Quorren’s #CBR4 Review #33 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Normally I find slice of life style stories to be dull. This book was a bit better than most, having a twist of bittersweet to override the mundane. However, the overall theme of the book lacks any type of subtlety and will repeatedly jump out of the pages and slap you in the face, lest you forget that being so caught up in your own insular world without stopping to smell the roses is a BAD THING. *slap*
The story centers around the life of Stevens, the butler at Darlington Hall. He has worked for several decades for the house, which has now passed ownership to a wealthy American. He gives Stevens some time off and the use of his car, so Stevens decides to drive around the English countryside and visit the old housekeeper of Darlington Hall, Miss Kenton. As he travels, he reminisces about his job and his previous work under the Lord of Darlington Hall, a mover and shaker in the political scene in the time leading up to WWII.
Imagine Carson of Downtown Abbey. Now take away all the humanizing moments the show gave him. Then you have Stevens. Lord Darlington was hosting a summit to prevent WWII when Stevens father took ill. Instead of staying with his father, Stevens instead attends to the guests because that’s what a perfect butler would do and because Stevens overestimates the importance and influence a butler has. You want to feel sorry for him, but he’s so clueless about the world outside of his pantry and what really matters that it’s near impossible to do so.
In the end, Stevens finally gets to see Miss Kenton (who has married which is why she left the Hall in the first place). It finally dawns on him that she was in love with him when they ran Darlington Hall together. Which was a great reveal for no one. In Never Let Me Go, Ishiguro had a good grasp of handling the bittersweet. While he shows some of that same mastery here, he does venture into maudlin too often for my taste.
Cannonball Read IV 
I’m sad you only thought this was ok as I absolutely adored it. I don’t think the ending is supposed to be a ‘reveal’ with Miss Kenton, I think it’s supposed to be obvious to us and it’s Stevens who is only just realising it. I also loved Stevens as a character and his perceptions of his role and kind the whole point of the novel and the way that he analyses it all so much I thought was beautifully written. It was my first review for CBR3 and I just gave it away as my book for World Book Night! http://acaseforbooks.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/1-remains-of-day-by-kazuo-ishiguro.html
“Moreover, as you might appreciate, their implications were such as to provoke a certain degree of sorrow within me. Indeed – why should I not admit it? – at that moment, my heart was breaking.” Mine too, Stevens, mine too.
I loved this bookand have read it a couple of times. It is a poem of repressed emotion and regret. I realise how amazingly pretentious that sounds, but it was sincere.
Add me to the chorus of people who are sad you don’t like this book — it’s one of my favorites, and I don’t normally go in for fancy pants literature. I’ve read all of Ishiguro’s other books, and I didn’t connect with any of them the way I did with this one.
Now I’m sad that I missed out on a the beautiful experience that others had with this book. 😦
Try the movie! It’s a masterpiece. Anthony Hopkins can do more with one almost invisible twitch of an eyelid than most actors can do with their whole body.
Anthony Hopkins and Meryl Streep need to have a baby. And that baby will grow up to get ALL the roles and Oscars.