![]() ![]() Masuji had been part of a painting school that revered ‘The Floating World’. ![]() From the first chapter itself, the readers can recognize all the underlying ideas of the story that is to follow- memory, self-perception, self-deception, intergenerational conflict, familial reputation, and loss. The protagonist, Masuji Ono, a respected propagandistic artist in the 1930s and during the war, but now retired, regularly digresses to his struggling days while narrating the present-day life. Set in post-World War II Japan during the American Occupation, An Artist of the Floating World, as the title suggests, gives a fresh perspective on the relevance and reverberations of ‘art’ in a world that is transient and superfluous at the same time. Similar to his most renowned book, The Remains of the Day, Ishiguro’s genius is shone through this masterpiece drawing on the same ‘nothingness’ that surrounds the narrative and has the ability to firmly grip the readers’ attention. ![]() The Guardian ranks Kazuo Ishiguro’s An Artist of the Floating World in the 94th position in their 100 Best Novels written in English list. ![]()
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