I'm glad everyone can agree that When We Were Orphans is by far his worst work, lol.
Personally, of the Ishiguro canon that I've read, I'd rank accordingly.
Remains of the Day
The Unconsoled
Never Let Me Go
Klara and the Sun
The Buried Giant
When We Were Orphans
Love Remains of the Day. By far my favorite Ishiguro novel. It's what sold me on him. Ishiguro's writing style in general is to kind of say some innocuous statements that have this depth of emotion that is left unspoken by the narrator, but it really hits the peak with Remains of the Day because of how it fits in with Steven's character. We can understand him as this really repressed character because of his position in life and what he's trying to achieve vis a vis his goals in life as well as just his sheer Britishness, i.e. the stiff upper lip and the comedy of errors style humor. His writing style coalesces with the characters and narrative that really make it more than the sum of its parts, unlike something like When We Were Orphans - his writing style doesn't really add to the story as whole.
Second is The Unconsoled for me - I remember going to one of Ishiguro's talks, and at the end he was taking questions from the audience. Someone of course had a question about The Unconsoled, and Ishiguro said something like, "Someone always asks about it, and it's always because they either loved it or hated it." I'm obviously in the love it camp. Yes, it doesn't really make sense. It doesn't need to. Something that gets understated about Ishiguro's writing is how funny he can be. I'm thinking of situations like when >!Stevens is trying to get out of meeting Miss Kenton, and he's like, "She's making a mountain out of a molehill. Can't believe she's making such a big deal out of nothing. In fact, it's such a trivial matter that I'm going to avoid topic by sneaking out of the window so she can't confront me." Hilarious way of letting the audience know you can't trust that motherfucker Stevens.!< I brought that up to say The Unconsoled is by far his funniest work. I rarely laugh out loud when reading - I may occasionally think, "That's funny," or smile, but very rarely actually laugh. I laughed quite a bit when reading this book. I do have to caveat that with the fact that it's been years since I read it, so I might be due for a reread to reevaluate my position.
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I thought Never Let me go was decent, I read it little while after The Remains of the Day and it just couldn't reach those lofty heights that The Remains of the Day did.
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I liked Klara and the Sun - the proto robo religion thing vibed with me, especially with the reveal at the end where >!Klara is telling this story from memory after basically getting junked. Kinda similar vibes to Never Let Me Go in the sense of these "soulless" subhumans (In their respective societies, anyway) hitting their point of planned obsolescence.!<
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Buried Giant - Kinda meh. Read it, forgot most of it. Did like the ending, though.
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When We Were Orphans - Nothing else needs to be said, lmao.
juangoat t1_jd1k4t8 wrote
Reply to Where to Start with Kazuo Ishiguro by edward_radical
I'm glad everyone can agree that When We Were Orphans is by far his worst work, lol.
Personally, of the Ishiguro canon that I've read, I'd rank accordingly.
Remains of the Day
The Unconsoled
Never Let Me Go
Klara and the Sun
The Buried Giant
When We Were Orphans
Love Remains of the Day. By far my favorite Ishiguro novel. It's what sold me on him. Ishiguro's writing style in general is to kind of say some innocuous statements that have this depth of emotion that is left unspoken by the narrator, but it really hits the peak with Remains of the Day because of how it fits in with Steven's character. We can understand him as this really repressed character because of his position in life and what he's trying to achieve vis a vis his goals in life as well as just his sheer Britishness, i.e. the stiff upper lip and the comedy of errors style humor. His writing style coalesces with the characters and narrative that really make it more than the sum of its parts, unlike something like When We Were Orphans - his writing style doesn't really add to the story as whole.
Second is The Unconsoled for me - I remember going to one of Ishiguro's talks, and at the end he was taking questions from the audience. Someone of course had a question about The Unconsoled, and Ishiguro said something like, "Someone always asks about it, and it's always because they either loved it or hated it." I'm obviously in the love it camp. Yes, it doesn't really make sense. It doesn't need to. Something that gets understated about Ishiguro's writing is how funny he can be. I'm thinking of situations like when >!Stevens is trying to get out of meeting Miss Kenton, and he's like, "She's making a mountain out of a molehill. Can't believe she's making such a big deal out of nothing. In fact, it's such a trivial matter that I'm going to avoid topic by sneaking out of the window so she can't confront me." Hilarious way of letting the audience know you can't trust that motherfucker Stevens.!< I brought that up to say The Unconsoled is by far his funniest work. I rarely laugh out loud when reading - I may occasionally think, "That's funny," or smile, but very rarely actually laugh. I laughed quite a bit when reading this book. I do have to caveat that with the fact that it's been years since I read it, so I might be due for a reread to reevaluate my position.
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I thought Never Let me go was decent, I read it little while after The Remains of the Day and it just couldn't reach those lofty heights that The Remains of the Day did.
​
I liked Klara and the Sun - the proto robo religion thing vibed with me, especially with the reveal at the end where >!Klara is telling this story from memory after basically getting junked. Kinda similar vibes to Never Let Me Go in the sense of these "soulless" subhumans (In their respective societies, anyway) hitting their point of planned obsolescence.!<
​
Buried Giant - Kinda meh. Read it, forgot most of it. Did like the ending, though.
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When We Were Orphans - Nothing else needs to be said, lmao.