Quick Thoughts - An Artist of the Floating World
✔️ Spoiler Free
Japan is changed. The aftermath of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II has upended nearly every aspect of Masuji Ono’s life. Once an influential artist, his city, his colleagues, and his nation’s philosophy are all unrecognizable to him now. And it’s this lack of recognition that serves as the backdrop to his story of reflection.
This story being this captivating serves as a testament to Ishiguro’s skill. Hardly anything happens. Yet how thrilling a story it is thanks to its masterful construction. At times it reads like a mystery novel. The details of Ono’s life needed to make sense of things are teased and revealed at a precise cadence. Not so slowly that you lose interest, but not so quickly that the discoveries lose their weight. Unlike mystery novels though, the revelations aren’t heralded by the finding of a clue, but by Ono realizing his own naivete. Ono’s narration captures how our opinions of ourselves can be both perfectly truthful yet biased and flawed. His journey illustrates how you can only correct mistakes you’ve made if you can first recognize when you’ve made them.
Funnily enough, the main issue I have with this book is that I had already read Ishiguro’s subsequent work, The Remains of the Day. They’re identical in both concept and and structure. Simply swap postwar Japan for postwar England and an ageing artist with an ageing butler. Ishiguro was able to refine things the second time around. The narration is still biased and incomplete, but less muddied. An Artist of the Floating World’s advantage is its more spellbinding ambiance. If forced to pick one, I’d likely opt for The Remains of the Day, but you can’t go wrong with either.