Hey guys, today I am here to do a review of The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro.
The Remains of the Day is set in post-WWII England and follows Mr. Stevens, the middle
aged butler at Darlington Hall, as he takes a brief vacation and road trip across the
English countryside to go visit a former colleague and friend, Ms. Kenton. And that's kind of
it for the plot of this novel because what we actually read are Stevens' reflections
on his time as a butler, specifically his career under the late Lord Darlington himself.
One thing I found very interesting about this novel was the setting. I don't think I've
ever read a novel set directly post WWII before, certainly not about a butler in post-WWII
England. That also means that most of Stevens' memories are from directly before the War
and you kind of slowly get to piece together, through his memories and reflections, what
role Lord Darlington and the events at Darlington Hall played in kind of shaping and influencing
the overall social and political climate and I found that very, very interesting.
I also found it interesting in the way that it tied in with Mr. Stevens' own sense of
identity and his discussion of what it means to be a great butler. I also just want to
mention quickly that this novel feels very distinctly English to me, particularly in
the sense that everything is very controlled and understated.
Although this is one of Ishiguro's most beloved novels and it actually won him the Booker
Prize, I was actually rather disappointed in it. Ishiguro's other novel, Never Let Me
Go, is probably my favorite book of all time and I think no matter how hard I tried, I
really was comparing The Remains of the Day to Never Let Me Go kind of the whole time
I was reading it. Also, this book has been recommended to me more than any book ever.
Especially once people find out that I like Never Let Me Go, they immediately ask me,
"Have you read The Remains of the Day?" and then they generally have something amazing
to say about it. So I think my basic problem was that I went in with too high expectations
and I really wish I could kind of go to an alternate universe where I never heard of
Ishiguro or read Never Let Me Go, and just experience this book for what it is on its
own.
That being said, I do think this is a novel that will improve upon rereading it and I
think that it will specifically be interesting to reread once I'm older. I feel kind of dumb
saying this because I didn't actually make this connection until about the last five
pages of the novel or so, but this novel deals with Mr. Stevens who is, what? Middle-aged.
He's a butler and he's slowly seeing other butlers retire and that way of life kind of
falling off and disappearing. He's already kind of hit the peak of his career and is
trying to figure out what to do in his post Lord Darlington days. This novel literally
deals with the remains of Mr. Stevens "day," or his life. The Remains of the Day!
As soon as I made that connect, I instantly felt less disappointed in the novel and it
just kind of made more sense to me why I wasn't as connected with Mr. Stevens as I was with
the characters in Never Let Me Go. I'm 23 years old, still in school, I have yet to
even start a career, let alone have one to look back on. So, essentially, I'm still kind
of in the morning of my day, if that makes sense. Of course, that's not to say that you
have to be middle aged or retired to enjoy this novel. I think that if I had read this
closer to graduation and the end of my undergrad career - that would have been the end of a
day, the end of a phase - it might have meant more to me, or I might have connected with
it more. Whereas, right now, I'm kind of at the beginning of a new day, I'm starting a
new phase of my life. How far can I push this metaphor?
So those are all the thoughts that I wanted to share on The Remains of the Day. I did
enjoy it, I believe I gave it three stars on Goodreads, but it didn't live up to the
Never Let Me Go standard, even though it was probably unfair of me to compare them. If
you've read the novel and you want to talk about it, please leave me some comments down
below. I'm also going to be linking two reviews that I really enjoyed. One is from Sabrina
from unmanagedmischief. She kind of had similar feelings to me and then the other is from
Ashley at ClimbTheStacks. She actually really, really enjoyed the novel, so I just wanted
you guys to get another perspective, a different perspective. So those links will be in the
description box if you would like to check those out.
Anyways, that's all I have for the video. That's actually all I managed to read in March
2015, so go me. But I hope you guys are having a fantastic day and I will see you next time.
Bye!