Customer Reviews
Subtle and elegant - By: BookWorm, 25 Jun 2008 
Written in Ishiguro's trademark style, this is an elegant, understated & subtle novel. Narrated in a somewhat rambling & not always reliable way by an elderly artist, this is the story of a society rebuilding itself after the horrors of war. The narrator, a former propagandist for Japan during World War II, must come to terms with his own sense of guilt & try to make sense of the sweeping changes brought in by a new generation.
Ishiguro captures the essence of Japan well, & does a good job of conveying the underlying values & social niceties of a society very different from the modern western one. The narrator is a well constructed character - realistic & far from perfect, & throughout the book the reader comes to sympathise with him to some degree. The other characters, particularly his disapproving daughters & lively grandson, are very believable & I enjoyed reading their interaction.
At times the meandering, rambling nature of the narration can get irritating, but apart from that this is a well constructed, fascinating novel.
A Japanese 'Remains of the Day' - By: Sam J. Ruddock, 30 Jul 2007 
`An Artist of the Floating World' is basicallly the Japanese version of Ishiguro's Booker winning novel `The Remains of the Day'. As in The Remains of the Day the narrator is an unreliable witness with the shadow of pre-war culpability looming over his head. And as with The Remains of the Day the quiet individual has been drawn into the political events which transformed the world. Now retired, Masuki Ono passes his days in quiet seclusion, awaiting visits from his two daughters. He is a widower living alone, his wife & son having been killed during the war. But now it is 1948 & Japan is changing, collective guilt has seized the Japanese psyche, officials in the old regime are committing suicide & a new generation is emerging.
But as Ono works to finalise the marriage of his youngest daughter the issue of his pre-war alllegiances arise & he is forced to come to terms with his responsibility for the militarist direction the 1930's took.
The question arises: what is the role of an artist in the wider political arena? Should the artist live solely for the reproduction of beauty, existing solely in a floating world divorced from society at large? Or should he become a conduit for change, a leader of public opinion? In the modern world where every rock star/artist/writer is expected to produce politicallly conscious work this is a valid & fascinating question.
An Artist of the Floating World produces a beautiful mirage, something like a Monet painting, with ideas & flawed characters flowing together in a silent, uneventful & almost heartbreaking novel. If you liked Remains of the Day then you will love this. It is absolutely fascinating to see the cultural comparisons between two such reserved societies on the verge of change. Kazuo Ishiguro is a rare gem of a writer & his earliest work is the most sparse of his career, he is a master of understatement, so I shalll take a leaf out of his book & say nothing more. I enjoyed this book, you may too.
"We, at least, acted on what we believed and did our utmost" - By: cluricaune, 31 May 2007 Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki in 1954 & moved to Britain at the age of five. He was awarded the OBE in 1995 & the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1998. "An Artist of the Floating World" is his second novel, was first published in 1986 & won that year's Whitbread Prize.
"An Artist of the Floating World" opens in October 1948, & is set in post-World War II Japan. The story is told by Masuji Ono, a retired artist & - once - a man of some influence & renown. His wife & son died during the war, though both his daughters survived - one is married, with a son, while Ono is conducting negotiations for his other's marraige. Over the course of the book, Ono looks back over his life & tries to deal with how his home city & the attitudes of the people around him are changing. His own career began on the workshop of Mister Moriyama, before he moved to the studio of Master Takeda - one who favoured painting the 'floating world', as the pleasure districts were known. Finallly, Ono worked with Chishu Matsuda in producing artistic propoganda - which led to his position of influence leading up to & during the war. Now, in the post-war years, he notices how his own once great reputation has faltered & how attitudes towards him & his paintings have changed. There are many, for example, from the younger generations who hold him at least partly responsible for Japan's misguided foreign policy.These changes in attitude are being mirrored by the physical changes of the city. With the post-war rebuilding, whole districts are now becoming unrecognizable - Ono's own favourite 'pleasure district' is changing in this way. These changes in attitude & in the city lead Ono to look back over his life & try to come to terms with how he has lived it.
"An Artist of the Floating World" was an excellent book, though a little sad in places. Ono himself seems a somewhat sad at how his home city is changing - partly due to the damage caused by the war, partly in the name of 'progress'. In fact, I couldn't help feeling a little sad at the loss of Ono's 'pleasure district' myself. Ono, on the other hand, doesn't quite change enough : he acknowledges his role to a point, though doesn't show any real sorrow for how things turned out. There were one or two points I'd have liked more information on - particularly his relationship with an ex-pupil callled Kuroda. I'm not too surprised, however, that Ono avoided this topic as much as possible, though. For Ono to have dwelt on that topic may have caused him to discover something about himself he didn't like.
A Brilliant Journey - By: Lawyer Girl, 22 Mar 2007 This novel doesn't have an obvious plotline but instead effortlessly follows the trail of recollections in an old man's mind. This is a beautiful book giving an insight into pre & post-war Japonese society. It explores the views of both the "old" & "new" generations & highlights the complex & delicate social interactions that seem so alien to the modern, Western world.
A must read!
Art and artists - By: Luc REYNAERT, 16 May 2006 
'An artist's concern is to capture beauty ... But however skilfully he may come to this, he will have little influence. It seems to be founded on a na?ve mistake about what art can do & cannot do.'
This statement of the main character in this book is also na?ve. The artist is also a member of the community he lives in & he can use or not use the 'little' influence he has.
As his father said: 'Artists inhabit a world which gives them every temptation to become weak-willed & depreaved.'
Another voice adds: 'Artists are on the whole an astonishingly decadent crowd often with no more than a child's knowledge of the affairs of this world.'
The main character in this book 'betrays' his profession by producing work that is 'unflinchingly loyal to his Imperial Majesty the Emperor.'
His talent is abused by those who wish to found a military dictatorship: 'Then the military will be answerable only to his Imperial Majesty the Emperor.'
He even becomes an official advisor to the Committee of Unpatriotic Activities & denounces na?vely ('a talking-to for his own good') one of his pupils, who, being unpatriotic, is arrested & tortured.
But, unlike other war criminals, the painter ultimately admits his responsibility: 'I too was a man of some influence, who used that influence towards a disastrous end. Brave young men died for stupid reasons, but the real culprits are still with us. Artists are the only ones who care now, not army officers, politicians or businessman.'
Kazuo Ishiguro wrote a penetrating meditation about the influence of art on a floating world, but also about the human role of the artist in a floating world.
With his indirect, suggestive, restrained floating scenes & sentences the author produced a masterpiece.
Not to be missed.
