An Artist of the Floating World, The Confession and Redhead by the Side of the Road

 

I had to go back to Kazuo Ishiguro's first novel to complete my set of his books. I had previously avoided it, it being set in post war Japan, but I was surprisingly impressed. I just reveled in the formality of the prose as the narrator Masuji Ono talks to the reader as if they are both sitting round a fireside. As early as page 12: "Today, if I took you to the back of the house, and moved aside the heavy screen to let you gaze down the remains of Sugimura's garden corridor, you may still gain an impression of how picturesque it once was".

Our retired narrator was once a famous artist, but can we rely on everything he says? His married daughter intimates that he is to blame for the failure of the marriage negotiations for her sister. The defeat of Japan only registers slightly in Ono's mind, even the death of his son and the experiences of his son in law. But everyone speaks in riddles, never saying directly what they mean, so often Ono is left in the dark. His eight year old grandson Ichiro must be one of the most awful children in the history of literature, hinting at the new order in the country.

The only downside for me was the part towards the end when Ono recounts his time as a pupil in a villa crammed full of budding young artists. It seemed out of place in a story that was gaining momentum. But overall the book was a joy to read.

When we read Jesse Burton's second novel "The Muse" for Book Club, I loved the alternating chapters from 1936 and 1967. This book repeats the formulae with an intricate and fascinating plot set in the early 1980's and 2017/18. The story becomes a quest as Rose in those later years is trying to find out about the mother she never knew. And that's where the earlier time frame tells us the truth before Rose discovers it for herself.

I loved the characters and the way the author looks at history repeating itself. Burton is now a brilliant writer, and some of the prose is just what I love in a book. One chapter ends on Page 100 with a devastating revelation to Rose's mother Elise when she realises she is trapped in a relationship where she is "watching it all happen" rather than it happening to her. The plot is clever in that it makes you guess what is going to happen. I was glad I was mostly wrong.

Another little classic from Anne Tyler. Is she sympathetic to her main character, a forty something single man? Her very first sentence gives us a clue: "You have to wonder what goes through the mind of a man like Micah Mortimer. He lives alone; he keeps to himself; his routine is etched in stone". A routine that borders on obsession? Does anyone go for their morning run in jeans? Has he ever run a race? We will never know.

Micah has never been short of female company, but they never last. "It was true he had come close to marrying a few times He hadn't always thought that marriage was messy". And when out in his car, " .... he liked to pretend he was being evaluated by an all-seeing surveillance system. Traffic God he called it ...... who frequently commented ..... on the perfection of Micah's driving". Well, we could all do with a Traffic God sometimes.

The author revels in all sorts of domestic detail that should be very boring but is actually wonderful. The dialogue is some of the best in all literature. There are all these insights into the human condition that resonate for the reader. Like the repetition of uninvited thoughts on one event. Anne Tyler never fails to impress.