Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Ishiguro, Kazuo (Vol. 110) - Brooke Allen (review date 11 October 1995)

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Brooke Allen (review date 11 October 1995)

SOURCE: Brooke Allen, "Leaving Behind Daydreams for Nightmares," in The Wall Street Journal, October 11, 1995, p. 12.

[In the following review of The Unconsoled, Allen argues that while Ishiguro has chosen a new writing style, his subject matter remains the same.]

Six years ago, at the age of 35, Kazuo Ishiguro came to international attention as the author of The Remains of the Day, an elegant novel that won the 1989 Booker Prize and was made into a film by Merchant and Ivory. In The Remains of the Day Mr. Ishiguro trod territory that he had already explored in his first two novels. A Pale View of Hills (1982) and An Artist of the Floating World (1986). The narrator was once again an elderly person—in this case an English butler—looking back upon a life of meaningless ritual, missed opportunities, failed love. It established Mr. Ishiguro as a realistic...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Kazuo Ishiguro with Gregory Mason (interview date 8 December 1986)
   2. Merle Rubin (review date 30 November 1989)
   3. Gabriele Annan (review date 7 December 1989)
   4. Hermione Lee (review date 22 January 1990)
   5. Kazuo Ishiguro with Allan Vorda and Kim Herzinger (interview date 2 April 1990)
   6. Cynthia F. Wong (essay date Winter 1995)
   7. Bert Cardullo (essay date Winter 1995)
   8. Roz Kaveney (review date 12 May 1995)
   9. Merle Rubin (review date 4 October 1995)
   10. Richard Eder (review date 8 October 1995)
   11. Brooke Allen (review date 11 October 1995)
   12. Charlotte Innes (review date 6 November 1995)
   13. Stanley Kauffmann (review date 6 November 1995)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright