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Summary: This is contemporary English literature at its finest.
Review: Modern English cannot be written any better than this! The fluidity of Ishiguro's prose is so astounding it was hard to put the book down, and I would recommend his book to anyone who wants to read and learn decent and virtually flawless contemporary English. The characters are so alive and ever-present; so is the English countryside! Definitely one of the best books I have ever come across.
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Summary: Lost causes...and a lost love
Review: I am not so great that can write a long criticism or comment. It seems not so many teenagers know this book. I'm only 17-year-old but I cried and smiled and touched by all the feeling in this book. I highly recomment this book to all of you, no matter your age, nationality, etc. You will moved. The reason is all of us are human-being.
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Summary: Journey into the human mind--and heart
Review: Written in a style that is by turns convoluted and poetic, Kazuo Ishiguro`s 'The Remains of the Day' is a haunting, relentless portrayal of one man`s journey to self-discovery--and back. The book is a detailed character sketch and a narrative at one and the same time, for each tiny incident, indeed each spoken word, opens new avenues of discovery; and while the places Stevens visits on his journey remain dim and faintly dreamlike, the memories stirred by the journey are vivid and alive with color and sound--each memory is another step down the real path, on the real journey. And so with painstaking subtlety the author weaves tiny threads, combining both past and present, to create a web that will at last catch and hold the protagonist, until he can no longer look away.
While reading the book one can only wonder: If forced to see the truth, the heart of the deception, what will he do?
The answer to that is the real tragedy of the book. Not that Stevens wasted his life, but that he could not at least find some redemption by accepting it. The greatest wound he inflicted on his own life was not when he sensed Miss Kenton was crying and did not go in to comfort her, but his managing to convince himself that there would never have been a reason to do so. The saddest part of the book was at the very end, when once again Stevens began ruminating on the art of bantering as if nothing had ever taken place. The cold mask that had slipped once would not do so ever again; at that the moment he dug a grave for his own soul.
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Summary: An excellent book that I find easy to re-read.
Review: It seems to me that this book draws rather fascinating lines between the extremes of how one should live their life. Sort of stoicism vs emotionalism. Stephens, the butler, reminds me of a samurai-- pledged to put his sense of honor and duty above his own desires. He is a good man, but emotionally isolated. He is a tragic figure because his life is one of work and routine rather than balance, and he cannot live for himself-- at least not directly. Someone once said that "the unexamined life is not worth living", and someone else once said that "the unlived life is not worth examining." I think both apply to Stephens. He lives in just as contained a fashion as he examines his life. But Stephens' life, though "unlived" by some standards, is worthy of our examination, as is the rest of this wonderful, wonderful book. This is one of the few books that I read and re-read. And then read again.
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Summary: "the best book I've ever read"
Review: A voracious reader, I came across Ishiguro only when I read that Saul Bellow was reading this book at the time of an interview. Truly, this is the best novel I've ever read, and I've read plenty! As a practitioner of psychotherapy, I see this text as the best reification of self-deception I've ever encountered; truly prescient in its grasp of the vague layers of life which the novelist can show us. Often, we're best observed (at times) by outsiders to the world we've created phenomenologically. Ishiguro has triumphed in his portrayal of this most delicate of the nuances of life.
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Summary: A Sadly Stirring Novel
Review: Anyone who's seen the movie will know the basic story offered in Kazuo Ishiguro's "The Remains of the Day"; a portrait of the steadfastly old fashioned butler Stevens, and his tragically unrealized love for the housekeeper he brings to work with him. However, we all knew there was more to it than that; that under the professional facade Stevens proffered lurked an undermining confusion about the depths of his own humanity and ability to love someone else. We always sensed the inner turmoil lingering beneath the surface of this character, but couldn't understand; we couldn't get into Stevens' mind, weren't allowed to see his real thoughts and feelings. Kazuo Ishiguro's novel solves these problems for us. Told from Stevens' point of view, it affords us the chance to delve deep into his character and finally understand his motivations and the reasons for what he does and the way he acts. The result is a sadly ruminative picture of a man who cannot come to grips with the changing world around him; a person so dominated by his work he is unable to accept within him any amount of affection for another person. We watch through his eyes as he struggles to maintain a crumbling disguise of formality; a mask which begins to crack as his own feelings of love and desire threaten to break through. In the end, the novel becomes a matter of change; does Stevens have it within him to realize his own capacity for love, or will he be mired in the same doubt and lonliness for the rest of his life? This is the question which captivates us all the way to the conclusion of this compelling work. Ultimately, this book drives us to examine our own lives, to deal with the Stevens in each of us; and it is exactly that which makes this such a moving and poignant experience. Underneath a deceptively simple and stark narrative, Kazuo Ishiguro has woven an intricate tale; a touching story which leaves us with both pity for the trials of its characters, and hope for what we learn about ourselves.
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Summary: One of the most moving books I have ever read.
Review: This is the story of an English butler that travels across his nation's countryside, reflecting on his long history as a butler and the morality of the masters for whom he has worked, and thus the morality of his position under these people. Ishiguro's style is so elegant that it mimics that of an English butler; it is a quite convincing, thought-provoking story.
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Summary: wonderfully understated portrait of an English butler's life
Review: This is one of my favorite books in the world. I was riveted by the way in which Ishiguro captured the butler's language and way of thinking. He writes with such subtlety that he leaves many things unstated, which makes the reader identify all the more with the butler's regrets as he looks back on his life. It is fascinating but tragic to see the way in which the butler deceived himself for so many years, putting his master's needs ahead of his own because he was convinced he was working for someone noble and good. Realizing later on that his master was not noble is painful for him and for the reader. Read this book.
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Summary: Deep, thoughtful introspection on the path not taken
Review: The Remains of the Day is said to be a retrospection on the life of a staid English butler. And so it is. But it is also a thought-provoking introspection about the role that each of us plays in the world. Is it enough to merely do our job to perfection? Or is more asked of us? How will we feel when we look back on our lives from near the end? One of my favorite books.
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Summary: Sunset on the Empire
Review: The Remains of the Day is the portrait of a culture in decline. This is the England that has fascinated, amused and bewildered Americans for well over a hundred years: the England of great Halls encompassing great families, of dignity, decorum and stiff upper lips, of afternoon tea and evening port, of endless nattering over details that tilt the balance of the world. Stevens the Butler manages a diminishing staff at Darlington Hall with (he fears) diminishing competence. When the narrative opens, the Darlington family has fallen on hard times and their ancestral Hall has been transferred--along with Stevens--to the proverbial rich American, Mr. Farraday. Farraday suggests a vacation for his butler, an unprecedented idea that receives an impetus through the mail. Miss Kenton was formerly the housekeeper at Darlington Hall and the closest thing to a "friend" that Stevens ever had until she gave up her position for a husband and family. Now she writes, hinting at some dissatisfaction with her life and a desire to return to her former post. Or is Stevens merely imagining these intimations? He determines to pay a visit to her in the course of his south country tour and ferret out the truth.
So the journey is defined and its goal determined; a voyage of self-discovery. But as Stevens motors on through the quietly beautiful English countryside, his mind resists the broadening influence of travel and continues to circle Darlington Hall, turning over memories with meticulous detail and banal observation. These memories reveal much more to the reader than they do to Stevens himself, who seems impervious to revelation. The fine old English virtures--restraint, self-possession, rationality--have eaten into him with the unthinking viciousness of parasites, and by the middle of the journey a light dawns on the reader: perhaps there is no self here to discover. It's no coincidence that Stevens never discloses his first name.
Britain is also struggling with identity, after a three-century rise to world domination that produced, as its signature achievement, the likes of Darlington Hall and the sort of life that "only Americans can afford now." A great and notable tradition has sunk into a caricature of itself, outdated at best and, at worst, sinister. The late Lord Darlington, whom Stevens served for 35 years, was a sterling specimen of his time and class and, not incidentally, a dupe of the pre-war Nazis. His name has come under such a cloud that Stevens is unable to claim it. Three times, like Peter, he denies his Lord--when asked, he disavows any relationship with the man. Does this make a sham of his proud profession? Stevens skirts the question, but can't bring himself to confront it.
Or to confront anything else, including Miss Kenton (now Mrs. Benn). Their long-awaited meeting opens subterranean sores; in the most understated, unimpeachable manner their regard for each other is made clear at last, now that it's far too late to do anything about it. To the unceasing cliches that have peppered his observations throughout the book, Stevens adds one more: "Indeed--why should I not admit it--my heart was breaking." At that moment, we understand how much of this honorable life was squandered on mere show.
The show, of course, was supposed to reflect what was underneath, and indeed it does: the ideal of British virtue that claimed everything Stevens has, now bankrupt. The evening of life is all that's left to him, and the Empire--the Remains of the Day. Still time to quit one ideal and find a new one. Will he? Can he?
Not likely.
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