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A Family Supper
First published in Firebird 2, ed. T J Binding (Penguin, 1983).
11 pages, Unbound
First published January 1, 1983
17 people are currently reading
1535 people want to read
About the author
Kazuo Ishiguro
82 books42.4k followersSir Kazuo Ishiguro (カズオ・イシグロ or 石黒 一雄), OBE, FRSA, FRSL is a British novelist of Japanese origin and Nobel Laureate in Literature (2017). His family moved to England in 1960. Ishiguro obtained his Bachelor's degree from the University of Kent in 1978 and his Master's from the University of East Anglia's creative writing course in 1980. He became a British citizen in 1982. He now lives in London.
His first novel, A Pale View of Hills, won the 1982 Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize. His second novel, An Artist of the Floating World, won the 1986 Whitbread Prize. Ishiguro received the 1989 Man Booker prize for his third novel The Remains of the Day. His fourth novel, The Unconsoled, won the 1995 Cheltenham Prize. His latest novel is The Buried Giant, a New York Times bestseller. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 2017.
His novels An Artist of the Floating World (1986), When We Were Orphans (2000), and Never Let Me Go (2005) were all shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
In 2008, The Times ranked Ishiguro 32nd on their list of "The 50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945". In 2017, the Swedish Academy awarded him the Nobel Prize in Literature, describing him in its citation as a writer "who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world".
His first novel, A Pale View of Hills, won the 1982 Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize. His second novel, An Artist of the Floating World, won the 1986 Whitbread Prize. Ishiguro received the 1989 Man Booker prize for his third novel The Remains of the Day. His fourth novel, The Unconsoled, won the 1995 Cheltenham Prize. His latest novel is The Buried Giant, a New York Times bestseller. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 2017.
His novels An Artist of the Floating World (1986), When We Were Orphans (2000), and Never Let Me Go (2005) were all shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
In 2008, The Times ranked Ishiguro 32nd on their list of "The 50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945". In 2017, the Swedish Academy awarded him the Nobel Prize in Literature, describing him in its citation as a writer "who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world".
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 156 reviews
May 13, 2019
یه داستان کوتاه و ژاپنی که توقع داشتم آخرش همشون بمیرن! حیف شد... 😂
October 19, 2017
حیف!
خودم رو برای پایانی طوفانی و کوبنده آماده کرده بودم...
البته اون سکوت و انتظار داستان، برام پایانی رو که میخوام تداعی میکنه
خودم رو برای پایانی طوفانی و کوبنده آماده کرده بودم...
البته اون سکوت و انتظار داستان، برام پایانی رو که میخوام تداعی میکنه
October 5, 2017
Fugu is a fish caught off the Pacific shores of Japan. The fish has held a special significance for me ever since my mother died through eating one.
In celebration of Kazuo Ishiguro's Nobel Prize win and given I've read all the novels, I've spent the day trying to track down the short stories cited by the Committee.
See here for the list and sources:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
A Family Supper is available on the internet with a bit of googling.
Published in 1983 - after his first novel - this is a relatively slim and, by his standards, lightweight offering, although it offers plenty to chew on, including for the protagonists, that most deadly of Japanese delicacies, Fugu fish (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugu).
There is an excellent discussion of the story here -
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... - to which I have little to add.
Ishiguro does a wonderful job of setting up a rather haunting and sinister situation.
The narrator returns from America summoned, as his his younger sister from her Osakan university, to visit their father in Japan. The father shows strong signs of depression: his wife died two years earlier from accidental (or was it?) fugu fish poisoning, his children are rebelling against traditional family roles (leaving home at a young age, choosing their own partners), and his business has recently failed causing his business partner Watanabe to kill himself and his family,
'I am - in retirement. I'm too old to involve myself in new ventures now. Business these days has become so different. Dealing with foreigners. Doing things their way. I don't understand how we've come to this. Neither did Watanabe.' He sighed. 'A fine man. A man of principle.'
He then serves them all a mysterious fish dish:
My father bowed slightly. 'You must be hungry,' he said again. He took some fish to his mouth and started to eat. Then I too chose a piece and put it in my mouth. It felt soft, quite fleshy against my tongue.
'Very good,' I said. 'What is it?'
'Just fish.'
But then Ishiguro very effectively backs away from the obvious denouement, leaving the story deliberately ambiguous and the sinister air perhaps an overreaction from the narrator, his son.
The father has elements of the repressed nationalism, pent-up anger at Japan's defeat in the war, and mistrust of foreigners, that suggest he was a prototype for, the much more complex and developed, Ono in Artist of the Floating World.
My father was a formidable-looking man with a large stony jaw and furious black eyebrows. I think now in retrospect that he much resembled Chou En-lai, although he would not have cherished such a comparison, being particularly proud of the pure samurai blood that ran in the family. His general presence was not one which encouraged relaxed conversation; neither were things helped much by his odd way of stating each remark as if it were the concluding one. And although not explicitly stated, his extreme disappointment in his son, which he believed even killed his wife (You don't see how it is for some parents. Not only must they lose their children, they must lose them to things they don't understand.) seems to be that his son not only moved overseas, but had an American partner.
One for Ishiguro completists, and if one wants to start with a short story try A Village After Dark in the New Yorker - but then everyone should read everything Ishiguro has ever written.
In celebration of Kazuo Ishiguro's Nobel Prize win and given I've read all the novels, I've spent the day trying to track down the short stories cited by the Committee.
See here for the list and sources:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
A Family Supper is available on the internet with a bit of googling.
Published in 1983 - after his first novel - this is a relatively slim and, by his standards, lightweight offering, although it offers plenty to chew on, including for the protagonists, that most deadly of Japanese delicacies, Fugu fish (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugu).
There is an excellent discussion of the story here -
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... - to which I have little to add.
Ishiguro does a wonderful job of setting up a rather haunting and sinister situation.
The narrator returns from America summoned, as his his younger sister from her Osakan university, to visit their father in Japan. The father shows strong signs of depression: his wife died two years earlier from accidental (or was it?) fugu fish poisoning, his children are rebelling against traditional family roles (leaving home at a young age, choosing their own partners), and his business has recently failed causing his business partner Watanabe to kill himself and his family,
'I am - in retirement. I'm too old to involve myself in new ventures now. Business these days has become so different. Dealing with foreigners. Doing things their way. I don't understand how we've come to this. Neither did Watanabe.' He sighed. 'A fine man. A man of principle.'
He then serves them all a mysterious fish dish:
My father bowed slightly. 'You must be hungry,' he said again. He took some fish to his mouth and started to eat. Then I too chose a piece and put it in my mouth. It felt soft, quite fleshy against my tongue.
'Very good,' I said. 'What is it?'
'Just fish.'
But then Ishiguro very effectively backs away from the obvious denouement, leaving the story deliberately ambiguous and the sinister air perhaps an overreaction from the narrator, his son.
The father has elements of the repressed nationalism, pent-up anger at Japan's defeat in the war, and mistrust of foreigners, that suggest he was a prototype for, the much more complex and developed, Ono in Artist of the Floating World.
My father was a formidable-looking man with a large stony jaw and furious black eyebrows. I think now in retrospect that he much resembled Chou En-lai, although he would not have cherished such a comparison, being particularly proud of the pure samurai blood that ran in the family. His general presence was not one which encouraged relaxed conversation; neither were things helped much by his odd way of stating each remark as if it were the concluding one. And although not explicitly stated, his extreme disappointment in his son, which he believed even killed his wife (You don't see how it is for some parents. Not only must they lose their children, they must lose them to things they don't understand.) seems to be that his son not only moved overseas, but had an American partner.
One for Ishiguro completists, and if one wants to start with a short story try A Village After Dark in the New Yorker - but then everyone should read everything Ishiguro has ever written.
July 4, 2023
“A Family Supper” first and foremost speaks of a fragmented family, having an ironic sense in the title. Ishiguro, by representing a family of a dead mother, a lonely father and two children away for college, uses this concept to show the fragmentations of a disjointed family.
‘Death’ and ‘Traditional Values’ are regarded as the major antagonists of the story, and thus, Ishiguro presents his main ideas:
1. the split between tradition and modernism, by confronting Japan, the emblem of tradition and stability, vs. America (California) the emblem of modern life and new attractions.
2. the gap between generations, in the form of conversations between the narrator and his father about ethics or family values indicates the narrator’s individualism (to the point he can’t even remember his own mother, becoming disconnected from his cultural and familial roots) in contrast with traditional Japanese cultural expectations, such as moving to another country, despite the family’s severe discontent. This significantly stands in contradiction to the choices the parents make —as we see how the mother, never having such fish as a meal, doesn’t turn down her friend’s offer just so as not to offend her. As a result, she faces a “hideously painful” death — a painful consequence of sticking to traditional values.
but even traditions, despite all the attempts to uphold and preserve them, shall eventually fade throughout time and based on the conditions; Kikuko’s inability to see the ghost, therefore not being ‘hunted’ by the spectre of the past, is an example.
3. the shift in values, visibly presented as the father finally comes to the conclusion that “There are other things besides work.” — that one should value in life.
and at last, the ambivalent denouement has even a lot more to discuss, the bilateral evidences of wether the fish eaten in the climax of the story, in the family supper, is fugu, vibrating how the father has went along the same path his friend did -as he acclaimed his actions twice- or, regarding his dim hope for the future with his children, the fish is only unspoken of name because of the heavy presence of grief…
‘Death’ and ‘Traditional Values’ are regarded as the major antagonists of the story, and thus, Ishiguro presents his main ideas:
1. the split between tradition and modernism, by confronting Japan, the emblem of tradition and stability, vs. America (California) the emblem of modern life and new attractions.
2. the gap between generations, in the form of conversations between the narrator and his father about ethics or family values indicates the narrator’s individualism (to the point he can’t even remember his own mother, becoming disconnected from his cultural and familial roots) in contrast with traditional Japanese cultural expectations, such as moving to another country, despite the family’s severe discontent. This significantly stands in contradiction to the choices the parents make —as we see how the mother, never having such fish as a meal, doesn’t turn down her friend’s offer just so as not to offend her. As a result, she faces a “hideously painful” death — a painful consequence of sticking to traditional values.
but even traditions, despite all the attempts to uphold and preserve them, shall eventually fade throughout time and based on the conditions; Kikuko’s inability to see the ghost, therefore not being ‘hunted’ by the spectre of the past, is an example.
3. the shift in values, visibly presented as the father finally comes to the conclusion that “There are other things besides work.” — that one should value in life.
“I looked out into the darkness. The well was no longer visible.”This is where a significant change is occurring. The one that suggests how speaking more openly with one other, has lessened the ‘hunting’ quality of the family’s unarticulated grief and brought them at least the beginnings of a sense of closure concerning the mother’s passing.
and at last, the ambivalent denouement has even a lot more to discuss, the bilateral evidences of wether the fish eaten in the climax of the story, in the family supper, is fugu, vibrating how the father has went along the same path his friend did -as he acclaimed his actions twice- or, regarding his dim hope for the future with his children, the fish is only unspoken of name because of the heavy presence of grief…
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 11, 2019
I just love the melancholic mood Ishiguro creates with simple, but meaningful stories.
September 4, 2024
had to read for an english assignment🙏
August 13, 2018
The best thing about Korean, Japanese and Chinese writers , in my opinion , is how the culture seems both a backdrop as well subject of their stories. It is unlike South Asian's (indian, bengali, pakistani writers) in that it is never too out there , voiced or painted. It is silently proposed by day to day details. Like the base of a buliding , unquestionable but least pretentious.
October 10, 2019
تا حالا داستان ژاپنی نخونده بودم. انتظار داشتم پسره ماهی بخوره بمیره حداقل ولی هیچی نشد 😕
- سردی و یکنواختی تو کل داستان برقرار بود
- از داستان هیچی جز یه شام خانوادگی نباید انتظار داشت
- محتوا و مفهوم خاصی دریافت نکردم ازش
- شروعش با اون ماهیه خیلی جذاب بنظر میومد ولی حسابی خورد تو ذوقم
اگه نکته ای هس که بنظرتون بوده توی داستان و من متوجهش نشدم بگید لطفا
- سردی و یکنواختی تو کل داستان برقرار بود
- از داستان هیچی جز یه شام خانوادگی نباید انتظار داشت
- محتوا و مفهوم خاصی دریافت نکردم ازش
- شروعش با اون ماهیه خیلی جذاب بنظر میومد ولی حسابی خورد تو ذوقم
اگه نکته ای هس که بنظرتون بوده توی داستان و من متوجهش نشدم بگید لطفا
January 16, 2019
از این داستانایی که گوش می دی و اخرش به خودت می گی خوب که چی ؟؟؟ چی شد ؟؟؟
اونجا که گفت اون پیر زنه کیه که عکسش رو دیواره و گفتن مادرته من اینجوری شدم 😵😳🤭 دقیقا همین شکلی
برای طی کردن فاصله ظفر تا ونک بد نبود - در همین حد😒
اونجا که گفت اون پیر زنه کیه که عکسش رو دیواره و گفتن مادرته من اینجوری شدم 😵😳🤭 دقیقا همین شکلی
برای طی کردن فاصله ظفر تا ونک بد نبود - در همین حد😒
March 24, 2017
4.5 stars
I think I'm a little obsessed with this. I just tried to give my mum a run down of what happened and she's so nice for listening to me.
I think I'm a little obsessed with this. I just tried to give my mum a run down of what happened and she's so nice for listening to me.
September 26, 2018
فايل صوتي اين كتاب رو در دندانپزشكي گوش دادم .
٤ مهر ٩٧
٤ مهر ٩٧
November 28, 2023
شرایط جامعه سنتی ژاپن اون زمان رو نشون میده. نسلی که میخوان به سنتها وفادار بمونن (والدین خودشون رو مقصر این میدونن که بچه رفته، به پایبند بودن به اصول و سامورایی بودن، سابقه جنگ پدر اشاره میشه و ...)
و نسلی که میخوان ازون جامعه فرار کنن بدون اینکه هدف خاصی داشته باشن. خواهرش که فقط میخواست دور از خونه باشه و آزادی داشته باشه و خودش که اشاره کرد تو کالیفرنیا هم تعلق خاطری نداره. نسلی که ارزشهای سنتی جامعه رو رها کرده و ارزش جایگزینی هم نداره. این نکتهایه که بیشتر از هر چیزی نظرمو جلب کرد.
سنت میگه اگر افتخاری هست برای همه هست و اگر سرشکستی هست اونم باید برای همه باشه. شریک پدر برای همین فقط به خودکشی خودش اکتفا نکرده.
در مورد اینکه آیا آخرش مردن یا نه
پدر به اینکه مرگ مادر اتفاق نبوده و خودخواسته بوده اشاره کرد. سر غذا تاکید کرد فقط ماهیه. وقتی پسر عکس مادرش رو نشناخت از پسرش گله کرد، میدونست پسرش پیشش نمیمونه، به خالی بودن خونه اشاره کرد، گف�� شریکش آدم درست و اصولی بوده ولی خب آخرش گفت کار شریکش رو تایید نمیکنه و اشاره به مرگ مادر هم میتونه افسوس باشه. از جهتی شاید ماهی فوگو بود و صحبت آخر پدر واسه این بود که میخواست آخرین شبشون رو با هم راحت بگذرونن. بهنظرم خیلی مهم نیست که بالاخره مردن یا نه. همینکه معلوم نشد خوب بود. همینکه تعلیق تا آخرش موند. ما موندیم که پدر با تمام غم تنها موندنش آیا از سنتها جدا شده یا نه.
و نسلی که میخوان ازون جامعه فرار کنن بدون اینکه هدف خاصی داشته باشن. خواهرش که فقط میخواست دور از خونه باشه و آزادی داشته باشه و خودش که اشاره کرد تو کالیفرنیا هم تعلق خاطری نداره. نسلی که ارزشهای سنتی جامعه رو رها کرده و ارزش جایگزینی هم نداره. این نکتهایه که بیشتر از هر چیزی نظرمو جلب کرد.
سنت میگه اگر افتخاری هست برای همه هست و اگر سرشکستی هست اونم باید برای همه باشه. شریک پدر برای همین فقط به خودکشی خودش اکتفا نکرده.
در مورد اینکه آیا آخرش مردن یا نه
پدر به اینکه مرگ مادر اتفاق نبوده و خودخواسته بوده اشاره کرد. سر غذا تاکید کرد فقط ماهیه. وقتی پسر عکس مادرش رو نشناخت از پسرش گله کرد، میدونست پسرش پیشش نمیمونه، به خالی بودن خونه اشاره کرد، گف�� شریکش آدم درست و اصولی بوده ولی خب آخرش گفت کار شریکش رو تایید نمیکنه و اشاره به مرگ مادر هم میتونه افسوس باشه. از جهتی شاید ماهی فوگو بود و صحبت آخر پدر واسه این بود که میخواست آخرین شبشون رو با هم راحت بگذرونن. بهنظرم خیلی مهم نیست که بالاخره مردن یا نه. همینکه معلوم نشد خوب بود. همینکه تعلیق تا آخرش موند. ما موندیم که پدر با تمام غم تنها موندنش آیا از سنتها جدا شده یا نه.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 24, 2020
یه خونواده ژاپنی 4 نفره که مادرشون فوت کرده و الان پدر تنها هست، پسر از امریکا و دختر از دانشگاه برمیگردن و پدر شام درست میکنه، دختره دزدکی سیگار میکشه، پدرو پسر درمورد موندن پسره صحبت میکنن
تموم میشه!! هیچ اتفاقی نیوفتاد :)) چرا آخه؟؟
تموم میشه!! هیچ اتفاقی نیوفتاد :)) چرا آخه؟؟
December 24, 2024
High 3.
Wow, Michel rating an Ishiguro piece below a 4?!
Yeah I didn’t vibe with this as much. I like how he’s writing about more universal themes now than this sort of Asian-strained home dynamic. It’s interesting to see his writing progress.
I read some other reviews/discussions and realized the short story is better than I thought so high 3.
Wow, Michel rating an Ishiguro piece below a 4?!
Yeah I didn’t vibe with this as much. I like how he’s writing about more universal themes now than this sort of Asian-strained home dynamic. It’s interesting to see his writing progress.
I read some other reviews/discussions and realized the short story is better than I thought so high 3.
September 13, 2018
داستانها و روایتشون جالب بودن. اما ترجمه بیدقت بود و به شدت هم به ویرایش نیاز داشت!
January 13, 2021
murder weapon: fish
July 9, 2024
فایل صوتیاش را با ترجمهی جعفر مدرس صادقی گوش کردم. تعلیقش را دوست داشتم.
۰۴/۰۳
۰۴/۰۳
January 5, 2016
Ατμοσφαιρικό διήγημα με υποτόνους αγωνίας, με την υπογραφή του αγαπημένου μου μαέστρου της ατμόσφαιρας Ισιγκούρο.
August 7, 2018
خوانش کل داستان کلا ۱۵ دقیقه هم نبود همش هی موسیقی متن گوش کردم. آخرش دیگه اینقدر زیاد بود که داستان رو هم خراب کرد. اون جور که فکر می کردم نبود با این که خیلی خوب شروع شد.
August 5, 2020
Intressant novell. Det är så mycket som inte sägs som borde sägas. Det är även en del stereotypiska drag för japaner inbakade i berättelsen.
Jag gillar den.
Jag gillar den.
Read
November 12, 2023Omg, wait, that was so good??? Almost like he’s a Nobel prize winner for a reason.
A very quick read but kind of packs a contemplative and emotional punch. Very sad and even a little spooky unsettling vibes. The heaviest hits are by implication and most of the emotion is found in the unwritten, much like with the family in the story, plagued by the things left unsaid.
If anyone’s interested, here’s a free pdf link, very worth it, a quick read!
https://magicbarrel.files.wordpress.c...
A very quick read but kind of packs a contemplative and emotional punch. Very sad and even a little spooky unsettling vibes. The heaviest hits are by implication and most of the emotion is found in the unwritten, much like with the family in the story, plagued by the things left unsaid.
If anyone’s interested, here’s a free pdf link, very worth it, a quick read!
https://magicbarrel.files.wordpress.c...
February 11, 2021
You'll be pleased to know that short stories do not typically loan themselves to lengthy reviews.
I had to read this for class, and we shall be discussing the use of plot, suspense and mystery in the narrative. Indeed, I can see why this particular short story was chosen for those narrative devices. The plot is simple and easy to follow but Ishiguro cleverly weaves suspense and mystery throughout, allowing you to theorise about the characters and equally, the ending, which is left open-ended.
I am rating this four stars and not five simply because cliffhangers infuriate me, as they do many readers, but I know why it was necessary here. Other than that, the story cuts straight to the chase and covers all necessary bases: we know just the right amount about each character in order to form our own judgements of them and to make the story feel realistic and somewhat eerie, given the subject matter.
I had to read this for class, and we shall be discussing the use of plot, suspense and mystery in the narrative. Indeed, I can see why this particular short story was chosen for those narrative devices. The plot is simple and easy to follow but Ishiguro cleverly weaves suspense and mystery throughout, allowing you to theorise about the characters and equally, the ending, which is left open-ended.
I am rating this four stars and not five simply because cliffhangers infuriate me, as they do many readers, but I know why it was necessary here. Other than that, the story cuts straight to the chase and covers all necessary bases: we know just the right amount about each character in order to form our own judgements of them and to make the story feel realistic and somewhat eerie, given the subject matter.
November 13, 2021
بسیار مسخره
April 5, 2023
Read for my style and technique class. Actually so good, makes me jealous about how amazing the writing was. Just does silence and tension so well and simply.
October 15, 2022
gcse short story anthology says hi. i still like the one about the teachers tie and the dh lawrence one most out of the anthology no offence to ishiguro
January 8, 2023
díky @Barbora V. za inspo!!!
March 14, 2018
داستان با روايتي جذاب حس تعليقي-جنايي رو به شما تلقين مي كند و در انتها....
حس تعليق داستان رو دوست داشتم. نويسنده با همان ترفند معمول ژاپني ها بدون استفاده از كلمات معلول براي استفاده در ايجاد وحشت با حداقل كلمات توانسته بود حسي رو كه مد نظرش بود به خواننده منتقل كنه.
حس تعليق داستان رو دوست داشتم. نويسنده با همان ترفند معمول ژاپني ها بدون استفاده از كلمات معلول براي استفاده در ايجاد وحشت با حداقل كلمات توانسته بود حسي رو كه مد نظرش بود به خواننده منتقل كنه.
April 2, 2024
En novell som lämnar läsaren med frågor om vilka spår middagen mellan far, son och dotter kommer lämna efter sig. En son återvänder hem efter en tid i USA. Modern i familjen har hastigt gått bort efter att ha ätit fugufisk som blivit felaktigt tillagad och därmed blivit förgiftad. Fadern återhämtar sig efter sin personliga konkurs och hans tidigare partner valde att ta livet av sig och sin familj. Dottern är som upphöjd på en piedestal, är det barn som föräldrarna lyckades uppfostra rätt men som samtidigt döljer för sin far att hon röker. Det är en tryckt stämning som bäddar in de tre och läsaren känner sig obekväm. Vad är det som har bidragit till att detta förhållningssätt familjemedlemmarna emellan har blivit så framträdande? Stämningen blir ännu mer tryckt när fadern dukar upp för middag och det som serveras är gryta. Med fisk.
December 4, 2024
کورتە چیرۆکێک بوو. دوای مانگێکیش پڕ بوو لە نامۆ بۆ من. ئەوڕۆ هەستام لە خەو هەستم کرد کەمتر نامۆ بوو. باسی تێنەگەیشن بوو. چاڵە کۆنەکە هێمای تێنەگەیشتن بوو بۆ من. باسی تێنەگەیشتن بوو...
The well, a symbol of his repressed past and loaded uncommunications, gently began to disappear into darkness with each word spoken, each emotion shared, with each observation.
The well, a symbol of his repressed past and loaded uncommunications, gently began to disappear into darkness with each word spoken, each emotion shared, with each observation.
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