Kazuo Ishiguro’s nickname is not Kaz, as one may expect. Caz is the nickname of fellow author Caryl Phillips. Ishiguro is known as Ish. “I thought we needed some clarification,” Ishiguro told two audiences on Wednesday night in New York.
And while the opening of each talk was similar – the first with high school writers as part of the Unterberg Poetry Center’s Schools Project Program and the second at a bigger 92Y event – their more intimate conversation with the students about identity, memory and friendship became the evening’s highlight.
Ishiguro and Phillips have been friends for 30 years, since both their novels were “discovered” by editor Robert McCrum, and their relationship, and similarities, were a frequent topic.
“I don’t know if Caz and I have ever discussed each other’s work,” Ishiguro noted, when comparing how authors approach the work of their colleagues and peers. And while they may not have traded critiques, Phillips noted that their friendship has been a journey “paved with books”.
“When Ish writes a book, I read it. More terrifyingly, I teach it,” Phillips quipped.
Both writers were also immigrants to Great Britain: Ishiguro was five years old when he moved with his parents from Japan. Phillips was only four months old when he arrived with his parents from the island of Saint Kitts in the West Indies.
When asked about their impulses to write, both cited the desire to understand their parents, and their lives, better. “I wanted to understand where my parents came from, which is ultimately where I came from,” Phillips said. Ishiguro also expressed a curiosity for what life was like for his parents, but added that it’s selfish since “it’s really about myself”.
Elaborating further on his connection to the past in his writing, Phillips said it was a cliche, but true: “If you don’t know where you come from, you don’t know where you are. If you don’t know where you are, then you don’t know where you’re going.”
But both Ishiguro and Phillips added later that, as immigrants, there should be no obligation to explore the connection between their two cultures: “I can’t find much artistic energy for this as a novelist.”
In light of the focus on the authors’ friendship, Ishiguro’s remark on his inspiration for his characters takes on more significance.
He noted: “I made a discovery 15 to 20 years ago. I stopped worrying about characters and focused on relationships.” After that, “the characters take care of themselves”.
“I’m only interested in characters in as so far as how they relate to one another,” he added, which is an evident interest in The Buried Giant, as he focuses the novel on the relationship between Axl and Beatrice, an elderly British couple.
The rest of the evening comprised each author reading selections of his work. Ishiguro made a point to read a chapter featuring pixies, noting: “[I figured I would] come straight out and be proud of their presence and not apologise” – an allusion to some accusations that The Buried Giant is a genre novel.
Phillips’s reading of his latest novel, The Lost Child, spanned 200 years, first giving voice to the mother of Heathcliff of Wuthering Heights, followed by a modern mother in the UK as she stays in a hospital.
Ordinarily, this would be the highlight: hearing the text read by the author. But at this event, it was the evident friendship between the authors that made the evening sing. When Ishiguro noted the possible confusion of their nicknames, Phillips was quick to add, “I’m confused we’re both dressed the same way.”
