An Artist of the Floating World

By: Kazuo Ishiguro

Narrated by: David Case

This is the story of an artist as an aging man, struggling through the wreckage of Japan's World War II experience. Ishiguro's first novel.©1986 Kazuo Ishiguro (P)2012 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

Winner of the 2012 Fifty Books/Fifty Covers show, organized by Design Observer in association with AIGA and Designers & Books

Winner of the 2014 Type Directors Club Communication Design Award

Interesting First-Person Narrative

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand better Ishiguro's world. This book explores the difficulty of evaluating the past (especially one's own past) because of the complexity of human motivation and the social and historical forces influencing the decisions people make.

What other book might you compare An Artist of the Floating World to and why?

There are similar themes in The Remains of the Day, especially the theme of self-delusion.

If you could rename An Artist of the Floating World, what would you call it?

The Bridge of Hesitation

Great book, terrible narration

A poignant and subtle exploration of coming to terms with a changing world and one's own mistakes, sadly unlistenable due to the narrator employing a smug sort of delivery that does not work well for the writing.

Poor Performance

The reader butchers the pronunciation of all Japanese words and names, and downright offense attempts at relaying the voices of children and females.

Great storytelling, British accent very distracting

Another masterfully told story by Kazuo Ishiguro using his exceptional slow reveal style.

The performance would have been excellent for an English novel, but it was very distracting to hear an all Japanese cast in late 1940’s Japan speaking with British accents. :(

as beautiful as a japanese painting.

a beautiful shiort novella (206 pages) with delightful characters. there's just enough of the japanese culture for us westerners to understand it but not so much to loose us in it.

Not quite “Remains of the Day”

Enjoyed the revelry of the narrator as he comes to terms with a changing Japan after WWII and his part in it. His coming to terms with new generations’ viewpoints and interactions with Western society are timeless.

Only difficulty is keeping up with characters given similar names and number of them. Also, the British narrator and British nationality of author had me confused as to the setting for the first hour.

Not quite great ...

An Artist ... is a solid novel, but doesn't quite stand up to Ishiguro's very best (Remains, Never, and Klara). But after all, this is an early work, and almost a trial run for Remains of the Day in theme and tone. The narration here is dreadful, though. David Case is perfect for Noel Coward and Oscar Wilde, but his cloying arch tone and music hall British toff accent clash painfully with what should be a restrained, nuanced reading. The narrator's ego should not be the takeaway from a work as good as this one.

Good insight from a different perspective.

I struggled a bit with remembering the characters names and had to re-listen to get them straight. His memory of those times was enlightening.

Interesting cultural background pre and post war

Japan male domimant society struggling to modernize and move on from its war crimes im China.

slow burn

loved narration and story interesting how so much could be made of so little. subtle touches. little frustrated with lack of action but that's the point of the novel I think