The Remains of the Day in Reading with Style

Jul 25, 2012 Connie G rated it it was amazing

Shelves: europe, historical-fiction, 1001-books

Stevens, an aging butler at Darlington Hall near Oxford, takes a trip through England's West Country in 1956 to visit an old friend. He reminisces about his years serving the Lord Darlington, now deceased, who was very active politically behind the scenes following World War I. Stevens narrates the story of his life in a refined butler's way of speaking. He's such a model professional butler that he rarely lets down his reserved, polite facade. His new employer is an American, a relaxed man, tha ...more

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Sep 21, 2018 Shirley (stampartiste) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: challenge-bingo-2018

My overwhelming feeling when I finished this book was one of sadness for Mr. Stevens, the narrator and main character. Because it would be difficult for me to say anything about this book without giving away the essence of the story, I will put the rest of my review in spoiler brackets.

(view spoiler) My overwhelming feeling when I finished this book was one of sadness for Mr. Stevens, the narrator and main character. Because it would be difficult for me to say anything about this book without giving away the essence of the story, I will put the rest of my review in spoiler brackets.

(view spoiler)[ Mr. Stevens narrates his story of being a butler/valet primarily to one man, Lord Darlington in the first half of the 20th century. It is this role that defines his life. We meet Mr. Stevens in 1956, his present time. But his story goes back decades as he reminisces about his life as butler at Darlington Hall. Mr. Stevens paints a picture of a man whose very nature is one of complete control… over himself and over those who work for him. The most important thing in his life is to attain the highest level of what he termed “dignity” as a butler and be numbered among these elite few.

But what makes this so sad is that Mr. Stevens missed out on life. He tethered his goals to a system that was no longer of any value. The world had changed, but he was too insulated at Darlington Hall to realize it. He sacrificed his life to serve the life of someone he believed merited it, only to find that Lord Darlington’s values were just as flawed as his. So Mr. Stevens comes to the end of his life realizing that he could have experienced a life with someone who loved him (Miss Kenton), but whom he couldn’t allow to come between him and his value system. And how tragic that he forced himself not to look back on his life because that process would have been too painful.

In looking to the genesis of Mr. Stevens’ aspirations in life, I thought it so tragic that he was trying to emulate a man who also could not love or be loved… his own father. Mr. Stevens held his father as his idol and lived his life in such a way that he would make this unbending man proud. So in a sense, Mr. Stevens gave his life away twice: once to his father, and once to Lord Darlington. What a heavy price to pay for respect alone.

The one gleam of hope is when Mr. Stevens realizes that he “should adopt a more positive outlook and try to make the best of what remains of my day.” He even begins to look forward to practicing his “bantering” skills in order to develop human warmth with his new employer, Mr. Farraday.

For me, this was just a wonderful, tragic story of wasted lives. (hide spoiler)]

As to Mr. Ishiguro's writing style, it is impeccable!
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