A relaxing, introspective read. I looked forward to getting back to it when I had to put it down. ( )

This novel had me laughing out loud at points, I have to say. The narrator is brilliantly developed as a character, and the reader learns more about him and unfolding events from what isn't said than what is. The unintentionally (intentionally on the part of the author) hilarious bits of dialogue that reveal how clueless Stevens is when it comes to matters outside of protocol really made the book for me; at the very least, I'll recommend it to friends based on that. ( )

The last few days, I have been enthralled by Ishiguro's beautiful haunting elegy for lost love and mistaken causes. Surely one of my best reading experiences of the year !

Meet James Stevens, or rather Mister Stevens, imperturbable butler of the Darlington Halls. We are in 1956 and Mister Stevens has embarked on a motoring trip trough the English countryside “en route” to meet Mrs. Kenton, a former colleague he hasn’t seen for twenty years. On his expedition, Mr. Stevens, now in the fall of his life, is remembering his years at the service of Lord Darlington, to whom he has devoted his whole life.

Stevens takes a lot of professional pride in his job and has always strived to be a “Great Butler” but he acknowledges that this “greatness” is very difficult to define. Two characteristics seem predominant: to posses a dignity in keeping with the position and to be attached to a distinguished household. To help us to better understand the attitude and the role of a great butler, Stevens tells us a few anecdotes of this refined dignity, especially when applied under stressful situations as exemplified by some great butlers and by his own father (who works for the same household).

As the book and the butler’s introspection progress, together with Stevens we understand that he too has attained this Dignity, but it has come at a price. His devotion to his Lord and his attempt to attain that rare aura of dignity has come at the expense of his own emotions, of his own feelings. It has made him loose his individuality, even his humanity. It has become impossible for him to live a fulfilling emotional life. Stevens still does have feelings but cannot bring himself to express them about personal matters, as expressing such emotions would compromise his dignity. His feelings are hidden so deep that they cannot resurface again, even when his beloved and admired father dies, even when the love of his life reaches out to him. Stevens is aware he has failed grossly in his personal life through his devotion of Lord Darlington.
But also in the second characteristic of a great butler, “to be attached to a distinguished household”, Stevens has been let down by his master. The great Lord Darlington has fallen in disgrace after the War. Darlington, whose character has been inspired by the real Lord Londonderry , has indeed, in the years before 39, tried to build bridges between the English establishment and the Nazi regime. When the true face of the enemy becomes clear during and especially after the war, Darlington reputation, because of his pro-German stance, is thoroughly destroyed.

Stevens has finally a meeting with Mrs. Kenton who is now married and a soon to be grandmother and he understands she will not come back to Darlington Hall. Mrs. Kenton admits to occasionally wondering what her life with Stevens might have been like. Stevens is fully aware of her feelings, but fails to reciprocate. It is not only the constraints of his social situation, but also his own emotional maturity (or immaturity) that holds him back. During their time spent at Darlington Hall, Stevens chose to maintain a sense of dignity, as opposed to searching and discovering the feelings that existed between him and Miss Kenton.

Stevens understands that he has missed true opportunities and is left behind to collect the remains of his unfulfilled life.

This superb book, makes one think about and evaluate our life and career. Maybe we have still time to correct some errors before we too collect the remains of the day.

The Remains of the Day (1989) is the third published novel by Japanese-British author Kazuo Ishiguro. The Remains of The Day is one of the most highly-regarded post-war British novels. It won the Booker Prize in 1989 for Best Fiction, and was later adapted into an Academy-Award nominated film, starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. The novel ranks in the Sunday Times list of 100 greatest novels.

I read this book in the winter in Boise, while I was working as a land surveyor and waiting to start grad school. I was blown away by this book, deeply, deeply moved and impressed. It is a well known story and fairly good film, but as a novel I was tremendously impressed. I had been reading a long stretch of non-literary books, non-fiction, science writing, poetry, even Dave Barry for a stretch and then took a chance on this book, and it turned me back on to fiction and drew me back to literature for the next few months. ( )

The wonderful aspect of the presentation is that, we get to feel the words of the narrator in all his true colors instead of the author's banter slipping through the mouth of the narrator. For, instance, the author never expresses the narrator's true emotions because he is someone who insists on remaining unmoved and unperturbed by any situation. So, the reader only gets to know what the narrator is feeling only through words of concern and sympathy uttered by other characters in the novel. That is what made the book special for me among other novels of the same genre. Another compelling reason to read the book would be Ishiguro's simple way of putting across raw human emotions with his incomparable style and ease. A must read for Ishiguro fans. ( )

This is a very compelling book. A well told story about class and society ( )

While I enjoyed the story line, the main character seemed to be quite robotic that I didn't really feel for him. ( )

I've been trying to identify the flaws in my staffing plan for years now. ( )

At the end of his three decades of service at Darlington Hall, Mr Stevens embarks on a country drive, during which he looks back over his career to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving "a great gentleman." But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlington's "greatness" and graver doubts still about his own faith in the man he served.

What an absolute treasure of a book. Here is one piece of literature that will make you revaluate your life. Have you ever looked back and wondered "what if" or "was that really the right thing to do" or "did I do the best I could"? This story is one man searching for those answers as he looks back on his life. Mr Stevens, throughout the course of this short novel, comes to terms with his inability to have any sort of relationship outside of the professional kind, his utterly blind faith in a man who was not a great as Stevens believed, and the real definition of "dignity". Dignity is not knowing your place. Is it not serving your employer well. Dignity is knowing you made a mistake and being able to own up to it. It is knowing that no, your life may not have turned out how you wanted it to, but still making the best of it. Stevens, a man unable to allow himself any sort of pleasure without somehow relating it to his job as a butler, realizes that his life is a lonely one and the man he served, once assuring himself that he was helping a great man change the world for the better in the only way he could, was in fact a supporter of the Nazis who was one of the biggest players in allowing Hitler to come into as much power as he eventually did.

This book is astounding and heartbreaking. I honestly don't know what else to say in this review because I feel nothing can really come close to the amount of pure, raw emotion found in these pages. Suppressed it may be, as that is what was required of Stevens to be a good butler, you can feel it flowing through every word like and electric current. The antics between Mr Stevens and Miss Kenton had me laughing. The inability of Mr Stevens and his father to express their love for one another had me crying. This is a book I will reread at least once a year. It is a reminder to everyone that mistakes in life are unavoidable but we should never stop living and if we found that somehow we have, it is never too late to begin again. ( )

This novel recounts the reminiscences of an aging butler as he looks back over his career. The main character, Stevens, is concerned about his ability to inhabit his role to the extent that he seems to think of little else, even though throughout the book he is ostensibly on holiday to see the wonders of the English countryside. I was thwarted a bit at first by Ishiguro's attention to descriptive detail, which seemed accurate but overanalytic, and by the first-person narration of the story, particularly when Stevens divulges that it is not done to speak of one's former employers and I couldn't help but wonder whether I was then meant to see his narrative about his life with his former employer as him talking to himself or him talking to me as a reader. Yet through a plotline that really consists of little more than simple anecdotes of daily life at work, Ishiguro managed to draw me completely into the story to the extent that I felt that I inhabited the character. The main questions of the book, "what is dignity" and "what is a job well done," are not the most monumental to be considered, and yet the novel shows tastefully to what extent small things count in a larger picture and in an effort to take the measure of a life lived. ( )

This book was to me a dive in a dreamlike country, a jewel of language that I treasured from the beginning to the end.

(this review does contain vague spoilers for the book)
It's always a shame when they take a book you love and turn it into a terrible movie. But I've just now learned that it's also a little disappointing when you see a wonderful movie and then read the book, only to find that seeing the movie has somewhat ruined your enjoyment of the book.
To explain: I adore the Anthony Hopkins/Emma Thompson movie of this book. I think it's wonderful directed, the acting is of course superb, and overall it conveys such an intense feeling of loss through inaction, juxtaposed with loss through action, it's beautiful. So of course I looked forward to the book immensely, and it *is* wonderful, definitely. But I don't think I savored it as much as I would have, if I hadn't seen the film already. I already knew where Stevens was going, not just physically but emotionally, or rather not going. His innermost thoughts, conveyed to us from the very first page, were transparent to me. In his pride I could see regret, and in his confidence I saw loneliness. And I think that is what we are meant to take away from Stevens, when we leave him on the pier at the end of the book. I simply find myself wondering what the experience would have been like without the foreknowledge I had of that ending. Would I have seen Stevens the same way?
One theme I picked up more strongly from book, however, was that of choices, inaction vs. action, and the simple fact that no choice is correct while the other is wrong. Lord Darlington tries to take action because he believes he is doing the right thing, but those actions bring about the loss of his dignity and respect. Miss Kenton chooses to act to avoid rejection and loneliness; she does avoid those things, but her path ends up having its own sorrows and hardships. But at the same time our Mr. Stevens takes the other road and does not act, and ends full of regret.
This is the first book of Ishiguro's that I have read and I enjoyed his writing style hugely. There is great nuance, and great subtlety in the way he tells a story; Mr. Stevens and his story could have been told by no other author. ( )

http://spwebdesign.livejournal.com/61... ( )

I live in a large apartment building and often sit on the balcony and watch the world go by. One night I noticed one of my neighbors squatting down and staring at the front of his car, then walking around to the rear and doing the same thing. He’d circle the car and check the headlights, then the taillights, then the headlights, etc. Then he’d seem satisfied and walk away, only to pull up and come back to the car and repeat the episode. At first I thought he was looking for damage to the grill, or the wind had blown his hat under the car. Then I realized he was obsessive/compulsive and was fixated on whether or not his lights were turned off. I see him go through this at least a few times a week and imagine it's an always thing with him. The first night I wanted to shout, and still want to shout when I see him, ‘Just walk away!’

I mention this only in passing.

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

The Remains of the Day is beautifully crafted, it’s a story that rewards scrutiny from several viewpoints. When first published it was taken as a condemnation of the right, but I think what it’s saying is that political leaders are deeply flawed and their every move needs watching. In fact, the only time the book breaks the fourth wall and the protagonist addresses the reader directly is in the couple of instances where he says that people can’t hope to know enough to lead, or aspire to great things on the world’s stage, and we need to pays our nickels and takes our chances. Ishiguro doesn’t think this at all.

The story is pretty simple- a large country estate, home to one of Britain’s leading families, is sold to an American- the Norman Rockwell Conquest. The house’s butler, Mr. Stevens, gets a letter from the old housekeeper that seems to hint that she’d like to return. Stevens sets out on a motor journey through the southern counties to visit her and, if she’s open to it, offer her a job. The day he sets out is the first day Darlington Hall has stood empty since it was built over 200 years ago.

There’s a mystic bit to start- a rustic points Stevens to a beauty spot where he sees the soul of England in the countryside. During the ride, Stevens reflects on his life in service to Lord Darlington, a central figure between the wars.

Remains has been called sad, and it is, or can be, profoundly sad in some passages. But it’s more the sadness of melancholy, leavened with sweetness, rather than the crushing sadness of despair. Ishiguro gives the reader hope, even if he identifies with Stevens, that respite is available and people come together to make merry when the sun sets. (The end of the book takes place on an amusement pier and is really beautiful.)

The book’s theme seems to me to be the falling away of the old order, based on duty and sportsmanship, and the rise of the professional man and self interest. Ishiguro seems to really hate the professional man. Stevens loses the girl because he forces himself to act professionally at all times. An American senator is revealed to be a dishonorable lout then praises rise of professionalism in the US.

Ishiguro gives the reader an out, but he condemns Stevens at the end, who he sits on a bench on the pier, drying his eyes over his lost life and steeling himself to improve his bantering skills. Maybe the book needed a martyr. ( )

As my daughter was packing to leave after a recent visit with us, she pulled this book off the shelves in her old bedroom (where I keep much of my TBR overload), plopped it in front me and said "Read this". Of course, I've been meaning to, for years. So under direct orders, I did. I can't for the life of me figure out why this book is so compelling, or how Ishiguro made his main character so utterly real, but I couldn't put it down. I struggled through the prologue, which I found tedious and belabored, but with several high recommendations behind the book, I continued reading, and somewhere around page 30 I realized I was hooked. There is nothing obviously striking about the prose itself, and the story line is minimal...just a framework from which to hang Mr. Stevens' musings about himself and his past. Mr. Stevens is an English butler of the old order, and he is painfully conscious of the fact that, in the second half of the 20th century, his kind may be facing extinction. He has lived a life based on service, on suborning his own opinions and denying the existence of personal feelings. Throughout a road trip across the English countryside he wrestles with memories, defending his former employer's lapses of humanity and rationalizing his own seemingly heartless behavior. Running under it all is a glimmer of hope that a meeting with former housekeeper, Miss Kenton, may hold promise of a different sort of future for Mr. Stevens. I join the legions of LT'ers who give this book high marks. To quote my daughter, "Read this." ( )

A deeply devoted English butler, Stevens, reminisces about his life in Darlington Hall. He believed, as a butler, it was his duty and responsibility to be selfless in every aspect of his life. Therefore, he devoted himself to giving Lord Darlington his very best. During this reminiscing, Stevens begins to discover himself.

This was a very good book. It took me a long time to become interested, but eventually I became attached to Stevens. After that happened, I was eager to hear more about his life. Interestingly enough, last year when I read Never Let Me Go I had the very same reaction. Ishiguro has a great talent for luring me into the depths of his novels and leaving me in a state of thoughtfulness. (4/5)

Originally posted on: "Thoughts of Joy..." ( )

Restrained is the first word that comes to mind. Ishiguro manages the feat of interesting the reader in a man who offers hardly a smidgeon of a promise of eventful narrative or a serious, keen mind. And yet, the tale is gripping, and the exposition of the butler's mind and attitude and its flaws is beautifully staged. ( )

Great book by one of the finest living modern authors. Sparse writing style but engaging and involving, and deeply moving. ( )

The more I read of Ishiguro's the less enamored I am with his books. All that
I've read of his
(and certainly Remains) are perfectly structured and paced, but they are all
structured in the
same way and use the same conventions of memory recall to tell the story. In
Remains,
Stevens reminds me way too much of Christopher Banks from When We Were Orphans
(and I
found Banks to be extremely annoying). Stevens did improve through the book and
I liked
the last 1/3 better than the first 2/3. I would never had finished it if I had
not seen and loved
the movie. If you're going to read a lot of Ishiguro I recommend spreading them
out so you
don't get tired of his style. ( )

How sad. I keep picturing poor Stevens working on his banter to impress his employer. Stevens does get a little emotional as he looks back at his life, but not unduly so. Unlike us, I don't think Stevens truly realises what a barren life his has been, & so isn't so very sad at devoting his life to service. The fact that he's worked hard at being the perfect butler is really a great comfort to him.

I'm glad I've finally read this but it made me very tired. ( )

The Author, and Why: This guy is phenomenally talented, brilliant. Almost too effective. Two years ago I read Never Let Me Go and was so afflicted with sadness that just recently have I felt sufficiently recovered to try another one of Ishiguro's novels. Thank god that this one, while certainly sad, is nowhere near as devastating as NLMG.
The book: The first thing I noticed was the Dickensian nature of the prose, in that it takes this narrator, a butler in a grand old English house, takes forever to make a point, is very clear, eventually, in what he wishes to convey, and every syllable is a delight. I'm sure this book has been reviewed ad nauseum so I'll limit my observations. Stevens is an endearing character from the inside, altho he must seem awfully reserved and detached from the outside. The sole -- and I mean sole -- focus of his life is to perfectly embody the ideal butler. The book is about the repercussions of that, especially to one's (as he would put it) personal life. I was surprised to find it humorous in places and enjoyed Stevens' view of his role, as support to Lord Darlington, in major political events of the 1920s through 40s. I'm looking forward to renting the DVD very, very soon. ( )

I thoroughly enjoyed Ishiguro's more recent novel, Never Let Me Go, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize (The Remains of the Day won it, in 1989). It was one of the few audiobooks I've ever listened to, and I think it was one of the few books I could really enjoy in that format. It has very simple prose and was easy to follow along with in the car.

The Remains of the Day is much the same. Ishiguro packs a punch into this short, easy to read narrative. Stevens, the narrator, is every bit the "stiff upper lipped" English butler that one would expect. His evolution, from the first page of the book to the last one, is so subtle, and yet so transformative, that one can only marvel that it happened at all, and try to pinpoint when his thinking changed.

Stevens is not a very likeable character. Most of the characters in the book are not. He is so repressed and so emotionally unavailable that it is almost funny. There are priceless moments when he tries to make a witticism, fails, and then spends a great deal of time analyzing why his joke went flat, and then commenting on the difficulties of "bantering" with another person. Sad and painful for him, I'm sure, but so fascinating. What would it be like to go through life so completely unable to connect with anyone? One of the saddest passages of the book to me took place in Stevens' butler's pantry, when the housekeeper comes inside to see what sort of book he is reading and he is very upset that she sees him reading a romance. The man's loneliness tears through every page.

Ishiguro's writing style is neat and unsentimental. He brilliantly writes from the point of view of a repressed old man. And the simple, unassuming redemption that occurs at the end... wonderful. ( )

This book has sat on my "to be read" pile for at least 2 years. I started it at least 3 or 4 times and kept putting it back. It was a very difficult book for me to get into because of the lack of action in the story. However, once I got reading it, the depth and quality of writing and of the main character Stevens was so intriguing it kept me reading. Another reviewer called this storyline 'subtle' and that is a great word to describe the book. A subtle novel of intrique and pure masterful writing. ( )

I was looking forward to reading this as I think Never Let Me Go is one of the best books I've ever read. So I was disappointed when it didn't live up to my (lofty) expectations. Granted the writing is beautiful, and I did enjoy the quietness of the tone, but I didn't feel any sympathy toward Stevens the butler. And since the whole story is told by Stevens, I was rather annoyed through the majority of the book.

Beautiful and slight. ( )