From the Bookshelf of Between the Lines…

The Remains of the Day

Kazuo Ishiguro

Start date: November 1, 2009

Finish date: November 30, 2009

Discussion: Themed Reading

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Sep 17, 2009 Arun Divakar rated it it was amazing

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The evening arrives and the sun prepares to go down scattering gold all over the skies. After a day filled with chattering the birds slowly start falling silent and we humans begin setting aside the madness of a day and decide to get some rest. In the words of a minor character in the book :

”You’ve got to enjoy yourself. The evening’s the best part of the day. You’ve done your day’s work. Now you can put your feet up and enjoy it. That’s how I look at it. Ask anybody, they’ll all tell you. The The evening arrives and the sun prepares to go down scattering gold all over the skies. After a day filled with chattering the birds slowly start falling silent and we humans begin setting aside the madness of a day and decide to get some rest. In the words of a minor character in the book :

”You’ve got to enjoy yourself. The evening’s the best part of the day. You’ve done your day’s work. Now you can put your feet up and enjoy it. That’s how I look at it. Ask anybody, they’ll all tell you. The evening’s the best part of the day.”

The words of a character who is very much content with his life, someone who conventional wisdom might not call a very successful person but in his own mind he is happy and serene. This character is not named in this novel and he is someone whom our protagonist Stevens meets only for a short while before the end of the story. For a story filled with memorable imagery, subtle wordplay and warm characters this one character chose to stay on with me. On giving it some thought, I have come to understand that it could probably be because he symbolizes the most important aspect of the story : the evening. To me, The Remains of the Day is chiefly about how time eventually wears the human ego down to its most basic version.

Stevens the Butler feels age seeping into him and with age comes minor errors in dispensing his duty. For Stevens this is a matter of some embarrassment for he knows no other way of life than as being a butler at Darlington Hall. The years following WWII is when Stevens comes to meet us and he is almost in his 60’s by then. One gets a feeling that Stevens is trying to make sense of the world around him. He understands that history has turned another page and he really cannot read what is written on the new leaf. It is his own personal evening where he reflects on how his life has evolved over the years. At the onset of the story, Stevens is a very self-confident individual with a set of unshakeable notions but as he proceeds further and further on his road trip across England he begins to question all of his professional and personal beliefs and the decisions he had taken based on them. The journey is more about self-realization and how looking at life with a fresh new pair of glasses changes everything.

As much as the evening encroaches upon Stevens as an individual, time also draws the curtains on an era. After being employed for decades at Darlington Hall, Stevens’s employer who was a member of the British aristocracy passes away and the next owner is an American gentleman. These two characters are worlds apart and Stevens struggles a fair bit to understand his new employer Mr.Farraday. There are some amusing anecdotes at play while the two interact but underlying their conversation is a sublime message that the time of a butler as an indispensable member of the household might also be slowly receding. What goes on in the background is even more amusing as we see that the British Empire has also largely begun its slide into obscurity. Amidst all these tumultuous changes, Stevens takes a short road trip to meet an old colleague Miss Kenton and it is this journey that opens up his memories to the reader.

Stevens is an amusing character for he does not know or understand to be anything other than a butler. The belief he places on his professional competence overpowers his basic human empathy and understanding many a time. He is an epitome of service and courtesy but fails to notice and understand even the most basic of cues when it comes to understanding the mind of a fellow human being. The last few moments of his interaction with Miss Kenton are sublime and tragic but Stevens the butler again trumps Stevens the human being and carries the day forward. After travel, a bit of adventure, serendipities and heartbreak I almost thought Stevens would go a different route but then that would have been against the basic grains of his character and so goes back to his own little world of Darlington Hall where his work awaits !

This was my second read of this book and I still cannot think of anyone better to play this role than Anthony Hopkins. Highly recommended (both the book and the movie). It’s a fascinating look into personality, culture, dignity and heartbreak told in poetic language. ...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Billy Candelaria rated it really liked it

This is Ishiguro's Third novel and,yours truly, first time reading him. The story is told from a first point of view. The centerpiece of our story is MR Stevens, your typical British gentleman butler, working previously under a Lord Darlington and currently under Mr Farraday. His recent employer told to get some time off.This gives him a chance to visit his own colleague, Miss Kenton; now know as Mrs Benn. throughout that journey, memories erupted , prespectives reviewed and long cherish time re ...more

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Aug 09, 2010 SweetPea rated it really liked it

Shelves: pg-count-up-to-500, 2010, 1001-books-to-read

I'm not entirely sure why this book grabbed me but it did from the start. Much of the "point" of the story was told through the reader understanding what the main character did not - a nice technique. Although the story seemed focused on the mundane day-to-day experience of the main character, it told a story far broader in scope without banging you over the head with it. ...more

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