An Artist of the Floating World
by Kazuo Ishiguro
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Book Summary Information
Author: Kazuo IshiguroEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1989-09-19
ISBN: 0679722661
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of An Artist of the Floating World
Book Review: Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man
Summary: 4 Stars
This narrative of Japanese artist Ono explores the change of a nation and its culture. Ono's tale is set in post-World War II Japan, but he often reflects on the ways of life prior to the war. Living a peaceful retired life, he is engaged in marriage negotiations for his youngest daughter. Having failed to marry her off once, he is forced to evaluate his past. His role as a propaganda artist during the war has come back to haunt him in the new, progressive nation. He must learn to accept the new democratic sentiments and Americanism that the younger generation venerates (including his two adult daughters and grandson). He must put behind him his life in "the floating world," or the world of nightly pleasures he was taught to emulate during his youth.
As a young apprentice, Ono grew accustomed to painting geishas, but as he grows as an artist, so does his sense of nationalism and pride. He becomes a highly regarded teacher and a celebrated national artist. But once Japan is defeated, war criminals are sent to the gallows and other contributors to the war effort are committing suicide. Ono is forced to recognize his mistakes and to accept a modern Japan for the sake of his remaining family.
This is a poignant novel, and much like The Remains of the Day, focuses on coming to terms with the past. It is a self-evaluation life as Ono reinterprets his actions as a young man while maintaining his pride.
Summary of An Artist of the Floating World
This is the story of an artist as an aging man, struggling through the wreckage of Japan's World War II experience. Ishiguro's first novel.In An Artist of the Floating World, Kazuo Ishiguro offers readers of the English language an authentic look at postwar Japan, "a floating world" of changing cultural behaviors, shifting societal patterns and troubling questions. Ishiguro, who was born in Nagasaki in 1954 but moved to England in 1960, writes the story of Masuji Ono, a bohemian artist and purveyor of the night life who became a propagandist for Japanese imperialism during the war. But the war is over. Japan lost, Ono's wife and son have been killed, and many young people blame the imperialists for leading the country to disaster. What's left for Ono? Ishiguro's treatment of this story earned a 1986 Whitbread Prize.
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