Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Ishiguro, Kazuo (Vol. 110) - Merle Rubin (review date 4 October 1995)

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Merle Rubin (review date 4 October 1995)

SOURCE: "Probing the Plight of Lives 'Trapped' in Others' Expectations," in Christian Science Monitor, Vol. 87, October 4, 1995, p. 14.

[In the following review of The Unconsoled, Rubin argues that while the book may seem labyrinthine and nearly boring, it is also fascinating and skillfully written.]

Kazuo Ishiguro's first novel, A Pale View of Hills (1981), portrays his native city, Nagasaki, in the wake of the bombing that devastated it nine years before his birth. His second novel An Artist of the Floating World (1986), unfolded in the alien milieu of prewar, imperialist Japan. In his third novel, the Booker Prize-winning Remains of the Day (1990), Ishiguro imagined the world seen through the eyes of a stuffy, repressed English butler on the verge of retirement.

Now, in his fourth novel, The Unconsoled, this gifted and versatile writer, raised and...

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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