A Guide to Kazuo Ishiguro's An Artist of the Floating World Series

Kazuo Ishiguro is an award winning British writer of Japanese descent. he has written many novels and won several awards. An Artist of the Floating World, published in 1986 was short listed for the Booker Prize and was rated one of the best 100 books ever written. It examines the nature of memory and denial and the interplay between the two in determining people's characters. Plot and Chacters here examines the storyline from a literary point of view as well as the characters and their roles giving insight to the reader as to why the novel stands alone. 

Following the first book on Kazuo Ishiguro's AN ARTIST OF THE FLOATING WORLD which examined the PLOT of the novel and the CHARACTERS this book examines the THEMES and ELEMENTS OF STYLE. This allows the critic of the novel to have a comprehensive view of what the novel is about, how it is crafted, who the players are and what kind of style the novelist adopts. This should prepare any student of Kazuo Ishiguro in general or of this novel in particular, to answer any questions about the writer, his world view and his general philosophy as expressed through his writing. A final book ANSWERING CONTEXT AND ESSAY QUESTIONS based on AN ARTIST OF THE FLOATING WORLD is recommended for the student to present answers in the expected way and to develop a critical perspective that is desired especially in college.  

There aren't many novels that address the Second World War and its influence on Asian Countries as well as Kazuo Ishiguro's An Artist of the Floating World. Neither are there many criticism of this novel. This book, therefore, intends to highlight the importance of this novel by critiquing the story and looking at its effect on Japan. In the novel, Kazuo Ishiguro highlights the conflict that results from the varying attitudes towards the Second World War in Japan, especially the contrast between the thinking of the youth and the older generation. This booklet in particular aims at helping the student or the teacher of An Artist of the Floating World to understand how to approach questions - both excerpts drawn from the novel and essay questions - in order to perfor as well as possible. To do this, the book examines the interpretation of QUESTION WORDS recognizing that this is one major problem which causes poor performance. Second, the book examines essay writing, beginning to how to write a paragraph, how to write introductory and concluding paragraphs and also, how to integrate the body paragraphs. The book gives several examples of essays written this way to make it easier for the student to follow. Finally, the book gives the meaning of major literary terms using examples drawn from the novel to make it easier for the student to use them and also understand other critics. Two things need to be said. One, that this book is a third in a series. The other two examine the elements of literature such as plot analysis, characters, theme and style in An Artist of the Floating World; they should be read before this. Second, that this book uses the template of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination English exam through which students matriculate to mid-level colleges and universities. Students and teachers from elsewhere should use this as a basis since their own exams may have different requirements in terms of time, the nature of questions as well as the marks awarded to the questions. Otherwise, the skills taught here are universal.