Ranking Ishiguro's Novels | please don't hate me

Added: 2026-06-06

[00:00:00]Good morning, good evening, or good night, whichever one it is for you.

[00:00:03]Whichever one it is, I'm very glad you're here to join me for this week's video, for which I'm kind of nervous because this is something I've put a lot of thought into. We are ranking Ishiguro's novels. These are the guys I'm talking about. These are all of his novels. This is not the ranking. This is the rainbow kind of. This is how they're on my shelf. I say novels because Nocturnes is a short story collection that I will not be including in this ranking because I do not know how to rank a short story collection against full-scale novels. I tried, but there is no way I can compare. It's It's There is no comparison, so Nocturnes is exempted from this ranking. It's a very good book. Just read it. They're great short stories either way. But, we are going to be ranking all of Ishiguro's finished novels. Now, I don't think you're aware of just how difficult it is to rank an author that does not write bad books.

[00:00:57]All of these books are great. Just keep that in mind as we're getting into this ranking. I don't dislike any single one of his stories. If you are interested in more of my thoughts, like more expansive thoughts, if you will, then I suggest you check out my reading vlogs. I filmed for every single one of the books I'm going to talk about here. I filmed vlogs reading them. I'm going to put them down in the description so you can check them out after this if you're interested because obviously this is not going to be that expansive. You will see that some of my opinions have changed as time has gone on. Without further ado, let's just get right into the ranking of Ishiguro's books. Coming in eighth, so in technically last place, is A Pale View of Hills, which follows a woman living in the countryside in England all alone. She is visited by her daughter, her youngest daughter, and we find out her eldest daughter has recently passed away. Simultaneously, this woman, our main character, starts to remember this specific summer that she lived through almost 30 years in the past, way back when she was still living in Japan. In particular, these memories revolve not only around her domestic life at the time and her marriage, but also around this friendship with a mysterious woman that she met. This book is simultaneously meditative and very disturbing, but in the most quiet way.

[00:02:21]It's It's a It's a very eerie combination. Technically, nothing really happens. It's a very ordinary story about the ordinary life of a normal woman. There is this sense of subtle tragedy throughout because you witness these characters going through really bad things, but their emotions are never discussed. Ishiguro never lingers on the trauma. He never really discusses them.

[00:02:44]All of the depth of this book basically happens off page. And now, obviously, I'm ranking it in last place, so I kind of do need to explain myself. The funny thing is I remember this being one of my favorites back when I read it a year ago. But still, I find the story not very memorable. And now, looking back on it, thinking about it, I have this really this this slight sense of discomfort surrounding it. I think that's why it's in last place. It's just less memorable than the others, and it's less less distinct. So, though I liked it, I cannot rank it higher than last place because I preferred the others.

[00:03:25]That is A Pale View of Hills coming in at eighth place. Next up, coming in at seventh place is The Unconsoled, which is a fever dream of a story. It's a very unique book. It starts out with our main character, Mr. Ryder, arriving in what seems to be a hotel lobby. He doesn't know where he is. He doesn't know why he's there. He doesn't recognize any person around him. All we know is what he finds out upon arriving at this mysterious location because people seem to recognize him and people seem to tell him that he's this renowned pianist who has arrived in this specific location in order to give a concert. Much of the disorientation of this story comes from the fact that Mr. Ryder seems to be the only person confused here. But for some odd reason, he refuses to tell anybody that he doesn't know why he's there that he doesn't know who these people are. He never informs a single person. He just basically pretends the whole time. So you as the reader remain confused alongside him. The story is told in this really disorienting way. Not only do weird things keep happening, nonsensical things, but the characters act very strangely as well. This entire book is told in first person. So Mr. Ryder is our narrator and he does not know anything. But then sometimes he will talk to someone he does not know and get these weird realizations of what that person must be experiencing at the moment, what that person must be thinking or feeling or what that person experienced in the past, which makes absolutely no sense. So suddenly you're in third person almost. The main themes of The Unconsoled are memory, human relationships, communication, and music.

[00:05:10]And just as a fun little added note, it's basically a 101 guide on how to traumatize a child. This is a very interesting story to rank because it's distinctly different from all other Ishiguros. The others kind of have this similar feel to them. This is different.

[00:05:27]So it's difficult to rank among the others. I ranked it above A Pale View of Hills simply because it's the longest Ishiguro that is out there currently.

[00:05:38]But I remember never getting bored by the story. I needed to know what happened next. There is this sense of suspense throughout. The story never got boring. But at the same time, I always felt conflicted because it made me incredibly uncomfortable, and it deals with all of the worst aspects of humanity. Almost like this Freudian exploration of your subconscious trauma.

[00:05:59]And so, it doesn't rank very highly among the others simply because it made me feel pretty miserable. That was The Unconsoled. In sixth place is An Artist of the Floating World, which is set in 1948. We follow an artist living in Japan who, at the beginning of the story, recounts how he, during the war, because we're in the post-war years, obviously, he came into possession of a really big mansion. The book mainly deals with Mr. Ono, the artist's private life, but with the added element of the destruction of the Second World War being omnipresent. The first impression of that destruction the reader gets is a description of the house of Mr. Ono, which has been partially destroyed. You constantly get confronted with this juxtaposition of the memories Mr. Ono has of the places he is visiting so alive and vivid, and then suddenly everything is destroyed and bombed.

[00:06:56]Pretty much every shop has closed down because they couldn't afford to keep the shops going. The destruction is everywhere juxtaposed with the memories of splendor that Mr. Ono can still recall. This extends to Mr. Ono's family itself because you kind of get the impression that their relationship is quite strained. Then you realize slowly that they were very intimately affected by the destruction of the war as well.

[00:07:21]In exploring Mr. Ono's interpersonal relationships on a whole, this book provides a very interesting multi-generational insight into Japanese society at the time. One of the ways in which this generational gap is explored is through the differing attitudes toward the war itself. Because Mr. Ono is an artist, there are, of course, explorations of art throughout.

[00:07:43]Specifically, there's this one comment on self-portraits. How a self-portrait can never be inherently honest because no person can see themselves the way others see them. There are several motifs throughout the story. For one, influence. Influence is a huge part here. The influence that parents have on their children, but also the influences of mentors to the people that are following them. This is a very good book. It deals with a lot of interesting subjects. It has a lot of food for thought, and it executes its symbolism very well. This is a highly symbolic story in the way that most of Japanese literature is, which this I would definitely put more into the category of Ishiguro's Japanese-inspired fiction. It ranks in the third-to-last place just simply because it's not as memorable as the others. That was An Artist of the Floating World. Spot number five goes to When We Were Orphans, which follows Christopher F.

[00:08:40]Banks. He's a renowned British detective, and he's very good at what he does, but there's this one mystery that haunts him, that will not leave him alone, the one mystery he's never solved, which is the disappearance of both of his parents when he was still a young child. So, he decides to investigate and to hopefully finally find out what happened back then. The story takes place in the 1930s both in London, where Mr. Banks currently lives, and in old Shanghai, which is back where his parents disappeared. Christopher Banks tells his own in a sort of diary, which means that we get the present-day moment, what happens currently, and we also every once in a while get memories of what happens in the past. So, technically, this book takes place between two timelines. One thing I really liked about this story is the main character himself, Christopher Banks, is incredibly likable. He's clearly insanely intelligent both in terms of IQ and EQ. He's also incredibly lucid. He's very self-aware of his own shortcomings and of his own hypocrisies.

[00:09:40]For instance, because of the subject of the story, it obviously deals with memory and loss and the way those two things intertwine. So, the memory of his parents is for him a holy thing. He will not accept negative criticism that is put towards his parents, towards their conduct maybe not being the most savory.

[00:09:59]He cannot accept those things, but he's aware that he cannot accept those things. He's aware of his own hypocrisy when it comes to them. And so, I think this is a very human exploration of what grief does to a person, specifically the kind of grief that happens when you lost someone when you were still very, very young. In addition to that, the book also deals with corruption on a governmental level because through the storyline of what happened in Old Shanghai, we see the immense corruption of the government there, higher-class society oppressing lower-class people.

[00:10:36]Therefore, this is of an incredibly sad story, both on a personal level regarding Christopher Banks' own fate because this essentially is the story of his own unraveling. At the same time, the misery that is explored is depicted on a national scale. There is so much social criticism in here. So, overall, this is an incredibly affecting, fast-paced, unforgettable novel because it is all round kind of perfect. It combines everything that I liked about parts of the other stories into one.

[00:11:07]It's about human connection and about healing, but also about so much trauma.

[00:11:12]It's very, very miserable, but there's also this slight sense of hope. That's why When We Were Orphans is in fifth place. In fourth place, we have The Buried Giant, which is the only Ishiguro I'm talking about here that I read this year. So, do consider recency bias, but I don't think that affects this much, because overall this is just an incredible story, and I think it it definitely definitely deserves the place it has. The Buried Giant follows a couple living in Arthurian England. They live in this sort of cave-like system, which is surrounded by mysterious fog.

[00:11:47]The fog seems to cause amnesia in the people of this cave town. They basically have no memories of who they are, of why they're there, of what has been going on. But one day, the couple wakes up and realizes they maybe had a son somehow somewhere, and they decide they're going to set off on a journey through England to try and find and visit and see the son. And so, that is kind of where the plot of the story kicks in, because they go on this journey to try to find their son. In doing so, they encounter many different towns within England, and the scope of the story gradually expands.

[00:12:23]This is a story that has a unique identity, but the identity shifts tone from place to place. Essentially, this is a very fairy tale-esque exploration of the most fundamental themes of humanity. It sort of reads like a tale of chivalry. It's like an Arthurian legend, but the legend is used in order to comment on visceral human experiences like memory and the debate between good and evil. One of the motifs that I found the most interesting is a debate the couple has on the nature of love.

[00:12:56]Because the couple starts to question if they can call what they have love if they have no memory at all of their shared past. They don't know when they met, they don't have any idea about any conflicts they might have had. All they have is the feeling that they have when they look at one another, and they start to question if they can call that love, because does it even have any resilience to outside forces? It cannot be tested, because there is nothing to test it against. Beyond that, I think this book is a fantastic sociological theory on the nature of humanity as a whole. On the question of what we need in order to coexist peacefully, the concept of peace, and if that is even really possible. And this book takes a legend sort of approach in order to explore those themes. I know this doesn't have the best of reputations, which honestly, I have no idea why because I think it is a masterpiece. So yeah, The Buried Giant, a book about the intrinsic connection of memory and human identity, about love, about peace, about society, the nature of grief and loss. I adored it. That's why The Buried Giant is in fourth place. In third place, we have Klara and the Sun, which follows Klara, who's a sort of artificial intelligence programmed to be a children's companion.

[00:14:17]And we follow Klara's life. I really don't want to tell you much about the story because the beauty of the story is finding out what it's about as you're reading it. The reason I cannot forget this story, the reason it's in third place, is because this executes one of my favorite themes in literature perfectly. It takes a non-human entity and makes that non-human entity comment on human behavior and on human nature.

[00:14:45]But somehow the non-human entity is the most human person in the entire story.

[00:14:51]And so this is a fundamental exploration of what humanity even means. On a grand scale, but also on the minute personal scale of one individual. What makes an individual an individual? What makes us important? What makes us special to the people that love us? If you've read the book, I think you kind of know what I mean. But there is one specific thing that answers this question, what makes a person special. That gives me chills even thinking about it. It is so profoundly sad because you cannot explore humanity with without exploring our horrific sides. Klara is collateral damage of our selfishness. It is beautifully written. The characters, like with every other Ishiguro book, come absolutely alive. That man has a unique talent for that. Klara is one of the best characters that literature has ever created, and she is by far my favorite Ishiguro character. I think she is his most unforgettable, his most lovable, and his most affecting character. So, yeah, overall, Klara and the Sun is unforgettable. That is why it's in spot number three. Second place, and this might very well be first place because I love this book that much, Remains of the Day, which follows Mr. Stevens. He's an old English butler employed in an old English manor house.

[00:16:14]He is very devoted to his job. Steven is like the embodiment of the perfect butler. He has given his entire life to his job, and he is very affected by the recent changes that have occurred because the house he's been employed at all of his life has recently come into new hands. He basically now has a new boss. Steven is tasked with finding new employees, which leads him to undergo this huge road trip across the British countryside to try to come back into contact with one of the employees that that worked at the house a long time ago, who he had a sort of connection with, but a connection that never went anywhere in the past. He wants to reconnect with her and hopefully ask her to come back to the house to work alongside him. Essentially, this book deals with the changing times, the change from tradition to modernity through the lens of this old English manor house and the changes it undergoes in the 20th century. But it's also the journey of a person, the journey of Mr. Stevens, because a large part of the book is just his road trip, him traveling the British countryside with the most meditative and beautiful descriptions of the country, of nature, as he is sort of undergoing an emotional transition as well. He is kind of pondering his life, meditating on his life's choices. Steven is an old man. He is now at a point where a lot of his life has already happened. And he has made the choice to devote his life to his job and made incredible personal sacrifices in order to embody this ideal he has created for himself, this generational idea of the perfect butler.

[00:17:58]That comes at a high price and he comes to realize that throughout this journey.

[00:18:03]So essentially this book is about what it means to have a fulfilling life and how can you come to terms with not having the life you might have had, with decisions that cannot be altered. It's about acceptance and it is absolutely devastating and heartbreaking, but it is so viscerally human and it is so quiet in its depiction because Stevens is such a dignified character and this is Stevens' story. So the entire story is one of elegance and of dignity. It leaves you so grateful for what you have and it leaves you motivated to maybe go for things that you may not have gone for. I think this is a book that has a very positive influence on the people that read it because this is a book about life and about what life means and about what a gift life is and how how we need to treasure that gift. If I want to reread an Ishiguro, this is the book I think of. It is absolutely beautiful, it is meditative, it is so quiet but so profoundly impactful. That is The Remains of the Day. Finally, I don't think anyone's surprised. In first place, we of course have Never Let Me Go, which I always say this, but this is a book you need to go into not knowing anything. So, all I can tell you is that this is about Kathy. She's a woman in her 30s, and as we get to know Kathy and where her life is at, Kathy starts to reminisce about the past. So, this is basically her story and the story of the people that surround her. This needs to be in first place because this is a book that has done something to me, permanently done something to me, that no book ever has. No book has ever had quite this effect on me. This book kind of destroyed me. I actually physically got sick for an entire week after reading this book because I finished the book and I cried for hours. And I think after that, I just kind of had a psychological meltdown or something. I actually physically got ill because this is the most horrific story I have ever read. It holds up a mirror to humanity that you do not want to look into, but that you are forced to look into. And that is why I think this is a book that everyone should read because it forces you to confront the inherent selfishness and cruelty in every single one of us.

[00:20:20]That is why this book is so incredibly hard to read because despite being categorized as a dystopian novel, this is entirely realistic in a way that is painful to read about. This has none of the hopefulness or the beauty of Remains of the Day. It is pure and simply pain.

[00:20:37]It is so unbelievably rare for a book to have that sort of effect on you. And that is why there is no hesitation. It needs to be in first place. This is one of the best books I have ever read. It is seared into my brain forever. It has changed my brain forever, and I don't know if I'm grateful for that, but it is happened, so here we are. That is why Never Let Me Go is in first place. So, yeah, here is [laughter] the This is the final ranking. First place, Never Let Me Go, then Remains of the Day, Klara and the Sun, The Buried Giant, When We Were Orphans, An Artist of the Floating World, The Unconsoled, and A Pale View of Hills. That is my ranking. I hope you're not mad at me now.

[00:21:21]>> [laughter] >> I had such a hard time choosing. You guys, it is incredibly difficult to rank an author that does not write bad books.

[00:21:28]That is that that is my ranking of Ishiguro's novels. I hope you enjoyed. I hope you're having a nice day. If you are not having a nice day, that is fine, too. I'm thinking about you either way.

[00:21:38]And I'm already looking forward to seeing you again next week, so until then, bye-bye. [music]