The Remains of the Day
Ratings383
Average rating4.2
Splendid! I felt like shaking Stevens and yelling “show some real human emotion old chap!” But obviously his inaction throughout the novel is the point. Class constraints and duty make it impossible for him to express his real thoughts and feelings.
I admit it was not what I expected. But it was a relaxing read, and I enjoyed Stevens' trip and reminisces. It is a book you have to take as a whole to see what it is really about. It's about thoughts, not actions.
The book is very subtle, and at the beginning a little slow. Give it time. The magic is in the layering, the shifting, and the repeated tiny dawnings of understanding that start the process anew. Quiet, delicate, and profound.
This review can also be found at SFF Book Review
Being my first Ishiguro novel, I knew nothing going into this. People had warned me of its slow pace, its quite prose, but I honestly didn't expect a book barely 300 pages thick to take me this long to read. Still, I can't say I didn't enjoy it. I might even be tempted to pick up other books by this author.
In 1956, Stevens, a long-serving butler at Darlington Hall, decides to take a motoring trip through the West Country. The six-day excursion becomes a journey into the past of Stevens and England, a past that takes in fascism, two world wars and an unrealised love between the butler and his housekeeper. Ishiguro's dazzling novel is a sad and humorous love story, a meditation on the condition of modern man, and an elegy for England at a time of acute change.
Fans of a good period drama will surely love this. If you're at all interested in the downstairs part of Downton Abbey, this is a book that, in exquisite prose, gives you an insight into a servant's life that you simply can't get from TV. This is a very slow-paced, quite book, that comes alive not through action or even “things happening” but has a flow to it that I find hard to describe. I had a hard time getting into the story at first but once I relaxed into the style, it was a revel from then onwards.
Stevens is a fascinating protagonist. Every aspect of his private life is secondary to his being a great butler. His own family, the chance for love, his health, and his opinions – nothing matters if they obstruct, in any way, his master's comfort. He goes into some detail describing what makes a butler great and it is in his memories and musings that we see not only how deep his devotion is but we find out why he chose to live a life of truly passionate service. Stevens believes that, in being a great butler and providing an important gentlemen with as many comforts as he can, he helps a little bit in shaping the course of the world. Realising how small the part he plays is only makes him prouder to be part of it at all.
There are a few side characters here, and they all feel very fleshed-out and real. But the focus lies clearly on Stevens – and I wouldn't have had it any other way. While reading, my inner psychoanalyst was rejoicing at such an interesting subject. Reading about and understanding Stevens' subtlety was a pleasure that I didn't expect. His peculiar relationship with the housekeeper, Miss Kenton, is described in even quieter tones but gives more room for thought.
“Perhaps it is indeed time I begin to look at this whole matter of bantering more enthusiastically. After all, when one thinks about it, it is not such a fooish thing to indulge in – particularly if it is the case that in bantering lies the key to human warmth.”
In short, this is the story of a man who has devoted his life to his vocation and, looking back at it, ponders about the remains of the day – and whether it was all worth it.
THE GOOD: Beautiful language, an insight into an old school butler's life, and one of the most intriguing protagonists I've ever read about.
THE BAD: Takes a long time to get going and stays very subdued. Nothing for impatient readers or fans of lots of action.
THE VERDICT: A touching and magnificently written work of literature that will stay with me for quite some time.
RATING: 8,5/10 Quite excellent
The book draws you in with excellent writing and characterization. It gave a genuine picture of what it was like to serve in a British estate. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and highly recommend it.
The funny thing is that this whole book is so perfectly encapsulated in this Dostoevsky quote:
“To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's.”
However, I can't agree with that.
The book, from a literary perspective, is absolutely outstanding. The writing is so crisp and clear. In other books, I often skip some passages that just lose my interest (cough, Dune, cough), but I felt engaged at all times while reading The Remains of the Day. The character development is just as phenomenal as Dostoevsky's. Emotional, moving, etc. etc. To put icing on the cake, the historical background related in the book made the amateur World War II historian in me exceedingly happy.
The only issue I have with this book is, well, its core message, as so perfectly summarized by Dostoevsky a century before it was written. Of course, if you see no issue at all with the quote, then by all means this is a must-read. Nonetheless, to me, the quote is nothing short of a fraud, however much I may profess my profound admiration for Dostoevsky. For there is no such thing as “one's own way.” “Your way” is already determined by your upbringing, by your nature. You are a deterministic function of your environment. As far as Stevens knew, all the way until that last evening in the end of the book, he was following his own way. He could never have known better. Still, I am glad he recognized that it's no good wallowing in melancholy for supposedly “failing to follow one's own way.”
Even though I rate it four stars out of philosophical disagreements, I can heartily recommend this book to anyone, whether you have such disagreements or not. As a final note, I imagine that the book is far more touching to those older than I am (having read The Remains of the Day at age 21). I will certainly be re-reading this book at least every decade of my life.
Ishiguro's complete habitation of the protagonist Mr. Stevens is masterful, the existential themes and the mechanisms of delivering them are brilliant. I just found Mr. Stevens rather boring. I might call this a very good novel that I didn't enjoy very much.
3.5/5
my favourite parts were when he went on multiple-page dissections on the concept of a joke and how to properly make one to adequately amuse people, while simultaneously fumbling the bag time and time again with ms kenton. autistic king
I wanna stand outside the room where it happensThe room where it happens, the room where it happens...
Heh.
The Remains of the Day took me a long time to get into. I thought the pacing was so slow, and while reading the first half, every time I picked it up I started to fall asleep. I get why it was told in its way, but I wanted to get a feeling – ANY feeling! – from Stevens. He wanted to spend his life chasing dignity and serving great men, but never questioned whether the men he served were worthy of his reverence. His life made me sad; he couldn't spare an emotion for anyone, even when his own father died, and instead of thinking about what that meant, I started thinking about how we would diagnose Stevens 100 years after the setting of this book.
I liked Miss Kenton, and I think that's when it started picking up for me, when she became a larger part of the narrative. She at least had some kind of passion/feeling, even if Stevens couldn't really express it (and Remains is entirely told through his perspective). I knew Ishiguro was not going to suddenly turn this stilted, proper English story into a bodice-ripper, but I picked up immediately that there was something between Miss Kenton and Stevens, even if it was mutual frustration with each other. (And of course, I was right, what with Stevens meeting Miss Kenton nee Mrs. Benn all those years later, and her wondering what could have been if she had spent her life with him instead of marrying her husband.) But compared to other reviews, I don't know that I really believe that anything changed for Stevens after that final meeting - I don't really think Stevens had some big revelation, other than he's getting old. The world changes, and he doesn't, or maybe he will consider changing, maybe.
He is frustrating to me because he is both so simple and surprisingly complicated at the same time, but it's all interior and hard to describe.
So anyway, I read it, I definitely liked the second half better than the first, and this was good but I didn't especially enjoy it. 3.5 stars.
Was recommended this book by a dear friend and I'm so glad I was. When I started, I found it hard to anticipate where the whole thing was going (not in a bad way, it just kept me on my toes), but as I read on, the sorrow of it all really started to creep up on me, only to culminate in tears during the final chapter. The tragedy of it lies in all that is unsaid.
As always, the prose is beautiful and it perfectly evokes an atmosphere of nostalgia and melancholy.
I don't agree that this work is a “masterpiece of tone”—but it is damn close to it. I only give it 4 stars because I was left feeling I wanted something.. grander. A bigger message. It didn't wow me in the way that I expect 5 stars books to. But maybe I'm being naive, because it does utterly succeed at its smaller scope.
My favorite thing about this book is that it focuses on elderly people and I recognize how few stories we tell (and even fewer I consume) are about them. There should be more and this is a good starting place for sure.
At first, I found the book painfully slow (and admittedly uninteresting). Though I can't say it exactly picked up the pace, I got more invested. I enjoyed the exploration of Stevens' reserved relationships and the dedication to his work. The messages of the story are subtle. Compared to other books not a lot happens, but that somehow seems to resonate deeper. Even though the book is being told by Stevens, Miss Kenton's longing comes through strongly despite the wall Stevens' has built surrounding any sort of intimacy.
It took me a while to get into the flow of this book, the majority of it reads like the self-important ramblings of someone recalling a story you didn't ask them for - but that's the point. By the end of it, however, I was intrigued and I don't regret reading it. The story was well-crafted, and I felt satisfied with the ending.Not as good as [b:Never Let Me Go 6334 Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353048590l/6334.SY75.jpg 1499998] in my opinion, but still worthy of a read.
Well, I was really infuriated with Stevens when he acted coldly with Kenton after she told him about her engagement, I still have my doubts about his romantic feelings towards her runs how deep as there was no definitive response after Kenton's confession other than he said his heart broke and his teary eyes(which I don even know if it's because he was talking about his old post). I don't think wasted his life away though maybe if his self-realization was prevalent when his life was at the morning stage then he would've been supposedly much more of an original person not only someone's employee. The title was very nice, by that I mean really really nice. Oh well, Mr. Darlington was a Nazi sympathizer... I don't know how to feel about this as I've not encountered his personality other than Steven's vision. The portrayal of the aftermaths of ww1 and ww2 behind the life of a butler in a grand mansion, and how little it affects him personally is also depicted here quite nicely.
My rating is 4 stars.
No one on their death bed professes to wishing they'd worked more, eh, Stevens?
Beautifully written and contemplative, this book suffers from perhaps being a tad too much in the head of the protagonist. While we're given a bittersweet plot payoff, the entire book built to that and it was to be expected.
The giant blocks of text that serve as flashbacks or detailed explanations of objects or settings tend to be more grating than beautiful the longer the book goes on. At times these reprieves can be useful to get into the mind of Stevens and how he views the world. Other times? It's belaboring a point that's loud and clear already.
I enjoyed this well enough, though.
The novel is a serene one in temperament. I liked Ishiguro's prose and enjoyedthe book very much.
Stevens, as a character is a curious one. He is a hollow man but neither because he lacks intelligence nor sensitivity. His hollowness is a cultivated one. One that he took as a professional quality. Everything happen around him but nothing to him.
It's a very subtle book, more of a character study really, where you want so much for the main character without really liking him. In the end I felt myself wanting more of a climax, but the book was instead consistent in its subtlety. I am torn because I respect the author's choice to do that.
I read it as part of a book club and it made for some really great discussion, though a decent knowledge of 20th century world history is important.
“The evening's the best part of the day. You've done your day's work. Now you can put your feet up and enjoy it.”
Stevens is a Butler, one of the last few greats. With the demise of his previous employer, Darlington Hall is now in the hands of an American businessman. His new employer suggests it's time for Stevens to take a holiday and get away from the estate for a week. And so he sets off... reminiscing on his life, of fellow servant Ms. Kenton, choices made or not made, and wonders...just who he really is.
The writing style took me a bit to get used to, and the start is a bit slow, but once I got used to the story and the wording, it flowed really well. Everything, even reputation, depended on how well they handled their stations and how well their households were ran. Without their stations their identities were lost. It was interesting to see how estates were ran from the staff's POV.
“...try to make the best of what remains of my day.”
I really liked the author's use of an unreliable narrator in telling this wonderful story. Having to read between the lines and gauge the emotions and intentions of the people around Stevens lent another level to the book that really made it a compelling read. The entirety of the book is Stevens' musings about what it means to be a great butler, the price of duty, and how hard it really is to tell a good joke, and while the format would probably have annoyed me in any other book, the author manages to pull it off in a way that's compelling and engaging. The humorous bits sprinkled in are fantastic as well.
essentially downton abbey, but a deeper look into the house staff's life in an estate owned by a politically involved lord. i hadn't expected there to be such “controversy” over lord darlington, so it was a pleasant surprise and an interesting read. i'm not much of a history buff, but i found the historical references to be nuanced and subtle enough to be rather believable. also explores the stiff house staff culture, the utter lack of emotion in some, and the devotion to the master in few. really recommended for fans of downton abbey who cared more for the house staff than the family itself.