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May 07, 2011

Esteban rated it:

Kazuo Ishiguro writes the anti-haiku: instead of consciousness awakening to the immediacy of the immutable natural world, subjective memory is peeled back layer by layer to expose consciousness; instead of the joyous eruption of awareness, tension of the gradual decompression of ignorance; instead of a humility that acknowledges the unknowable on its own terms, rambling that tries to fill the chasm of existential angst that has suddenly opened up like a sinkhole in being. Yet what his writing sh More...

13 comments like (42 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Siria rated it:

This is one of the most beautifully mannered, subtle books I've read in a long, long time. Ishiguro's command of prose is perfect; there was never a point where I felt that this book wasn't written by a consummate English gentleman's gentleman. Remains of the Day is also one of the best examples of first person POV that I've read. Stevens' voice is always clear and distinct, and always used to frame the narrative in such a way that the reader is able to see things and guess things which the prot More...

2 comments like (50 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Ivy's Mom rated it:

It's not what happens in this story that's important, it's what doesn't happen. It's not what is said, but what is not said.

I almost feel like Stevens in a real person and not a fictional character. He may well be the most tragic figure I've had the honor to meet/read. He tried so hard to do what he thought to be the right thing and in the end it all turned out to the wrong thing...I cried for at least a half hour after I finished the final page. It was a bittersweet moment when More...

3 comments like (31 people liked it)

Jan 15, 2012

Michela rated it:

Quel che resta del giorno
Kazuo Ishiguro.

Apro il libro, leggo le prime pagine e lo richiudo per rileggere bene il nome dell’autore, Ishiguro? Giapponese? Nah non può essere.
Quello che ho tra le mani è un elegantissimo capolavoro inglese, non c’è dubbio. Leggo la biografia di Ishiguro e capisco, è nato a Nagasaki nel 1954 ma si è trasferito a soli 6 anni in Inghilterra, ecco perché c’era il tocco indistinguibile di un inglese.
Posso riprendere il mio libro, e continu More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Kelly rated it:

This is a work of high skill. Done in the first person, it conveys exactly the tone, workings, and errors of the mind that it lives in. Though it's clear that the narrator is unreliable- and he calls himself out on that a few times by what the reader may be thinking of his train of thought- he uses that unreliable format to his advantage. It is used to make Mr. Stevens more sympathetic and relatable to the reader, who otherwise might have some difficulty finding much in common with a postwar but More...

4 comments like (22 people liked it)

Jun 05, 2011

Nikki rated it:

I didn't know much about Remains of the Day. I'd read Never Let Me Go, people had suggested I read more of Ishiguro's work, and I picked it up somewhat at random in, according to the remnants of a tenacious sticker, a PDSA charity shop. I'm glad I did. It's entirely different to Never Let Me Go. It's the story of a butler, who has devoted much of his life to being a perfect one, taking a few days off for the first time in his life and pursuing a personal matter -- not that he can even admit to h More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Apr 18, 2011

Monique rated it:

I hereby officially declare that I am a fan of Kazuo Ishiguro.

"The Remains of the Day" is disputably Ishiguro's most popular work, having been awarded the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 1989.

Stevens is an “old-fashioned English Butler” who used to work for Lord Darlington, managing his household, Darlington Hall. During his lifetime, Lord Darlington was a prominent figure, having hobnobbed with rich and famous personalities in and outside Britain; he was even More...

10 comments like (8 people liked it)

Dec 27, 2011

Chiara rated it:

“Sono ormai venti minuti da quando l’uomo se n’è andato, ma io sono rimasto qui, seduto su questa panchina, ad aspettare l’evento che sta giusto per verificarsi – vale a dire l’accensione delle luci del molo. Come ho già detto, la felicità di questi cercatori di piacere che si raccolgono qui sul molo ad aspettare il piccolo evento sembra confermare le parole del mio accompagnatore, e cioè che per molte persone la sera è la parte più dolce della giornata. Forse allora c’è qualcosa di giusto in qu More...

4 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 25, 2011

Tatiana rated it:

Well, this novel definitely adds a whole new meaning to the definition of what a servant's loyalty is. The main character here, the old-school butler Stevens, is dedicated to his master and to his position to the extent which is quite shocking. Literally everything in Stevens' life - his family, the possibility of love, even his identity - is repressed and is secondary to being a good employee, a devoted employee who worships his master and follows him blindly down any path, regardless of how mi More...

10 comments like (9 people liked it)

May 31, 2008

Lorraine rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

May 19, 2008

Trevor rated it:

This is a book, at least in part, about the reliability of memory – and so, in keeping with that theme, I’m going to start by talking about what I remember of the film.

God knows when I saw this film – I assume I would have been still married and I think I might have even gone to see it with the estranged wife when it first came out, but it is hard to say now. I see the film was made in 1993 – so, if I saw it at the cinema when it first came out that would have been 15 years ago.
More...

1 comment like (12 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Jenny rated it:

Wow. After about 50 pages of what I first took to be boring nonsense, this book turned out to be a beautifully sad, poignantly impassive novel that I enjoyed very much. Although there is little, indeed, almost no, action in the novel, it somehow transports you to a place where you, and the protagonist butler Stevens, realize that you can't live in the past, and that no matter the mistakes of yesterday, you should still look before you, and enjoy what remains of your day.

I hate spoil More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

May 19, 2011

K.D. rated it:

Before I started reading this book, I thought that it would be boring as the writer is British and it was about a butler in an England county sometime in between 1940-1956. However, I need to have a break from reading THE RISE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE by Edward Gibbons. The names of the many emperors in their different eras are starting to confused me.

I was wrong. I started reading this book on a Friday morning while waiting for my daughter to join me in the car and I finished th More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 20, 2009

Endah rated it:

The Remains of The Day adalah novel karya Kazuo Ishiguro yang berhasil memenangi penghargaan Booker Prize (1989), salah satu ajang penghargaan paling bergengsi untuk buku-buku sastra (fiksi) yang ditulis dalam bahasa Inggris. Kazuo memang keturunan Jepang. Ia lahir di Nagasaki, Jepang, pada 1954, tetapi sejak usia lima tahun, bersama orang tuanya ia pindah dan kemudian menetap di Inggris. Telah enam novel ia tulis sepanjang kariernya. Terakhir berjudul Never Let Me Go (2005) yang menjadi runner More...

28 comments like (5 people liked it)

May 06, 2008

Amang rated it:

Kalau mau belajar tentang kesalahan dalam hidup, baca deh novel ini. Inti novel ini adalah sebuah "penyesalan": tentang seorang kepala pelayan keluarga ningrat, bernama Stevens, yang memberikan kepercayaan dan totalitas hidupnya pada Tuan Darlington dan berujung fatal. Lagi, dalam komitmennya mencapai keprofesionalan sebagai kepala pelayan, Stevens tidak mengejar cintanya pada seseorang yang telah membuat hidupnya lebih utuh dan dicintai. Sikap resmi yang membalut dirinya membuat Steve More...

18 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Kristina rated it:

This lovely novel is short but not slight. Ishiguru's style is impeccable, delicate, and precise. He perfectly captures the voice of an unreliable narrator who would really rather not tell you anything at all. I adore the way Stevens talks around every topic, circling around it with apparent confusion before admitting -- even as he continues to deny it -- what he really feels about something.

One of my favorite things about the novel is how excruciating Stevens's inability to communic More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 04, 2009

Kressel rated it:

When I was in college learning about Sartre's existentialism, the example to illustrate the plight of modern man was a waiter. He dresses in uniform and performs his duties for the people he is serving without relating to them in any personal sort of way. He's playing a role, treating himself like an object and not as a human being with independent thoughts and feelings. This book is that example in novelized form, except that the main character is an old-style English butler, not a waiter. And More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Nov 21, 2008

Andrea Carolina rated it:

He de decir que cada vez me gustan más los libros de Kazuo Ishiguro, son tan diferentes a todo lo que he leído… me llevan a un mundo apacible, tranquilo, melancólico pero no desesperante. Los libros de Ishiguro son estéticos, llenos de belleza, de detalles de contextos y culturas, y detalles históricos también. Sus historias son simples, historias de hombres honorables, de hombres que sacrifican, y hombres satisfechos. Cuando leo un libro de algún autor por primera vez, hay dos opciones o sigo l More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2008

jen rated it:

I loved Never Let Me Go, which is what led me to pick up Remains of the Day. I found ROTD to be as powerful a read as NLMG, and actually thought ROTD was a superior example of Ishiguro's storytelling ability. He has clearly mastered subtlety, and it is put to use excellently in this tale of a butler who has devoted both his external and internal life to his profession, at the expense, perhaps, of everything else.

Ishiguro's description of Stevens (the butler and narrator of the nov More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 06, 2008

Amang rated it:

If you want to read a false example of life, read this novel. It is a story about "regret": throughout his life, Stevens puts his absolute trust and devotion in a man named Lord Darlington who makes drastic mistakes. Also, in the totality of his professional commitment as a professional butler, Stevens fails to pursue the one woman with whom he could have had a fulfilling and loving relationship. His formality cuts him off from intimacy, companionship, and understanding. I learn my les More...

46 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 23, 2007

Trevor rated it:

One of my favorites. Ishiguro's writing is so subtle. Somehow he can get us to feel and understand so much from a narrator who says so little and who avoids acknowledging his feelings.
Stephens is one of my favorite characters in all of literature despite the fact that he is only a butler of a great house. He holds so much emotion even though he won't let it out, as is shown when he carries on his duties despite the decline of his father whom he regards as the perfect example of a butler More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 28, 2011

Lija rated it:

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro is not one of those books that pulls you in after the first few pages, and even after the first few chapters when you finally get drawn in by it, it is not one that I found particularly hard to put down. Despite this it is still worth reading.

The Remains of the day is a first person narration of a English butler named Stevens. The book tells of his quest to be the perfect butler and as he travels from large country house to large country house h More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 25, 2008

Lea rated it:

This is the story of a road trip. Stevens, and aging butler, has been given his employer's car to explore the south of England for several days. He is a rigid man, wedded to the class system, and his place in it as the concientious butler. He tragically misses the fact that the housekeeper loves him, and as the road trip unfolds for him, so,too, do the memories of his life, and the realisation that perhaps, in many things, he has been mistaken. He is idealistic and naive, and at first I thought More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Nov 24, 2011

Alibiserver rated it:

There comes, once in a while, a book that leaves a dent in our minds. Of course, with the myriad of choice reads these days, a lot of books catch our fancy, some may occupy us once in a while, and others may affect us profoundly, but rare will a book leave a dent to you. There is a slight different between leaving a dent and affecting in that being affected may be a quality that’s too ephemeral and leaving a dent may give one a 360 in whatever aspect of their life. The Remains of the Day is one More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 07, 2010

marie rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 04, 2011

ayanapunya rated it:

Novel ini bercerita tentang James Stevens, seorang kepala pelayan di Darlington Hall yang melakukan perjalanan untuk menemui Miss Kenton, seorang staff-nya di Darlington Hall beberapa tahun yang lalu. Perjalanan ini dilakukan karena ia menerima surat dari Miss Kenton yang seolah-olah menggambarkan kalau dirinya tak bahagia dengan pernikahannya dan ingin kembali ke Darlington Hall. Dan berhubung saat ini Steven merasa memerlukan tambahan staf untuk tim barunya di Darlington Hal, maka tidak ada sa More...

7 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 26, 2011

Brian rated it:

Stevens, the narrator, is an aging butler writing to an unknown audience in the mid ‘50s in England. He is a man who only possesses his work and doesn’t consider a life outside of being a butler and thoughts of improvement in his vocation are constantly on his mind. The occasion for his writing is the potential return of Miss Kenton, who he worked with some several decades previous.

Instead of having an emotional core (a core that is built around emotions, that is) this is a book that More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Mar 17, 2009

Tyler rated it:

One would think a novel in the form of a memoir of a British butler might run a bit flat. But with this book I could tell on page one it was going to be good. Not since Old Goriot have I had such an immediate sense for the story. The flow of the book confirmed my serendipitous sign. In this precise British novel by an author with a decidedly un-British name, thirty or forty pages at a time effortlessly pass by. The drama, the introspection, the plot trajectory – all unfold skillfully, and the e More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 21, 2009

Carol rated it:

In the early 1950's, an aging English butler, Stevens, who has served nobility and political figures in Darlington Hall is now trying to serve the new American owner of the house. Stevens takes great pride in his profession, his competence, his loyalty, and, above all, in his dignity. He is puzzled by the American's occasional jesting remarks, and wonders whether he is expected to exchange "witticisms". He tries, he practices, but doesn't hit the mark. He knows he is aging, regrets his More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 26, 2011

dead letter office rated it:

I wouldn't have thought a book about an uptight butler motoring around England in the 1950's and reminiscing about his professional life (or any book that spawned a movie featuring Emma Thompson) would be so engaging, but this was really good. Stevens is a great character. Initially his dedication and anachronistic formality are rather winning, but eventually it becomes clear that his careful composure and unremitting professionalism (his "dignity") are the masks he has hidden behind a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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