In this article we will review An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Book Plot
In the face of the misery in his homeland, the artist Masuji Ono was unwilling to devote his art solely to the celebration of physical beauty. Instead, he put his work in the service of the imperialist movement that led Japan into World War II.
Now, as the mature Ono struggles through the aftermath of that war, his memories of his youth and of the “floating world”—the nocturnal world of pleasure, entertainment, and drink—offer him both escape and redemption, even as they punish him for betraying his early promise. Indicted by society for its defeat and reviled for his past aesthetics, he relives the passage through his personal history that makes him both a hero and a coward but, above all, a human being.
An Artist of the Floating World Rating : 3,77
Also book has 208 pages
An Artist of the Floating World Review
The main theme of this novel revolves around the narrator’s responsibility for his actions in support of his country during the war with the U.S. Taking place in a Tokyo suburb during the American occupation, the narrator, Masuji Ono, is now surrounded by people who blame him for Japan’s failed decision to go to war, including others like him who supported the war effort. Ono’s generation consisted of elderly men who promoted war. There is no doubt about his involvement in the propaganda that encouraged many young Japanese men to sacrifice their lives. Despite his misguided patriotism, Ono was ultimately on the wrong side of history due to poor leadership. It seems unjust that those around him now criticize him, as it was their perspectives that have shifted since the defeat, not Ono himself. The novel brings to mind the mistreatment of U.S. soldiers returning from Vietnam. It is suggested that Ishiguro may have been inspired by Yasunari Kawabata, a Japanese Nobel laureate, particularly in his works The Remains of the Day, A Pale View of Hills, and When We Were Orphans. An Artist of the Floating World can be compared to Kawabata’s The Old Capital in some aspects, but further analysis is needed.
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