Rating: 
Summary: The most captivating book I've ever read
Review: The one reviewer who gave this a one star rating, is an oddity. If you like beautiful English prose, if you like works that provoke the reader to really think, if you don't mind getting totally bowled over emotionally over the last few pages of a book, then this book is for you. Ishiguro is a true genius of our times.
Rating:
Summary: DECEPTIVELY SIMPLE
Review: There is always the danger of reading too much into a book. That is a danger that I don't believe exists with The Remains of the Day, one of the most beautifully written contemporary novels. The Remains of the Day is the story of Stevens, an English butler in post-World War II England. In beautiful understatement, Ishiguro explores the themes of the novel: What is the meaning of professionalism in today's society? How much should one sacrifice in order to remain true to his own personal ethics? Ishiguro weaves quiet comedy and tragedy in this deceptively simple tale, but always preserves a strong undercurrent of psychological motivation and tension. In beautiful, crystal clear prose, he tells the tale of one man's interpretation of his place in society. The fading class system also serves as a metaphor for the fading glory of the insular world of postwar England. If your're looking for a John Grisham breakneck plot, skip this book. If you want literature at its finest, you can't do better than this.
Rating:
Summary: Do not try to hide from yourself: Carpe diem
Review: This is one of the very best books I have read and as many good books it can be read on many levels. I find it to be the easiest book he have written. It is also made into a very good movie, with fabulous actors and brilliant acting, a great achievement that has its own value and own identity as one interpretation of the book. One of Ishiguros main messages is that if you will you can change your life. But sometimes it is already to late, you had a chance and you didn't grasp it, and you are stuck with the consequences. He also tries to get us to see that if you choose to be a loyal part of something bigger, a corporation, a business, even a household, you will still be responsible for whatever is done in the name of that entity. You can of course pretend you do not know that your boss is cooperating with people who are bigots and nazis. You can pretend it does not concern you, because you are just doing your job. Like some people in Germany closed their eyes to the concentration camps and some Japanese closed their eyes to the atrocities done in the name of a god (their emperor) and like other people later have done towards the treatment of indians in south America etc. etc. If you choose to get close to the center of history you may well be burned. Ishiguro once said in a interview that "one uses memory for ones own purpose, one's own ends" and that is why he writes in the first person form, to be able to follow somebody's thoughts around," as they trip themself up or try to hide from themself". The remains of the day is Ishiguros way of telling us to live to day and to grasp love when and if you find it and not to wait until you are old. Carpe diem is one of his obvious messages in the book. The remains of the day won the Booker price and it deserved it and he also (to use soccer terminology) made a hat trick with it. Both his two first books won prices, with A Pale View of the Hills he won The Royal Societies of Literature's Winifred prize and An Artist of the Floating World he won the Whitbread prize.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely essential
Review: I'm not quite sure which book the previous reader read, but in my mind Ishiguro's novel is one of the finest works of contemporary literature. The unreliable first person narration is at turns comedic and tragic, and by the novel's end your stomach will turn with emotion. Truly captivating.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't buy this book
Review: This book is the most booring book I have ever read. Nothing really happens, and unless you are interested in an old butlers sick manners and strange behavior don't read it. Izhiguro can really writes pages up and down without getting anywhere. "What is a great butler?" is the main question in the book. I can't say Im interested to know about it. The love story between him and Miss Kenton is also not very exciting, if you want to read a romantic book - don't read this one.
Rating:
Summary: Necessity of Moral Choice
Review: This novel is a real miracle of literature. I am impressed by marvelous beauty and purity of its language (such uncommon example in modern literature inundated with slang and obscenities)which allow to compare it with the high literary classic. Nurtured in Russian literature I wish to liken Kazuo Ishiguro to Russian writer Anton Chekhov: concise style, exact descriptions, unsurpassed mastery of explicit psychological characteristics of characters (especially if a protagonist makes every attempt to suppress any manifestation of his inner emotions), - all this is similar for both authors. Surface simplicity of the story disguises intricateness of its internal composition and concealed psychological motives making books of both writers difficult for screen adaptation. Professionalism and fate of an individual in swiftly changing world are the main themes of the novel, extremely important for modern society where business becomes new god. Professionalism gives possibility to live repletely but only innermost moral fortitude gives possibility to survive psychically and even spiritually intact. Mr Stevens, the novel's narrator, is a perfect professional, a 'great butler'. His personal ethic shrunk to a size of official duties so that love and death are powerless before them. But world has crucially changed and Mr Stevens is trying to adjust himself to a new world, to a new employer, to change not only his behavior but style of thinking in order to please his new master, for this is the demand of his profession. It is important for every human being not to repudiate the old world as the worst one (trying to neglect its positive features), not to accept 'the new brave world' as the best one (for he/she will discern its negative sides later) but to preserve his/her soul for sound estimation of what is going on. The last meeting of the heroes - Mr Stevens and former Miss Keaton - sheds new light on the story making Miss Keaton not a victim of Mr Stevens' blind, unperceptive heart but a genuine heroine of the novel, a person who does not permit her high-leveled professionalism to prevail over main human feelings, who has moral mettle to follow accepted decision. The final deed of Miss Keaton is not a vergeance of previously rejected love but a correct ethical choice of strong disposition. Conniving at uncontrolled feelings (especially sexual desire) puts individuals on the verge of life and death, creates pain and destruction around and within them (Anna Karenina in famous Tolstoy's novel, characters of Ondaatje's 'The English Patient'); sound moral choice in hard circumstances and endurance of its results afterwads is the only fit possibility (Tatyana in Pushkin's 'Onegin') - this is the conclusion of great literature, wherein the novel of Kazuo Ishiguro can be rightly included.
Rating:
Summary: Ishiguro is unsurpassed in terms of sheer artfulness
Review: This is perhaps the most well-written book I've ever come across. Remains of the Day sweeps you up with captivating tone that almost convinced me that I was in England as I read the work. This should not be missed by anyone seeking an artfully written and astoundingly understated work of fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Redemption but at a cost
Review: The sun is setting for the last time over the British empire . In Stevens' lifetime the face of Europe will change fundamentally from authoritarian and class ridden to a democratic and freer place to live where choice matters and the future is brighter. What kind of a life did someone live in such a society in transition ? This is a question asked by both the book and film 'Remains..' The book feels something has been lost to us, the film feels that this loss is good and we have gained from it. Where both film and book agree is that Stevens' relationship with his housekeeper is a key to his personal development in the story. It is in this that the book and film both depict a most interesting, moving and at times humourous picture of bygone days. The book is more optimistic in my view about Stevens' personal development. He sees the Remains of the Day as a chance of rebirth an expression of the freedom of the post war world he finds himself in. In the film, his faults and missed opportunities are the setting of a seal on an essentially emotionally redundant individual. I think watching the film then reading the book is the best way to learn from Stevens story. The book is too sympathetic to Stevens in allowing only him to speak the narrative. The film captures the wider picture better and displays the emotive abscence in Stevens far better. The book is a rationalization of what one sees in the film but to be fair the ending in the book is better. Whether redemption comes to us or not in life, it is familiar when it arrives.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Great Books of the 90s
Review: The Booker Prize has Kazuo Ishiguro to thank for raising the reputation of the British award in the American market. This is simply a great literary novel. It is an organically crafted novel which uses the unreliable first person narrative technique to great effect. Stevens expresses himself with elegant phrases indicative of his station, which immediately endears him to readers who respect civility of manners. (And who doesn't, right?) But then the novel starts to turn. Stevens is above all a dedicated professional butler, but his actions are morally in question. From the opening chapter Ishiguro immediately presents one of the major themes of this ambitious novel: what is the nature of professionalism? Is it doing one's job without question, at the expense of one's humanity? Is professionalism the only moral guide in the modern era? Is professionalism at odds with 19th century European ideals? This story starts out as a seemingly silly debate about whether to take a drive in the English countryside or not, but over course of the novel it expands into a debate about the moral questions of the 20th century--quite a feat. The love story with Miss Kenton is memorable, but it is really the big questions that make this one of the most important novels of the 1990s. A great book for English literature classes.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece -- Wonderful Study of Human Nature
Review: I think Ishiguro has achieved the unachievable. The subtlety of human nature painted so well through the power of Mr. Ishiguro's pen. The best part is definitely about Steven's trouble with rambling with his new American employer. His selfless nature and almost blind devotion to his Nazi-sympathizing boss which comes into picture when Stevens almost ignores the death of his father to attend to conventions of "global importance unfolding upstairs" in Darlington Hall. Ishiguro's language is pitch-perfect and his prose wonderfully polished. I read after being recommended by a professor in a literature class. And I really thank him for introducing me to this gem of a book!
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