The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
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Book Reviews of The Remains of the Day
Book Review: "I'm sorry, sir, but I am unable to assist in this matter."
Summary: 5 Stars
Midway through a pivotal scene in "The Remains of the Day," Lord Darlington's young godson confronts the butler, James Stevens, about the nefarious goings-on in Darlington Hall, insisting angrily, "you're not curious. You just let all this go on before you and you never think to look at it for what it is." A gentleman's gentleman to the core, Mr. Stevens serves at the pleasure, and defers to the judgment, of his lord, and this training limits his robotic, repeated replies: "I don't fully understand what it is you're referring to" or "I'm afraid I have not noticed any such development."
"Remains" is basically a British comedy of manners--and there are many episodes that are certainly, if wryly, humorous. Yet Stevens is the anti-Jeeves--a man whose worth in his profession is inversely proportional to the value of his opinions. This point is brought home when one of Darlington's guests, to prove his arguments against England's "present parliamentary system," mockingly asks the butler his stance on several economic and political issues of the day. "I'm sorry, sir, but I am unable to assist in this matter." Whether Stevens has knowledge on these matters is beside the point; he's accepted that it's not his place to offer his own views. He is a man with style, but without substance.
As a result, Stevens proves to be the most unreliable narrator, and it quickly becomes apparent that his defense of his employer's integrity is actually defensiveness. Stevens's lack of "curiosity" and his impassiveness result in the book's three most disquieting subplots: he admires greatly his father (also a butler), but they remain aloof from each other, with heartbreaking consequences; he furtively reads romantic novels, but refuses to entertain the unsubtle overtures from the housekeeper Miss Kenton; he disagrees with his employer's reasons for firing two maids yet refuses to challenge him. For her part, Miss Kenton turns out to be the real hero of the book, trying during her tenure to break through Stevens's emotional barriers and haunting his thoughts long after she's left the household.
Yet, if Ishiguro's novel were simply another upstairs-downstairs tale, it wouldn't be much to recommend. Instead, Stevens is any of us who wanders blindly through life, doing no more than what's expected and leaving "the great affairs of today's world" to others. Indeed, "Remains of the Day" offers a frontal assault on conservative, oligarchic notions of morality. (The endless discussions over the qualities of a good butler and Stevens's arguments for "his lordship's good judgement" seem at times a parody of Edmund Burke's defense of monarchy.)
It's not a coincidence that both Americans in the novel, while behaving like tactless cads, are ultimately being proved right for favoring honesty over "honour." One of the Americans, Stevens's new employer, encourages the butler to drop the stiff upper lip and engage in some friendly banter, offering Stevens a belated opportunity to rejuvenate his own sense of worth. In spite of the novel's focus on aristocracy and servants, its moments like this one that underscore the truly egalitarian nature of Ishiguro's work.
Book Review: Unquestioning Loyalty versus Personal Responsibility
Summary: 5 Stars
In his first three novels Kazuo Ishiguro reveals his characters with care and subtlety through their recollections of events long past. These memories are often fragmented, sometimes hazy, sometimes simply untrustworthy. Some characters willingly explore old memories for answers, while others show less interest in introspection. All three stories effectively employ a first person narrative style."It is possible that my memory of these events will have grown hazy with time, that things did not happen in quite the way they come back to me today." (A Pale View of Hills)
"Did Miyake really say all this to me that afternoon? Perhaps I am getting his words confused with the sort of thing that Suichi will come out and say." (An Artist of the Floating World)
"But I see I am becoming preoccupied with these memories and this is perhaps a bit foolish." (The Remains of the Day)
Ishiguro shifts the timeline back and forth as individual memories, often triggered by other memories, are recalled. These recollections yield incomplete answers, indications, and vague hints. Like Ishiguro's characters, we readers find ourselves becoming interpreters searching for answers in old memories.
In "The Remains of the Day" Ishiguro does not give us the traditional, humorous caricature of an English butler, but a convincing and disturbing portrait of a flawed individual. Stevens held himself to high standards and principles, and continually strived to exhibit those characteristics that define a great butler. And yet, throughout his years at Darlington Hall, he used his unquestioning loyaty and commitment to Lord Darlington as a shield from personal responsibility. He abdicated personal choice, avoided questioning Lord Darlington's actions, and refrained from close personal relationships.
We meet Stevens late in his career. Lord Darlington is no longer alive. England and her Allies have defeated Germany. Stevens still has much pride in his years of service to a great man, but unwittingly, almost unwillingly, he begins to question whether his service and devotion were misdirected, even wrong. On occasion, Stevens even finds himself unaccountably straying from the truth whenever uncomfortale questions arise concerning Lord Darlington's German sympathy during the thirties. At the same time unsettling memories surface regarding a house keeper, a Miss Kenton, that left Darlington Hall many years ago. We recognize, but Stevens seemingly fails to do so, that Miss Kenton was offering her love.
Stevens, Lord Darlington, and Miss Kenton, to a lesser degree, all made mistakes that profoundly influenced thier lives and the lives of others. Surprisingly, Ishiguro shows little interest in why his characters made mistakes in the past. His focus is clearly on how they come to recognize past mistakes and how they react to these uncomfortable discoveries.
With each rereading of his novels my admiration increases for the remarkable skill and talent of Kazuo Ishiguro. He is undoubtably one of the great writers of our time. I highly recommend this extraordinary novel. I envy those that have yet to encounter "The Remains of the Day" for the first time.
Book Review: Fascinating story told through a butler's drive in the countryside
Summary: 5 Stars
How many of us have traveled by plane or train on a long trip cross country and in passing the time without a cell phone, computer, or any need to do anything at all, have stared out through the window and just let our thoughts move wherever our conscious takes them? Many little things come back to us: things that we had done, forgot to do, purposely did not do, but now seems that we should have. Imagine that your duties and training did not allow for such meandering thought but once in your lifetime. How would those thoughts unfold? This is the premise of The Remains of the Day and it is a wonderful diversion to lose oneself into.
If I were to tell you that a most wonderful story about the societal changes in England was written by a Japanese author through a butler's eyes as he takes a seven day journey the English countryside, you might think me mad. But that is exactly what I am going to tell you. Ishiguro brings a classic flair to this novel that sets the reader back into the chair and then catapults him/her into an era that most of us have never entered. The dignified butler of Darlington Hall, Mr. Stevens, relates his high and low points through a powerful story of his employ to the grand lords of Great Britain. The story is precise, the dialogue is genuine and the atmosphere is thick with cigar smoke from the drawing room.
The story is told present day in 1956, but quickly flashes back to the time of the Great War's treaty and then through a series of memoir-like stories, Mr. Stevens tells his life's story. The differences between the lord of Darlington Hall and the current owner, an American, are larger than life. And the adaptation that a great butler must make between the styles manifests the societal differences that moved through England in this same time frame. How that butler comes to grip with a life unfulfilled is quite extraordinary. The pain is real but it flashes only for a moment.
The author also brings out some very subtle philosophical issues of the day through the story. For instance in 1936 there was an exchange between Mr. Stevens and his lordship, Lord Darlington about whether the Brits were again behind the Americans in attempting to move their Democracy to a more Elitist run government. Lord Darlington goes on to state that in today's world, the common man would have no idea how to contribute to the decisions of the world leaders and therefore they should not have any say. Mr. Stevens, remembers this line of conversation as he stays overnight in a small town that lost many young men in the two World Wars. They argue that dignity is the freedom of the common man to help in the decision making and direction of their country. This of course counters the thoughts of Lord Darlington. The conflict then sets up Mr. Stevens for some serious and not very comfortable life thoughts. This is powerful stuff from a story about a butler on a seven day vacation.
And of course, there is a very subtle romance story behind all of this thinking. In this one, Ishiguro hits a home run.
Book Review: Add this book to your Wish list or shopping cart before you get distracted. It's a delight to read.
Summary: 5 Stars
The only reference in this book of the title occurs on its second to last page: "Perhaps, then, there is something to his advice that I should cease looking back so much..." Notwithstanding the above, this book is not at all melancholy or particularly depressing, although Stevens (the butler character/narrator) does look back much. The whole book is a reminiscence actually. Stevens played a role and did so ably, very much obsessed with dignity and continuing on, ala the British since the Second World War, but not to the same successful extent. I suppose you can draw many parallels here: Stevens, the British butler in England, serving an American, trying to uphold his dignity and being beholden to an era that was passing and is now gone, but the book is an enjoyable read without having to "read" anything into the story as it unfolds. The film that is based on this book was excellent too, but seems to make the story very much more political, stressing the "little guys" of society (Stevens included) trusting to British gentlemen to do the "right thing" by them. The book, in contradistinction, seems to stress, in a different manner, that the "little guy" who trusts others winds up being one who cannot say at least that one's own mistakes were one's own; but that to trust "gentlemen" types and ones simple devotion to duty may cost you, that a person should have personal accountability. Stevens trusted Darlington Hall and his role as a part of it, and in so doing believed his work was consequently paramount and of a particular importance; that, in a way, he was part of something good and/or had some part in effecting developements made by those men of politics who peopled the manor he served. So his trust engendered duty and duty negated personal fulfillment. He lived not for "The remains of the day", but for his work. In so doing he consequently missed out on a possible romance---with a Miss Kenton in the story, not owing to his own fault, but because he trusted Darlington Hall, so to speak. The key to human warmth, Stevens ponders at the end, may lie in bantering; just the sort of thing he had no time for while Miss Kenton herself was employed at Darlington Hall. What makes this well told story unique, however, is the author's writing style. A sample: "It seems increasingly likely that I will undertake the expedition that has been preoccupying my imagination now for some days. An expedition, I should say, which I will undertake alone, in the comfort of Mr. Farraday's Ford; an expedition which, as I forsee it, will take me through the finest countryside of England to the West country, and may keep me away from Darlington Hall for as much as five or six days." That's the opening paragraph to this concisely written joy to read; and it goes on thusly for 245 pages as Stevens tells us the story of his devotion to duty during his journey to see Miss Kenton after many years. This is a book that lingers with you and which can be re-read with pleasure. Cheers!Book Review: Unassumingly intricate and heartbreaking
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a truly great book. After putting it down, that was the only thought in my head. I felt very lucky to have read it. It tells the story of a traditional English butler traveling across the countryside to rendezvous with his former head maid, now unhappily married. As he makes his way he reminisces about his former boss, Lord Darlington, for whom he still has the highest regard, despite the apparently unpopular opinion with which the rest of the world now views him, and other events that took place during that time. Among his recollected stories are those of the former head maid to whom he is traveling, Miss Kenton (or so she was known when unmarried and under his employ, and as he still refers to her in his memory); those of his father, a butler as well, some during his best years but most during old age; and those of Darlington and his political gatherings after the first world war, beginning with friendly, semi-formal discussions of the world's unfair treatment of their vanquished foe, Germany, and then branching into more clandestine meetings designed to play a greater part on the world's stage and to which many important international figures were party. Stevens, the protagonist, also muses frequently about what exactly makes a great butler and what exactly is the nature of dignity.
I always found myself entertained when reading this, even during droll philosophizings in which the narrator engages, but the book is so unassuming, so almost mild in its Englishless, that when it presented itself in its full power it all the more took me by surprise. Ishiguro truly is a master craftsman, and once all the pieces were in place and the full picture was in view, I could feel its heartbreaking core reaching out to every event and thought, small or large, and doubling their emotional weight. Never before have I read something so intricate.
Every thought and action of Stevens is presented in the reserved voice of the old English butler, and thus every whispered inner emotion is suppressed, every duty to and action of his boss is magnified in importance, and every encounter with the outside world in all its freedom of spirit is alienating. The latter actually leads to a number of comic situations, one being Stevens's confusion regarding jokes and banter and his attempts to participate in it when forced to by his new American boss and others along his travels. But it also leads to great sorrow, and this double sided coin, always on the edge of Stevens's consciousness, kept me engaged both intellectually and emotionally. And because Stevens has convinced himself to think only in this reserved voice, because it's the only way of thinking that he knows, it seems to make a lot of sense, albeit in a foreign way. However, as more of the picture becomes visible, as the reader gets a more detailed picture of Stevens's mind and soul, the true unassuming, quiet, heartbreaking weight of the entire story is inescapable.