A Guide to Kazuo Ishiguro | where to start & my ranking 

Just started reading Klara and the Sun. There's something interesting in the way he writes that I can't articulate. The first 50 pages is just the protagonist making observations and not much else but it's strangely compelling. There's definitely something beneath the surface and I can't wait to finish it

finished the buried giant just an hour ago or less and it has me completely in a trance. i don't know if i've ever seen an ending that so effortlessly ties together its themes and plot. it hit immediately as i read the final two lines and i finally got the point of the whole novel, it recontextualized EVERYTHING so incredibly artfully. wow. how do i go to work tomorrow.

Really good wrap up, thanks. I spent all of Never Let Me Go frustrated because they didn’t try to break out. Beautiful, mournful story. Really left a mark on me.

I just chain reread A Pale View of Hills and The Unconsoled (my favorites) and couldn't let go of Ishiguro, so read reviews and watched interviews and his Noble talk, and then your sweet video came up! Loved it! I read The Buried Giant years ago but didn't 'know' him then, so now I will reread that too! Thank you for your thoughts. Right now I've redived into Mann's The Magic Mountain, so that will take a while haha!

Loved your choice of ranking that was indeed unexpected! Also all your reflections.

I was literally just looking for my next read after finishing Klara and the Sun, so this is perfect timing!

Ishiguro is hands down my favourite author ever.

A lovely video. Great introduction to Ishiguro for those who may not have read his work. My favourite is The Remains of the Day, but anything he writes is pretty good to excellent. Keep up the good work.

I havent read any Kazu Ishigru books, this was so helpful to know where to start

I came here bc the buried giant is my favorite book, and have bittersweet feelings in that it’s also your favorite. On the one hand it’s great to hear similar appreciation, on the other it means I’ve likely read what is to be my favorite of ishiguro’s books.

So happy I found this video!! The Buried Giant is also my favourite of his

Thank you so much for this video! I just finished Never Let Me Go, and thought about it the whole weekend. It makes me sad every time when I think about the last few lines of the book😭…….. I have read three books by him so far and that’s currently my favorite. Probably wanting to read the Buried Giant next!

Huge Ishiguro fan from Greece here. I also consider the Buried giant as his best book. The ending had me crying for hours and the themes were deeply existential. Beautiful and devastating.

He is also my favourite living author. I love watching his interviews and insights , he is also an eloquent speaker. One never forgets his work after reading it!!

I'm so grateful you made this video because I've wanted to try an Ishiguro book for ages but had no idea where would be best to start, and I think The Buried Giant is going to be the best place for me.

I saw these books lined up on someone's shelf, and they really caught my eye as a collection that I would certainly have. Very surprised they haven't come across my radar by now, but very excited to have him as a author to follow.

Ishiguro Kazuo,He is an author that I read with pleasure. I liked his work "Never let me go" very much. I want to read his other works as well.

Thanks for the review of Ishiguro work. It was very thoughtful. Surprised to find the similarity with my own ranking. I like “Buried Giants’ the best also. What a tragic love story… BTW, when he received the Nobel Prize in Literature, I was shocked and bit ashamed as a Japanese of his contemporary. Gee, I hadn’t read any of his novels before~! So I quickly bought every available book on Amazon then read all chronologically spending next 2 months. A marathon reading experience so unusual for me but it was worth going through. My goodness he's so good.

Thank you so much. I am reading ‘The Remains of the Day’ right now and loving it. It reminds me so far a little of ‘A Gentlemen in Moscow’ by Amor Towes whose books I love. I think I want to read the Klara and the sun book and the Giant book soon. You made them sound amazing.

Thank you so much for your video and great information !!

Jen, I'm currently reading Klara and the Sun and loving it - it's also my first Ishiguro novel! (though I have seen the film for Never Let Me Go and found it so heartbreaking). Your thoughts on each of his books and your ranking of them has made me more than ever keen to read more of his writing! A wonderful analysis of a very interesting author. I'm particularly drawn by your thoughts on the Buried Giant. That's one that has always seemed so interesting to me but I've never heard people talk about it so it's exciting to hear you loved it ☺️

This was a great video! I only discovered Ishiguro this year and have read three of his books - I have Klara ready to go as my next! I just love his understated and yet beautiful story-telling, even when tackling themes that are challenging or upsetting. I am so intrigued to read The Buried Giant as I really don't like fantasy - but I feel I have to give it a try.

Thank you very much from Japan:) After reading and watching Never let me go, I have wanted to read another Ishiguro book! I really enjoyed your video 😊

Congratulations on your guide! I think you did a really good job reviewing Ishiguro's work, also your accent and enunciation is very easy to follow. But I can't make a the decision about which one to start with! So I think I'll go for Klara and the sun and Never let me go. Thanks again!

glad i stumbled across your video. i didn't watch your whole video as i want to read the book then come back and watch your sections. i recently read klara and the sun and just started never let me go.

This was an excellent video. I will certainly read Artist before Remains of the day!

Great video! I haven't read Ishiguro yet but looking forward to picking some of his books up. I am so sad, I saw a few of his books at a secondhand bookstore where I live and the next time I went they were all gone.

This is actually super helpful!

I really enjoyed The Unconsolled. The ending is so well written and the oniric atmosphere makes it such an unique reading experience. The remains of the day and Never let me go will ever be my two favourite novels though

Comprehensive and chill video. I'm torn between Klara and the Sun and Never Let Me go. Not a huge sci fi-in-literature guy but I can't put off Ishiguro any longer. I like tearjerkers so maybe, Never Let Me Go. lol

Thank you for this video, a wonderful exploration of his work. Subbed!

Hmm, I definitely should check these out

Ishiguro is the best! He is also probably my favorite living authors, and 'The Remains of the Day' was the book that cemented for me wanting to become a writer.

The buried giant my favorite of his as well. It is such a great metaphor for social media (even if that wasn’t the author’s intent) and the erasure of uncomfortable history from certain quarters of the public

I haven't read all of Ishiguro's books yet (I'm trying not to finish them too quickly!), but, like you, he's my favorite living author. My ranking so far is: 1. Never Let Me Go 2. The Buried Giant 3. Klara and the Sun 4. The Remains of the Day 5. When We Were Orphans I cant wait to read the other three and see where they fit in!

I read Pale view and Artist too long ago to give an opinion. Of the other 6, building up to number 1: The unconsoled, Orphans, Klara, Remains, Never let me go and Buried Giant. I could switch the last three almost in any order. Buried giant was a more difficult read but ended up impacted by it by the end. Remains is the easiest of the three to read and thus more likely to satisfy.

I’m a bit late to this but thank you for this video, I read never let me go for gcse english and then read the remains of the day when I was 19 and found it absolutely heartbreaking! I’d never had a book make me cry so much, and I thought I’d never love a book more than that one so I’d avoided Ishiguro’s other novels out of fear that they’d disappoint me. But what you’ve said about them has changed my mind so I’m planning to read the buried giant next!

Never Let Me Go is the only book I’ve read of him and boy oh boy....you’re right,the pain just hits you right in the guts.I have never felt something like this before when reading a book so far.I hate tragedy but this man is something else...The book makes you FEEL,you know.But I think quite a lot of people might find it boring

I've been paying attention to Kazuo Ishiguro since his name known from Nobel prize. Because at that time I was in college class for transnational literature, which I read international literatures translated in English. And I kinda noticed that there are some common reasonable great traits why Nobel laureates received the prize. Such as Mo Yan, Orhan Pamuk, Kenzaburo Oe. Therefore I wanted to check out any of Kazuo's novels. Because of work I didn't have much time to read in general, so I usually listened his interviews on podcast. And one day I decided to make time for it and bought The Buried Giant, because I listened his lecture on memory theme in his visit to Japan. And it was quite interesting how he delves into that theme of memory in various ways. And now you are saying that you consider The Buried Giant the best, I'm kinda relieved that I chose the right one lol. There is no such thing but the popular opinion I heard so far of his best novel, was Never Let Me Go. I hope I can get to love the novel I chose just like you did.

I'm ashamed to say that I had not read any of Ishiguro's books until about 3 years ago when I first read The Remains of the Day when I taught it to my high school literature class. After reading that, though, I had to read them all! I'm nearly through with all of his novels -- I'm working on The Unconsoled right now and have An Artist of the Floating World to go after that. Overall I thought your ranking was good, though I would personally flip Never Let Me Go and The Buried Giant. The funny thing is, I did not expect to like The Buried Giant. I usually skip books written about the time period surrounding King Arthur because they tend to be trite and uninspired. I had hopes that I would at least not find Ishiguro's treatment boring. Boy, was I in for a surprise! I absolutely love that book and keep coming back to the story time and again in my mind because it is so intriguing and thought-provoking. I'm excited to be teaching on The Remains of the Day again, soon, and am planning to incorporate some of the themes in The Buried Giant in my lessons. I just wish I could teach an entire year on just Ishiguro's writing! Thanks for the great rundown on his books and the rationale behind your ranking.

Brave putting the Buried Giant at the top, but I totally get it and respect it. I love that book too, it ends up being a powerful statement about memory and forgetting and the human condition. I think just like people get distracted by the human cloning in Never Let Me Go, they get distracted by the dragons and what-not in the Buried Giant, and don't see that the real story is about the people and what they go through and what they need to do to carry on. You know, the human condition. Man, I need to reread the buried giant soon.

Your video is fantastic. ❤❤❤❤

A Pale View of Hills made me reread the end several times, bc at first I thought it was a defected book hahaha, absolutely love it: love the style, love the Japan and its elegance. His style is beautiful

Nice summary,I must read more Ishiguro,I only know The Buried Giant,Klara and the Sun,and,from way back, The Remains of the Day. Like you I found TBG,strange,dreamlike,and very delicate.Just like the main characters themselves it wasn't always easy to see/understand what was going on...is the book an allegorical comment on modern Britain, or a new way of looking at human relationships, or just KI's own curious take on the fantasy genre? I think it moves between all of these and more,which is why it's so hard to pin down. Definitely due for a reread!

I happen to share your unpopular opinion, I also very much adore “the buried giant”. It was the first Ishiguro novel that I stumbled upon in a second hand bookshop 3 years ago. All I can say is that fast forward to today, it is still very vivid in my memory ❤

This is a great video

This is my first book . An artist of the floating world. I am actually scared as it looks very deep and intellectual for me .but .I want to try...I'm intrigued which makes it important to read him.

Just to show that we’re all different 😮 I prefer Artist to Remains, probably because I read it first and felt the second to be more of the same in a less convincing environment. My absolute favourite by far and a book I dearly loved was The Unconsoled. I think it is a masterpiece in the way it sustains the dream and yet makes the reader feel for the character. I can see its origins in Malcom Bradbury’s visitor in a foreign country in Rates of Exchange but this is turned up to 11!

最近、カズオイシグロの本の日本語訳を読み始めました。このビデオはとても興味深い内容でした。日の名残りは、日本語でもやや難しいのですが、原作の英語も難しかったですか？個人的には、私たちが孤児だったころが面白く感じました😊

I loved reading never let me go. Altough I accidentally bought a copy for school teachers (it was second hand online), where the letter size was extremely small and there were summarys/ analysis of the text written in normal sized letters on the edges. So, it took me a long time to read it and my eyes hurt after a view pages everytime. To whoever reads this: check what kind of copy it is before you buy the book.

Thank you

Ok so I want to take a crack at defending Remains as his best. In my mind, the book is brilliant because its portrayal of fear is so complete. Stevens is fundamentally scared of life, of love, and of his own agency. His inability to make a choice becomes a choice in and of itself. To me, Ishiguro’s defining quality is his ability to blend the tragic with the absurd, and while he does this well in books like NLMG, he executes it perfectly in Remains.

'The Unconsoled' felt very Kafkaesque to me, so if you like Kafka's works you would probably enjoy it. There are similar themes of absurdism, dream-like behavior, the frustrations of bureaucracy etc.

Amazing username

I've been a little sad since I finished all of Kazuo's works. Nothing else is satisfying in the same way.

Good content. I think 'worst' was not the proper word here at your conclusion. (20.38) Maybe top 7 was better, or from good to best. Keep it up!

I read Klara and the sun Just because somebody gave me this book Just because they declutered and I loooved it so much even tough this is not my kind of book at all

controversial putting remains of the day at 5th!!

Who cares about what you think?