Who will be read in a hundred years? Here's a guess that's as good as any: Kazuo Ishiguro. A native Brit of Japanese descent, Ishiguro is a resident with an outsider's eye and an impeccable writing style which will no doubt wear well to future ears. If Ishiguro does not make it, it will be because of his voice: quiet, authoritative, and restrained. Also, his narrators are often utterly unaware of the massive importance of what they are caught up in, meaning readers of the future will have to pay careful attention. His latest novel, Never Let me Go, is a profound exploration of the consequences of medical cloning and our ethical responsibilities to our own societal actions. In the future it could well be considered, thematically, as important to our era as Brave New World and 1984 were to theirs. And Ishiguro's other well-known work, The Remains of the Day, is as quietly important on the topic of complicity with totalitarianism as it is a comment on the repression of one's desires. In all, Ishiguro's novels are timely, beautiful, intelligent, tasteful and elegant. Although, when put that way, in a world cruising towards a 24/7 parade of fart jokes and pornography, he may well be doomed.
Back