Reading the 80s - 1986

An Artist of The Floating World – Kazuo Ishiguro

It’s 1948. America has occupied Japan and an elderly artist is worried about his younger daughter’s marriage prospects since her engagement fell through the year before. Much celebrated for his previous work, he has to learn that things have changed, and that it might be best for his family and friends if he kept his opinions to himself.

This is first person narration – we see everything through the eyes of Ono, the artist, as he comes to terms with the fact he may have made mistakes and tries to understand the past, not aided by the way that some of the people around him are understandably anxious to forget, and that at base, he’s actually quite naïve and self-absorbed.   

Santorini – Alistair MacLean

Before I write anymore about this book I think I should explain I may not be doing it justice simply because it's not the sort of book I like to read. The whole point of this challenge is partly to stretch myself though, so I'm glad I did give it a go. 

It's a thriller which begins with a downed plane and a sinking yacht, all very dramatic, and later there’s obviously meant to be a slowly ratcheting tension, but unfortunately I can't get excited about different sorts of aeroplane or ships or winching devices to get bombs off the seabed, and when they’re discussed at any length I tend to switch off a bit. 

Also all the naval chaps and private experts involved are so brave and modest and nice to each other I’m struggling to believe in them (not one person says ‘what do you mean we’re anchored over a ticking bomb! Why the hell didn’t you tell me that before you brought me out here?’, or even has a sleepless night about it) but again, if it were a murder mystery with an unbelievable hero I'd be more tolerant of that. 

The gender politics is a bit dated – no surprise there. It was written 35 years ago and was Maclean’s last book according to Wikipedia so we can forgive him for being old fashioned as well. The politics politics is what you expect in the 80s. Younger readers might be especially astonished at the idea of an American president willing to take responsibility for something and having to be talked into hushing it up, or traitors ‘falling on their swords’ rather than trying to brazen things out. All I can say is it was less of a stretch of the imagination in the 80s that it is now.