Kazuo
Ishiguro
was born in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1954.
In 1960, his parents moved to Britain, as his father took up a job as a
researcher at the National Institute of Oceanography. Like many immigrants, they had no intention of staying
forever, and so brought Kazuo up in a manner that would prepare him for life in
Japan. However, Kazuo received his
schooling here, attending a grammar school for boys in Surrey. A sense of duality can be perceived
from the characters in Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels, a sense of “what might have
been” if the other path had been taken, which is perhaps a reflection of his
own upbringing. He could have
ended up as a completely different person than the one he is today. Some of Kazuo’s characters were
separated from their parents as children, but it is debateable how much of this
is autobiographical.
Prior to attending university, Kazuo worked as a grouse
beater on the Queen Mother’s estate at Balmoral, and this may later have helped
in Kazuo’s creation of the butler Stevens, in his most famous novel, “The
Remains of the Day” (1989).
Kazuo was greatly interested in music and played in clubs, but his demo
tapes were always rejected and he says that he only “drifted” into
writing. He read English and
Philosophy at the University of Kent at Canterbury, graduating in 1978. He then went on to complete the famous
Creative Writing Masters degree at the University of East Anglia, where Angela
Carter became one of his mentors. 1981 saw the publication of 3 of his short stories in
“Introductions 7: Stories by New Writers”. In 1982, Kazuo became a full time writer, and his first
novel, “A
Pale View of the Hills” was published. It was narrated by a Japanese widow living in England, and
told of reconstruction in Kazuo’s home city Nagasaki after the bomb. The novel won the Winifred Holtby
Memorial Prize. In 1983, Kazuo
Ishiguro was named as one of the “Best of Young British Writers” by Granta, and
also made the same list a decade later.
Kazuo’s second novel followed in 1986, “An Artist
of the Floating World”. It
dealt with similar themes to those of “A Pale View of the Hills”, and was
shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and won the Whitbread Book of the Year. 1989 saw the publication of Kazuo
Ishiguro’s most famous novel, “The Remains of the Day”. It looks to have been a complete
departure from Kazuo’s first 2 novels, yet the character of Stevens was also
probably related to Kazuo’s past experiences and Stevens’ dilemma is not
dissimilar to those of Kazuo’s earlier characters. The novel won the Booker Prize, and went onto to become an
accomplished film starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson in 1993. Kazuo’s fourth novel, “The
Unconsoled”, was published in 1995.
It concerned a musician in an unidentified central European
country. Unlike the protagonists
in his other novels, Ryder is faced with a crisis in his present, rather than
his past. Kazuo Ishiguro was
awarded the OBE in 1995. Kazuo
Ishiguro’s next novel, “When we were Orphans” was published in 2000. It was a rather unconvincing tale of a
British detective investigating the disappearance of his parents 20 years
earlier in Shanghai. However, it
still made the Booker shortlist, as did his latest novel “Never Let
Me Go” (2005), which concerns a group of children bred to be organ
donors. Kazuo Ishiguro has also
written a number of screenplays: “A Profile of Arthur J. Mason” in 1984 and
“The Gourmet” in 1986 (both for Channel 4), and “The
Saddest Music in the World” (2003), the movie of which starred Isabella
Rossellini. Kazuo Ishiguro lives
in London with his family.
The Sitter’s Tale –
Kazuo Ishiguro talks about being the subject of a series of portraits by Peter
Edwards
Ishiguro’s
accidental opium slur – about the court case that meant that Kazuo Ishiguro
had to change the name of a company he mentions in “When we were Orphans”
Artist
of his own floating world – Boyd Tonkin interviews Kazuo Ishiguro in 2000
for “The Independent”
Between
two worlds – an interview with Kazuo Ishiguro from “The Guardian” in 2000
In the
land of memory – Kazuo Ishiguro talks to Adam Dunn in 2000
Ishiguro takes a
literary approach to the detective novel – Alden Mudge interviews Ishiguro
in 2000
January interview
– Linda Richards talks to Kazuo Ishiguro in 2000
Q&A
Interview – Nermeen Shaikh’s interview from 2000
The Beatrice Interview
– Ron Hogan talks to Kazuo Ishiguro in 2000
Profile:
Kazuo Ishiguro: Master of detached passions – John Walsh’s article in “The
Independent”
Raine’s
magazine stick’s knife into old pal Ishiguro’s novell – how “Never Let Me
Go” was received by one critic
Living
Memories – a profile in “The Guardian” by Nicholas Wroe
“For
me, England is a mythical place” – Tim Adams talks to Kazuo Ishiguro
BookBrowse
– their interview with Kazuo Ishiguro in 2005
Kazuo
Ishiguro: The Samurai of Suburbia – Christina Patterson’s interview from
2005
Very busy now: Globalization and harriedness in
Ishiguro’s “The Unconsoled” – Bruce Robbins’ essay
Confucianism in Kazuo Ishiguro’s
“The Unconsoled” – John Rothfork’s essay
“Call me Ish”: East meets West, a
comparison of Kazuo Ishiguro with Christopher Isherwood – Bernard Gilbert’s
essay
The
Artistic Endeavor of Self-Recreation in the novels of Kazuo Ishiguro –
Hayley Horowitz’s essay
Revisions of
Visions Past, or “the Texture of Memory”: Kazuo Ishiguro’s “An Artist of the
Floating World” – Richard Pedot’s essay
Delusions:
Memory and Identity in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Fiction – an essay by Soren
Hellerung and Cecilie Skaarup
The following essays are not
online, but may be available in the reference section of your local library.
Walkowitz,
Rebecca L. 1970- "Ishiguro's Floating Worlds"
ELH - Volume 68, Number 4, Winter 2001, pp. 1049-1076
The Johns Hopkins University Press
O'Brien,
Susie "Serving a New World Order: Postcolonial Politics in Kazuo
Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day"
MFS Modern Fiction Studies - Volume 42, Number 4, Winter 1996, pp. 787-806
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Su,
John J. "Refiguring National Character: The Remains of the British Estate
Novel"
MFS Modern Fiction Studies - Volume 48, Number 3, Fall 2002, pp. 552-580
The Johns Hopkins University Press
