There is no greater joy when a book you pick up from a library shelf, written by someone you’ve never heard of, turns out to be a gem. Though this has happened to me several times, one memory came rushing back to me last week upon hearing the news of the Nobel Prize winner in literature.
Way back in 1988, I picked up a book from the British Council library written by someone called Kazuo Ishiguro. Going by the name I was sure that it was a Japanese work translated into English, which piqued my interest further. But the blurb informed me that the writer’s family had moved from Nagasaki to Britain when he was five, making Ishiguro an ‘English’ writer.
The book was titled An Artist in the Floating World and it was Ishiguro’s second novel. This is perhaps his only novel set in his native Japan.
Gone unseen
The tributes came pouring in after Ishiguro’s Nobel Prize win last week. But what was surprising was that this book of his was either mentioned only in passing or not mentioned at all. Most of the articles spoke more about his more famous works — Remains of the Day , The Unconsoled and Never Let Me Go .
I have read four out of Ishiguro’s seven novels and An Artist in the Floating World remains my favourite. It is also perhaps his most ‘accessible’ work in the sense that there are no narrative and thematic ‘tricks’.
The book is set in a Japan that is emerging from the rubble of World War II. The protagonist is an ageing artist, ‘tainted’ by his past association with the nationalistic Imperial government, trying to make sense of a fast-changing society where he is not only viewed as an anachronism but is also despised for his erstwhile political beliefs.
What struck me about the book was its understated and non-judgmental tone, even while talking about the difficult subject of a famous artist coming to grips with the burden of his past.
Difference in reads
Remains of the Day is Ishiguro’s best-known work and also his most ‘English’ book as the protagonist is a butler, that most unique of ‘English’ institutions which is now extinct. It also won Ishiguro the Booker Prize. This book, about an emotionally bottled-up butler with an almost absurd sense of duty, was also made into a marvellous movie starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson by the incomparable Ivory-Merchant duo. But behind this gentle aristocratic world, there is a sense of impending doom.
Dystopian is a word that is often used to describe some of Ishiguro’s later works. When We Were Orphans is about an English boy who grows up in Shanghai in the inter-war period and goes on to become a famous detective. The book has a disturbing ending and it is reported that even Ishiguro felt this was one of his minor works.
Never Let Me Go was also made into a movie with a terrific Cary Mulligan in the lead role. The book is set in a posh boarding school in the typical English countryside. But beneath the gentle cadence of the narrative a terrible tragedy unfolds, shaking our conceptions of self and identity.
When a writer you’re familiar with wins a major literary award, it brings a smile to your face. The mere familiarity with his or her work makes you feel as if the award, in some small way, belongs to you too.
So, it’s time for a re-reading of my favourite Ishiguro book and also The Unconsoled , whose sheer size has always daunted me.