An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro

“A man who aspires to rise above the mediocre, to be something more than the ordinary, surely deserves admiration, even if he fails and loses a fortune on account of his ambitions . . . if one has failed only where others have not had the courage or will to try . . .  to be gained from his observation when looking back over one's life."

Kazuo Ishiguro's An Artist of the Floating World, follows the story of Masuji Ono, a propagandist artist for Japan Imperialism during the war. Following Japan’s defeat in the war, Ono becomes a discredited figure; his daughter, evermore influenced by her husband, criticizes her father for his past. To make it worst, Ono’s wife and son were killed and his youngest daughter was in her mid 20s and having trouble finding a husband. Ishiguro manages to provide a peek into post-war Japan and how the paradigms were shifting. The old tradition and ideas had to adapt to the new way of life, one that closely followed the USA. Ono is caught between worlds; he is ‘an artist of the floating world’.

This story is short, flowing and presents an interesting view, there is no reason why anybody shouldn't take a few hours (or less) to read Ishiguro’s, ‘An Artist of the Floating World’. The whole story is told in Ono’s point of view, I found this quite different as many novels don’t place an old retired man as the protagonist of the book. However, I found this technique captured perfectly the hypocritical state and the imbalanced state that Japan was left during the war. Ono had been considered a very patriotic Japanese. Now, he still had pride, he did what he believed was right and he was a well-known artists, however, he being forced to change his views and his whole history in order to be a ‘loyal’ Japanese. Ono’s mind quite often strayed and spoke about different ideas, but I think that he was, inherent to Japanese culture, very structured and the novel never became a stream of consciousness. At times, I did get lost as there were so many names and so many really similar names – I found it more confusing when Ono’s story would stray for five pages and he would suddenly remind himself to get back to the story. However, this way we are taken into the mind of the retired man, he has a lot of time to reminisce and he lives in a very tranquil state of mind even with everything going around him.

Despite this book’s melancholy, the ending leaves the reader with a lot of hope for the future. It seems natural that perspective will change and hence, the leaders will change. Ishiguro manage to beautifully capture Ono’s hope for the next generation while giving up on his own dreams. I don’t think it’s right that Ono should blame himself for his past “errors”, but like he said, he was proud of what he had achieved as he had stood up for what he believed in.  I was fortunate to have, coincidentally, read this book in the turn of the year – this book was perfect for me to reflect in my own (much shorter) life and the hopes that the future will hold. Our goals and dreams may be always changing and adapting but it is the persistence to follow our passions that truly makes us live a life without regrets.

This book review has focused more on my own ideas and advice; therefore, this may not be my best review, but I’m leaving it as it is for I do believe it follows the tone of the book. There are many layers that I still have to explore and I will reread the book in order to catch the small details. I have been advised to read John Hershey’s Hiroshima, in order to understand the context of Ishiguro’s novel. I shall do that and I encourage other readers to do that to. Despite, this review not covering the Japanese and post-war themes that Ishiguro’s book covers, I do feel I have captured the essence of the book, one that makes the book timeless and universal.