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Summary: A heart-breaking reflection over a life's work and worth.
Review: The story of Stevens, who has, since adulthood, been in the service of Darlington Hall in England during the years contemporary of WWII. Given a few days leave by his now American employer, Stevens journeys across the country in search of a former coworker, Miss Kenton, who married and retired from service. On the trip, Steven gives considerable reflection to his life and service in Darlington Hall. He attempts to chronicle and justify to himself, his exemplary service for what he always thought an extraordinary man. In the end, his confidence in his employer's worthiness, despite his good intentions, is in severe doubt. He and Miss Kenton subtly reveal a love which they never allowed to blossom and must forever remain a regret. When Stevens says, "at that moment, my heart was breaking," the entire world Ishiguro builds in the course of the novel collapses. The very end of the novel is a study, not unlike Sartre's "Nausea," in how one faces the absurd and yet continues to live, adapt, and change with changing times.
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Summary: One brilliant piece of literature.
Review: The book is brilliant. The film is a crashing, misguided, Merchant/Ivorized bore. This is not the story of a misguided man too repressed to see romance staring him in the face; it is the story of man who has been a possession all his life; a man who comes from a long line of human possessions, born to selfless servitude and dedicated, blindly, to his aristocratic "owner" employer. He is so thoroughly a part of the Upstairs/Downstairs social strata that he barely has a soul to call his own. Selfless in the truest, saddest, sense of the word--he is almost incapable of functioning with out a master; a social embryo far too old to develop properly once his is finally let loose into the world. The miracle is that Ishiguro manages to convey, from first person, everything that his protagonist is oblivious to. The reader knows and feels the acute poignancy and tragedy of all Ishiguro's butler misses; ignores, denies; turns away, as each unacknowledged opportunity is either fumbled, misunderstood or overlooked. His uncomprehending and hopeless determination to learn how to take and deliver a 'joke' is one of the most heartbreaking sequences ever written and a perfect example of the subtle, exquisite, objective sympathy Ishiguro affords his characters. This is Ishiguro's best book. If you start with it, don't go back.
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Summary: Beautiful
Review: This book just took my breath away. It is an exquisitely written novel that touches the soul on every level. Without question, one of the great English language novels of the last 25 years. Mr. Ishiguro is a major talent. Pity he's not heard from too often. The story of Stephens, the ideal English butler who quietly watches his orderly, yet empty life collapse around him with only regrets to comfort him is a universal tale of loneliness brought beautifully and painfully to life by this very talented writer. This is a novel for those who understand what literature truly is.
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Summary: One Great Book
Review: This is one of the best books I have read. I am 15 but I appreaciated the insight and instropection of this book, where everyone seems to be wondering on what might, could and should, have been.
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Summary: Powerfully Brilliant
Review: "The Remains of the Day" is that rare find: a richly-layered story of love offered and lost, of nationalities mocked and embraced, of characters stolid and self-decieving... and compulsively readable. This is one of, if not THE best book I have ever read, and I have read plenty to judge it against. Ishiguro's narration of Stevens is pitch-perfect- he is an almost-freakish talent. Stevens is a full-blooded character, nuanced to the hilt and rational to the brim. The main power of this story, however, is its almost overpowering subtelty. This is probably the best example of dramatic restraint in a century or so of literature. The Booker Prize it deserved... and so much more. Read this book, the language and devastating storyline (especially the ending... the dialogue then will make your heart tremble) is classic literature of the highest order. Bravo to Mr. Ishiguro.
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Summary: agree with r watkins but steveslr could be right, too
Review: what i believe adds a great deal of complexity (and beauty) to "remains of the day" is that ishiguro doesn't prescribe a particular interpretaion of the novel. we can assume that ishiguro is condemning the butler for his "blindness" or we can also assume that ishiguro is merely drawing out in gorgeous detail a man's reflection on his accomplishments and self-deception without any judgement. i really don't see why flawed characters should be liabilites in a novel. i find that they're the most fascinating and enduring characters. a final note on this novel: a course was taught at the university of toronto on economic interpretations of novels, "remains of the day" being one of the chosen ones. it's fascinating to look at this novel in terms of economic and political transactions -- not just with property or inheritance, but also between people.
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Summary: steveslr misses the point! Booker Judges get it right!
Review: Kazuo Ishiguro could not have written a better novel. Nor should I dare to suggest that an author, the person whose own imagination created and nurtured this beautiful story, could miss the point! How? Steveslr suggests that Ishiguro was writing with blinkers on and I fail to see how this is possible. Steveslr may suggest that I too am missing the point, but maybe then he!(steveslr) is reading too much into what is in truth a beautiful love story, one of a man obsessed with his duty missing his one true chance. If Steveslr sees mistakes that ruin the ending of what I and quite obviously the entirety of the panel of judges for the Booker Prize consider a perfectly structured novel, then perhaps he (steveslr) is missing the point. Read this novel for yourself and decide.
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Summary: A good book and with a flawed main character
Review: The Remains of the Day is not a spectacular book. But it is certainly one of the better books of the decade that I have read, or that I have heard about being good. The major flaw is the contrast between the work of realistic fiction and hypothetical nature of Stevens. This does not fit in with the rest of the book. It leaves us wanting a real person whom we don't think exists. The book, however, makes up for it in its wonderful description of the character with whom Stevens falls in love, Kensington. The author epitomizes the nature of women and gives us a character with which we sympathize and can't help routing for. His setting is well directed and his use of language with that setting is appropriately elaborate and intricate. The theme has a good structure and is doesn't fall into the romantic trap of being too benevolent in nature. Ishiguro is an up-and-coming writer, with only three other books out. His latest, The Unconsoled, some sort of jumbled Kafka tribute, is muddled and too paradoxical in nature. The other books he has written are A Pale View of the Hills and An Artist of the Floating World, and I have not read them as of yet. Ishiguro, without doubt, shows amazing promise. However, he must realize that a book cannot accurately say what it's trying to say by being both real and surreal. At that point, the book pushes over the line of believability into incredulity. If he stays away from this, and maintains a clear focus in first person while focusing on the characters, he'll write some books that will be on every high school's reading list.
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Summary: Author misses the point of his own lovely story
Review: Stevens, the perfect professional butler, devotes his exemplary career to the service of an English Lord who, assisted by Stevens, rises high in the service of his country in the 1930's as an advocate of international peace and understanding. Unfortunately, the Lord's popular policy of appeasing Nazi Germany ultimately leads to disaster. Stevens is thus left to meditate on whether his life had any purpose. He is left mouthing platitudes about the importance of setting an example of professionalism to other butlers, which the author implies is just pathetic rationalization. The problem is that Ishiguro misses the key point that a real Stevens would have understood: Very few can accurately discern the future course of global events; rare statemen like Churchill are, by definition, rare. But the rest of us can contribute in other ways: for example, by setting an example of professionalism in our particular career for others to aspire to. After all, although Stevens happened to be employed by this Chamberlain-like figure, he could just as easily have been Churchill's butler. And then he would have been celebrated as the butler whose selfless devotion helped Churchill save the world. That it didn't happen that way was pure chance, but that Stevens did the best he could within the circumstances he was dealt to set a sterling example for other professional servants to emulate (such as Churchill's own much-abused staff) redounds to Stevens' credit. Clearly, Stevens lead a worthy and honorable life. That Ishiguro blows it at the end should not distract too much from the novel's many delightful qualities. However, if you are looking for a similar novel of equal virtues, but with a more sensible and unconventional moral view, try John Derbyshire's "Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream.
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Summary: Excellent for book groups
Review: This is the first book (in two years) that everyone in our book group liked -- and some loved -- two wept at the end. And it is excellent for a discussion. We had a really good one. All that repression....it might also be fun to link a book group discussion with viewing of the video, as some of us had seen it and some of us hadn't. We kept bringing the movie into the discussion, too (because the housekeeper's role felt more prominent in the movie). -- Pat McNees
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