Kazuo Ishiguro - a classic of our time

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Kazuo Ishiguro is a popular English writer of Japanese origin today. It was at the junction of two cultures, Eastern and Western, that this author was formed, who today is rightfully considered one of the strongest prose writers of our time.

Emigration to England

Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki in 1954. Japan was in crisis at the time. Most recently, the Second World War was lost, the economy, like many other areas of life, was in decline. Kazuo's father was an oceanographer by profession, a promising scientist. Therefore, at the first opportunity, he decided to emigrate to England.

In 1960, the Ishiguro family moved to Guildford, a city in the south of England, the administrative center of Surrey, with a population of 125,000 people. Kazuo's father goes to work at the Institute of Oceanography, and the young Japanese goes to study at the first stage school. Having received his secondary education, Kazuo Ishiguro takes a sabbatical and goes to see the world. During the year he travels to Canada and America. Dreams of becoming a musician. And even records a few records, but the producers leave them withoutattention. Therefore, returning to his homeland, he enters the university in Kent, where he actively studies English and philosophy. In 1982, Kazuo becomes a British citizen.

Writing career

Ishiguro's first publications appeared in 1981. He started with stories. Already in 1983, Kazuo published his first novel en titled "Where the hills are in the haze." This work is deeply connected with his historical homeland. The main character is an elderly Japanese woman living in England. She is very upset that her daughter committed suicide. After this tragedy, she begins to be haunted by memories of the horrors that happened in Nagasaki during the war years - a nuclear strike, complete devastation and the difficult restoration of the city from ruins. For this novel, Ishiguro was awarded a grant as the best young British writer.

His next novel is "The Artist of the Unsteady World". It tells about the attitude of the Japanese to the Second World War in our day. The protagonist at one time was a zealous supporter of the government. Today, when his ideas and ideals have failed, it is not easy for him to find his place in life. The novel was UK Book of the Year.

Classic British Butler

An exemplary servant in an aristocratic household becomes the protagonist of Kazuo Ishiguro's next most famous novel, "At the End of the Day". In 1993, the film of the same name was released, starring Anthony Hopkins. An elderly British butler, James Stevens, recalls his work with Lord Darlington in the 1930s. That one wasa prominent British diplomat, negotiated with various foreign representatives and even supported the Nazis, for which he later paid a serious price. Stevens doesn't care. He believes that he has no right to privacy, and is completely devoted to his lord. By the end of life, such an idea of the world will dissipate. He tries to change things, such as mending a relationship with the housekeeper, Miss Kenton, who had feelings for him 20 years ago. But it's too late.

Works in the 1990s and 2000s

Kazuo Ishiguro publishes his most complicated novel in terms of structure and style in 1995. The books are published under the title "Inconsolable". It is more like a collection of stories, united only by mood and common musical and literary allusions. In 2000, he wrote the novel When We Were Orphans, which takes place in Shanghai at the beginning of the 20th century. Ishiguro returns to his signature move - memories of the past. The protagonist is a private detective who investigates the mysterious disappearance of his own parents 20 years ago.

His 2005 novel Never Let Me Go was again successfully filmed. The film of the same name about clone children who are raised in an alternative England to receive donor organs has received several awards at prestigious film festivals. For the novel itself, Ishiguro was awarded the Booker Prize. Time magazine included it in its list of the 100 best British novels of all time.

Last novel

Recently saw the lightthe latest novel to date is The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro. This is a very mysterious and unusual work. This time the author places his heroes in medieval England. These are the years of the war of the Saxons against the Britons. In those days, according to the author, the gloom enveloped the earth, forcing to forget every hour just lived. In the center of the story is an elderly couple, Beatrice and Axel. They leave their native village and go on a difficult and dangerous journey with one goal - to find their son, who disappeared without a trace many years ago. Their wanderings form the main outline of the novel.

"The Buried Giant" by Kazuo Ishiguro is a masterfully told story about the peculiarities of our memory, the ability of a person to forget all the most terrible and unpleasant. At the same time, this is a novel about love, human forgiveness, war, fear, revenge. But still, his main characters are people. People who, no matter what, most often remain lonely.