The Remains of the Day in Classics Without All the Class

Apr 08, 2015 Leo Walsh rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

All I can say about this book is "Wow." At first, I laughed since Stevens was so preposterous. A stereotypical English butler. He wanted so badly to be a good butler that when his new American boss took to ribbing him, he vowed to learn to be witty.

But at the end, I was crushed. Everything Stevens has lived for turns out to be suspect. Except his dedication to his job. And the irony that he used his superb craft to serve a master that was less-then-savory. A Nazi-sympathizer who fired his Jewis ...more

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Sep 21, 2013 Carol rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: ishiguro, ishiguro-kazuo

In postwar England, this story focuses on being "a perfect English butler." Stevens has devoted 30 years of his life to "his concept of duty and responsibility", hoping to reach the pinnacle of his profession through totally selfless dedication and a ruthless suppression of sentiment. He is proud of his impassive response to his father's death and his "correct" behavior with the spunky, former housekeeper, Miss Kenton. Ishiguro builds Stevens's character with precisely controlled details, creati ...more

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Nov 01, 2013 Carol rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ishiguro-kazuo

One of my all time favorite books. Excellent!!

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Nov 18, 2013 K. G. Whitehurst rated it liked it · review of another edition

This novel is a technical tour de force. It contains the most consistent voice of an English butler, a man so emotionally repressed he cannot glimpse, except for a tiny moment, that his service has cost him human warmth and companionship. He represses that epiphany and goes back to his comfortable nostalgia that traps him as effectively as spider's web does an unwary insect. Stevens is the ultimate expression of Whittier's lines--"Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, 'it mig ...more

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May 28, 2019 Mike rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This book started out slow for me, I mean it's a book about a butler. But the writing is top notch and the characters were so real I started to really enjoy the book. The last portion of the book I really started to get it and understand the themes. ...more

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