that Kuroda's years in prison now give him credibility in the new Japan and that he will fare well in the post-war period. He is even so naive as to believe that Kuroda might be persuaded to overlook the past and thus support, or at least not hinder, his daughter Noriko's ongoing marriage negotiations.
I highly recommend "An Artist of the Floating World" for readers either new to Kazuo Ishiguro or already familiar with his other novels. It is an intricate work of beauty.
Like most Ishiguro books, this book is written in the first person personal, with an unreliable narrator: It is Ishiguro's very own form, and a winning way to write a novel. Those who have read "The Remains of the Day" will recognize it.
I think that is one of the best novels that I've ever read.
The way in which Ishiguro so cleverly manipulates the dialogue so that any character digressions into the past never seem forced is masterful. In addition to this, the gentle dialogue and intricate descriptions give a perfect impression of a mannered Japan that is treading carefully after the events of the second world war. Although the persistent references to the overflow of western culture into Japan can become a little tiresome, they don't distract from the overall picture of things. Like any good book that consists of memories the narrative presents them as a way in which the characters can impose order on their own lives in a 'floating world'. Though the pace isn't as fast as some readers might like, this is a very intricate novel that deserves kudos for letting you into the characters' psyches and explaining, or intentionally not explaining, what they did and why.
I gave the book only three stars because, while readable by all means, it simply fails to be very entertaining which, arguably, is the object of fiction writing. If you love English literature or are writing a research paper on Ishiguro, this book is great. But casual readers should first try "The Remains of the Day," also by Ishiguro.
