Book Review: The Remains of the Day
Book #71
“The hard reality is, surely, that for the likes of you and me, there is little choice other than to leave our fate, ultimately, in the hands of those great gentlemen at the hub of this world who employ our services. What is the point in worrying oneself too much about what one could or could not have done to control the course one’s life took? Surely it is enough that the likes of you and me at least try to make a small contribution count for something true and worthy. And if some of us are prepared to sacrifice much in life in order to pursue such aspirations, surely that is in itself, whatever the outcome, cause for pride and contentment.” — Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
I had been looking forward to reading Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go for a while, and I was just about to start it when I went into a secondhand bookshop and saw that they had The Remains of the Day. This is Ishiguro’s 1989 novel that won the Man Booker, so I thought it might be interesting to read it before his more recent novel.
The Remains of the Day is quite neatly summed up by the above quote. It’s about a butler, Stevens, who works at one of the great estates in South England leading up to the second world war and the years that follow. It’s written in Ishiguro’s style of slow reveal and flashbacks coupled with the novel’s present day to maintain the reader’s interest and arouse curiosity.
The novel’s main themes are dignity, loyalty, service and the nature of relationships. It’s an interesting exploration of the time, how the servants were treated and the hierarchy of domestic servants that I had been previously unaware of. About halfway through the novel I began to realise that although the story and the writing was interesting enough to propel me forward and to continue reading it, I was beginning to get slightly bored and indifferent to the outcome of the novel.
That said, I was amazed to realise that once I finished it, I gained more from the novel in retrospect than I did while reading it. The emotions expressed were profound, the dénouement touching and the ending satisfying. Overall, I enjoyed it, and while I can understand its high regard in literature I may not place it there myself.
