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The Remains of the Day (Vintage International) (平装)
by Kazuo Ishiguro
| Category:
Fiction |
| Market price: ¥ 158.00
MSL price:
¥ 148.00
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MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Profoundly moving, beautifully elegant, this story of human warmth is made so rich and readable through a contrast between perception and reality. |
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AllReviews |
1 2   | Total 2 pages 14 items |
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S. McAbney (MSL quote), UK
<2007-01-08 00:00>
A short monologue (about 250 pages) dictated by Stevens, the Butler of Darlington Hall in the 1950s who, on the recommendation of his new American employer, takes a trip out to the English countryside.
Of course, priding himself on his professionalism, he uses the trip for work purposes in the hope of recruiting a former worker back to Darlington Hall after he had convinced himself that, from her letter, she wanted to return.
So off he goes and all the while he recalls the major events of Darlington Hall during the 1930s as his employer, Lord Darlington, dabbles in politics and demonstrates Nazi sympathies - a man more influenced by others than someone to aspire to. All the while, of course, Stevens is the consummate professional and his attitude to his master is one of love and respect, a man whom he would obey without question.
The prose is sweet. Stevens' voice is smooth, well constructed, and so utterly natural, and his musings over trying to come to terms with the world via such minor quibbles as perfecting the art of bantering demonstrate a wonderful character. Polite the whole way through his language only falters when it almost seems his emotions are about to better him and tears are ready to gush.
Written in the late 1980s this Booker Prize winner from Ishiguro is an interesting look at professionalism and I think, at least to me, it demonstrates how we need to find a balance between achieving our goals and being true to ourselves. |
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Krish Raghuram (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
The beauty of Ishiguro's writing is hard to get right the first time when, let's say, you are trying to describe it to someone you really like, and have taken her out to dinner. To finish the job, you'll need to throw a wine and anthrax party simply to do justice to his use of language alone. All authors weave a carpet, and some authors manage to turn that into a magical one and deliver you into pure flights of fantasy. This one does both. Remains of the day is like a finely tailored suit from Saville row. The finest of the fine. Brave, honest, tragic, tearful of lost opportunities and bygone days, how loyalty to ethics can cloud Ethics itself. After I read this, i picked everyone of his novels to read. They are spellbinding. |
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Frank (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
When one begins to despair about the quality (or lack thereof) of the modern novel you come across a gem which dispels that despair for the time being. Not only is this one a gem but also it is something much more and being just over 240 pages one that I finished all too quickly. I could not get enough of it. The narrator and main character of the novel is a Mr. Stevens who is the butler of a mansion where he heads a considerable compliment of staff to keep it running smoothly. His employer, a Lord Darlington, is doing what he can to alleviate some of the supposed harsher terms of the Versailles treaty and realizes too late that he was being used as a pawn by the Germans. And what did Mr. Stevens think of this? He didn't, he maintains that wondering about what was happening would have interfered with his running of the estate. There is also the head housekeeper that he buts heads with a few times and also a few other instances which makes one wonder if she has something other that a professional interest in Mr. Stevens. You'll have to read the book if you want to know more. I read mainly Victorian literature simply because they are well written and what passes for a novel nowadays usually is not. If you get this book you will not be sorry. |
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Justin (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
Please ignore the reviews here that offer a tepid endorsement of The Remains of the Day as a quaint piece of Victorian revival literature. These reviewers have just utterly missed the point - indeed, one wonders whether they can actually read.
Kazuo Ishiguro's novel is in fact the most brilliant, emotionally subversive piece of literature to come out in many decades. It's true that on the surface the thing reads like a Victorian-era life-in-the-great-house kind of novel. The genius of the book is that Ishiguro never drops this tone, never once breaks the conceit, yet it quickly becomes clear that the novel, just below the surface, is about something else entirely. It is about emotional truth, and the way that refusing to come to grips with emotional truth can shatter a life. In other words, Ishiguro copies the form of a Victorian novel while brilliantly subverting it to a modern purpose.
The tension between the surface calm of the novel and the deep emotional tragedy at its heart grows and grows, becoming nearly unbearable, yet by then you are hooked and cannot stop reading. Don't deny yourself the pleasure of this amazing novel, and don't imagine that seeing the movie is any kind of substitute for reading it. It is a modern masterpiece. |
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Colliope Silancime (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
I have never read a book with better character voice and tone than The Remains of the Day. Ishiguro has done a perfect job inhabiting the personality of Stevens, an aged and perfectly repressed English butler. Stevens has avoided emotional connections to anyone in his pursuit of being the perfect butler. He is not always honest with himself, so some of the beauty of the book comes from figuring things out from his reactions to people's reactions to him. The story is understated, but brilliantly done as Stevens reflects on his life and the reader begins to glimpse the problems that Stevens willfully ignored as a butler to Lord Darlington. I highly recommend "The Remains of the Day" as an absorbing and contemplative read. |
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Abhijit (MSL quote), India
<2007-01-08 00:00>
The Japanese always has an objective and incisive view of his conditions and the particular issues realating his life. Clearly Ishiguro has inherited this and has acquired such a mastery over the language of his adopted country that the product of the confluence is of a rare breed in every sense. The butler analyses his job, the criteria that evolve to define excellence, his relationships and the scopes therein and definitely the limitations one inevitably faces in oneself in resolving these issues. But then justification of one's effort and purest intent comes in the form of DIGNITY, the ultimate and only mark of acknowledgement whether from inside or from outside. Ishiguro explores the aspects of its perception, evolution and its role in the context of different individuals and societies. The helpless limitations of life, human communicability at the end gives way to the acceptance of bantering as something legitimate even to an orthodox traditionalist like the butler. That comedy necessarily has its root in tragedy is possibly being uttered once again in this book, but in what a delectably novel manner! This is literature, an endless source of renewal! |
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Frikle (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
When I was a kid, I read a children's author talking about writing, and he was up to the usual "it's not what you say but how you say it" thing that many people bring up when talking about great writing. What he said was the blunt truth - that in many of the world's greatest novels, almost nothing happens. Reading this book made me remember this, as it exemplifies good writing as being about the presentation not just plot. And very little happens in terms of storyline.
The story is about an old British butler, at the twilight of his career. After having worked for a very distinguished lord who was disgraced after his death, the estate has been taken over by an American, who represents a newer, less formal, less butler-y world. The book is essentially the buttle-narrator reminiscing about his life while he takes a short road-trip for several reasons, one of which being to visit a woman who he used to work with when his original employer was still around.
The book lovingly mocks the classed and rigid stereotype of "proper" British society. This is the pre-WWII world that the narrator has lived in and reminisces about. However, during this trip he comes to realize that his life, employer, ethos, calling, professional sense of duty and outlook on life have not been completely fabulous - actually, they have left him a lonely old man who has missed many opportunities to be much happier than he currently is. Obviously, this has much to do with the woman he intends to visit in his trip.
The narration is what makes this such a great read (you can easily read it in a day) - Ishiguro really gets you inside the butler, thinking like him and appreciating and yet being infuriated at his sense of his own place as a butler and person. Unlike many other books which discuss the notion of sacrifice and professional duty and cultures where some are almost expected to give up on the personal, this one does it not in an angry way but in a subtle one, which will truly shake you to the bone if you can relate to the man who was (at least partially) blinded to truth and happiness by professional duty. This makes it an important book. But it's also funny and a great read all round! |
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M. Locher (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
The Remains of the Day is a very rare, very special sort of novel. It's a gem. I'd put off reading it for some time, and never got around to the movie (not a big Merchant Ivory fan - their stuff makes me sleepy). Anyways, while reading Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, several friends spotted the name on the cover and suggested I read "Remains."
I regret sounding gushy, but in a real sense, Remains is sort of a near-perfect novel. One doesn't often encounter writing which so delicately balances a meticulous, character-accurate voice (in this case, the prim, ornately structured proper English of a high-class butler) with deep, nuanced human emotion. The book unfolds like a little Swiss watch, all intricate, interlocking parts, so carefully that you'd expect an end result focused on form and execution - impressive, maybe, but austere and distant.
But Ishiguro is a wizard.
This is as sensitive and devastatingly human as fiction gets. Without stratospheric revelations, tearful tragedies or high suspense, Ishiguro puts his man through a few days of quiet reflection and extracts an awesome payoff - a finely crafted, tiny little jewel of regret and doubt. |
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Brent (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
The Remains of the Day is an unforgettable book. The novel tells the story of Stevens, an English butler who journeys across the English countryside to meet with an old colleague with the hope of recruiting her back to Darlington Hall. As Stevens ventures away from his workplace for the first time in decades, he finds himself reminiscing about his former employer, an unofficial English diplomat who worked to dispel European tension between the two world wars. Stevens records his recollections in the form of a journal; these journal entries comprise "The Remains of the Day".
Stevens is a haunting character, unforgettable for his obsessive desire for perfection and for the devastation this obsessiveness ultimately causes him. Ishiguro examines the question of what it means to "inhabit" the role of butler, a necessity if Stevens is to perform his job properly. To be a good butler requires Stevens to show no emotion, but he lives at Darlington Hall and is never off-duty, meaning that he rarely gets the chance to "disrobe" and consider his own needs. Consequently, when afforded the opportunity to leave home by his new employer, an American businessman, Stevens allows the role of butler to fall away ever so slightly. The result is a conflicted account of the major events of Stevens' employment: recollections of Lord Darlington both confident of his decency and undermined by doubt.
Ishiguro also examines the question of "dignity": whether working for a man of apparent "greatness" makes Stevens great by extension, or whether it is instead pathetic to surrender so much control. Stevens confronts this question head-on in the book's final pages, in a scene on a pier that will stay with you indefinitely.
Then there is, of course, Miss Kenton. A maid at Darlington Hall during most of Stevens's tenure there, Miss Kenton is the person we want Stevens to be: committed to her work but willing to assess the politics of her employer. Through their mutual responsibility for the operations of the household, Stevens and Miss Kenton develop feelings for one another. Miss Kenton reveals her affection through teasing and gentle nosiness, and Stevens responds with awkwardness and, more often, strictness. When Stevens meets Miss Kenton toward the end of the book, his new self-awareness allows us to finally understand the vitality of their relationship and to feel the devastation of its lost potential.
The Remains of the Day is my favorite present to give, and I get jealous of friends reading it for the first time. Kazuo Ishiguro is a masterful author, and you will wonder why it took so long for a book like this to be written. Its scenes and narrator will both stay with you vividly. |
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Lea Greenaway (MSL quote), Australia
<2007-01-08 00:00>
May I venture to say, and I hope I am not being presumptuous here, that Kazuo Ishiguro has achieved a remarkable feat here in his portrayal of an upper class English servant between the two wars. In spite of his birth language and comparative youth, he was born after WWII, Ishiguro has captured the quiet dignity and tone of a butler whose life task is to provide exemplary service to his betters, anticipating their every whim and supporting their efforts to uphold the honor required of a gentleman.
Whilst his grasp of the English language is undoubtedly attributable to the young age at which Ishiguro moved to Great Britain, his research skills and deep understanding of the human psyche shine as he describes the personal and physical journey of his protagonist, Stevens junior, butler to the late, and in some circles, less than lamented Lord Darlington.
Stevens is a man of the highest ideals, counting as paramount his devotion to his duty to further his employer's aims and his maintenance of his own professional `dignity'. Sadly, it might be said, that this comes at some considerable cost as Stevens represses all personal feelings, including his love for the passionate Miss Kenton and deep affection and respect for his own father, in favor of fulfilling his professional duties. In fact, it could be said, if one could be excused for using the parlance of the inhabitants of the Antipodes, that Stevens would not recognize an emotion if it bit him on the, eh, nether regions.
The bleakness of the ending is palliated by Steven's decision to enjoy the remains of his day. He has hit upon a key for achieving this and resolves to "look at this whole matter of bantering more enthusiastically ... particularly if it is the case that in bantering lies the key to human warmth." With his customary application Stevens resolves to acquire the ability as it is "hardly an unreasonable duty for an employer to expect a professional to perform." (p245, First Vintage International Edition, September 1990)
The beauty of this novel lies in the language; one finds one's self starting to adopt a faint echo of it in one's speech and writing, to the surprise of close family and acquaintances. Ishiguro's mastery is shown in the effortless shifts from present to past; in the tone of Steven's language; and by allowing the reader to understand Stevens long before he is able to even approach understanding either himself or the significance of the events happening around him.
This novel is highly recommended to the discerning reader. |
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