Everyman's Library The Remains of the Day

I read The Remains of the Day because I was inspired by an interview with the author following him receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature. Ishiguro sounded like such a thoughtful, collected character. In short, I liked him as a person and wanted to find out more about him as a writer.In The Remains of the Day, Stevens takes respite from his butler’s duty to undertake a short excursion into West Country to visit Miss Kenton, a woman who once worked with him as Lord Darlington’s housekeeper. On his travels, he reminisces about his life dedicated to serving his master, proudly and faithfully and, somewhat on the margin, about the ups and downs of his volatile relations with Miss Kenton, about his father and about tiny life in the grander scheme of things.The mastery of this book lies in how Ishiguro manages to superimpose Stevens’s ordinary, little-man’s life onto the bigger picture of the malfunctioning class system and the politics of appeasement preceding the outbreak of WW2. Or perhaps, it is the wheel of history that is superimposed on Stevens’s life. The distinction isn’t clear. None of them seem to be favoured by the author as more significant. Stevens narrates the story and to him the detail of everyday etiquette and silver-polishing is equally important as Lord Darlington’s anti-Semitic antics and top-secret meetings with influential politicians. Stevens’s loyalty is to his job. It takes precedence of his own father, over his undoubtedly deep but supressed feelings for Miss Kenton and over his better judgment in relation to Lord Darlington’s treacherous politics.Ishiguro has captured Stevens perfectly: through his tone, his language, his actions. Stevens is more aristocratic than the lords he is serving; he is more dignified, more stiff-upper-lip. His little holiday exposes him to the world at large and the reader watches him squirm on the hook of the unwelcome reality from which he has been detached for the best part of his life. Yet, despite his aloofness and dogged devotion to a rotten aristocrat, one finds him very human, very fallible and very worthy of having his own say before the day is up.

I bought this book after listening to a podcast and becoming intrigued. It's about an English butler's experiences relayed as if to inform, inspire other butlers. He reveals his dedication to service, his high standards, his loyalty to his employers and his personal sacrifices. A very clever book which slowly reveals other interpretations and misunderstandings which have led to missed chances of personal happiness, all told within a period of historical turmoil and political upheaval. As a reader you cringe and wince for Mr Stevens, such a dignified, repressed man and for the housekeeper, Miss Kenton. The writing is so skilled - my blood boiled for her.

Kazuo Ishiguro is an excellent writer, of that there can be no doubt. Prior to reading The Remains Of The Day, I have read Nocturnes and The Unconsoled. The first title Nocturnes is an interesting collection of short stories. In the Unconsoled, the protagonist is an indecisive classical pianist, who despite his shortcomings is a quite likeable character.Prior to Vulcan Dr Spock of the USS Enterprise, who was devoid of human emotion and was motivated by logic, the class-ridden social cesspit of aristocratic England was populated with overlords and their underlings including the likes of butler Stevens of Darlington House, who seems almost equally lacking in human emotion and is motivated not by logic, but by what he rather delusionally refers to as "dignity".In comparison to Kazuo's later book, The Unconsoled, this book's main character Stevens is rather more tragic. His main failing that came across to me is that he takes himself, his work and his position in the world far too seriously. Consequently one is left to feel a mixture of sadness, ridicule (at times) and yet sympathy towards him, because he is emotionally very stunted and ironically quite naive about the world unfolding out there around him.Although this is a work of fiction, I have come across a handful of people in real life who suffer from very similar personality problems and other social disadvantages at Kazuo Ishiguro's butler Mr Stevens. Note that the kind of problems I'm talking about are definitely NOT mental illnesses, serious personality disorders, lack of IQ or developmental problems such as Autism, ADHD or suchlike. In reading this book, it is very easy for me to imagine people like Stevens being real, especially prior to about the early 1980s. I'm sure there were many tragic cases with many similarities to butler Stevens during the early and middle years of the 20th century. I found Stevens to be a mildly delusional and rather tragic character.Ishiguro has either/and/or a terrific imagination, has known of such people and situations, or done his research very thoroughly to capture the essence, atmosphere, time and location of isolated "Grand Houses", their owners and some of their staff in England in the 20th century.I give this book only three stars because I feel that the main character does not develop as someone of interest in the story, and the ending, whilst typical of Kazuo Ishiguro's works, is rather disappointing from the reader's point of view with respect to the protagonist.

Ishiguro has done it again. I am now quite a way through his (extensive) collection of novels, and this is a standout for me (alongside 'Klara and the Sun' and 'Never Let Me Go'). Ishiguro's novel is very... British, a tale of understatement and suppressed emotion. I say "British" because I have American friends who have read this novel and completely misunderstood it/ missed the point, and have totally failed to warm to the protagonist. But I found him entirely believable, to the point of being able to empathise with the situation in which he finds himself - the situation which he has, in some ways, inadvertently created for himself. This is aside from the intriguing historical context which adds no end of excitement to the storyline. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who either likes Ishiguro's work already or is wanting a taster

A justified modern classic, this beautiful story is all I could ask for from a novelist. It is in my experience exceptionally rare to find a “literary” novel that is a sheer pleasure to read as well as a demonstration of an author’s brilliance; this one succeeds. Not a word is wasted as we follow the evocative, moving tale of a man trapped in a mindset and a system that is past its sell-by date, and sacrificing happiness to uphold crumbling traditions. The novel has a wonderful feeling of inevitability, as though it poured out in a flow (I seem to recall the author suggesting this was in fact the case).I won’t analyse it to death....A true masterpiece, worthy of its accolades.