Poll

I have to go with Ishiguro here. As much as I like To Kill a Mockingbird, as much as it meant to me as a young reader, Ishiguro's means a lot more to me as an older reader. Stevens just means more to me than Jem, Scout, Atticus, and Boo Radley. Typing that sentence hurt a bit more than I thought it would. When the kids are watching Atticus as he thinks silently in the night . . . that's powerful stuff.

I may just change my vote here!

As much as I liked Remains of the Day, this is an easy decision for me. I listened to the audio of Mockingbird recently and was surprised how moving & relevant it still was for me. We need Atticus Finch today.

To my shame I have never read To Kill a Mockingbird, so I am basing my decision on what I know. The Remains of the Day is one of my favourite Booker winners - I came to it very late after reading several of Ishiguro's other books, and was afraid my judgement would be coloured by memories of the film, and the biggest surprise was how much humour there is in it...

Very surprised to see that Remains of the Day is in the lead, let alone by this much.

Mockingbird never seemed to me like Great Literature; I wouldn't have thought it should be a classic if it hadn't been presented as one, seemed no more special than hundreds of other books I read around the same time.
And given all the commentary I've read about it in the past few years (mostly on GR but some other book sites too) I think it a shame it has still not been displaced from school curricula - for I see its use as predominantly didactic, generally, but even more so because I didn't find it terribly interesting otherwise - by a novel about racism in America by a black writer, and one which had discarded some of the frequently-criticised tropes found in the Harper Lee.

Remains of the Day was a great novel qua novel, which made me sympathetic to characters with values such as quiet stoicism at a time when I knew almost nothing of these from reality.

Antonomasia wrote: "Very surprised to see that Remains of the Day is in the lead, let alone by this much.

Mockingbird never seemed to me like Great Literature; I wouldn't have thought it should be a classic if it ha..."

I have to agree with a lot of this - and so it's an easy vote. Having said that, TRotD is far below The Unconsoled.

Jill wrote: "As much as I liked Remains of the Day, this is an easy decision for me. I listened to the audio of Mockingbird recently and was surprised how moving & relevant it still was for me. We need Atticus ..."
Jill
It would appear that you are going to need all your own advocacy defence skills for Mockingbird. Take your inspiration from Atticus!!

To Kill a Mockingbird has been taking hit after hit in the last decade, but I still thought it would do better here! Is this a book that's done well and that's been seeded near the top simply by reputation?

I've read most of the loudest and most public attacks against the book, and I'm not sure the book did anything to deserve the attacks. Atticus Finch certainly has his own problems presented as virtues, but that's another reason I think the book is valuable today. Provided one not be looking at it with one's "blind spots," to reference the passage often used to dismiss the man.

I'm glad that Ishiguro is winning, but I may try to see if I can at least salvage To Kill a Mockingbird as a worthy book.

Ouch! I'm curious if any of you nay sayers have read the book recently? I would have been more inclined to vote for Remains of the Day if I hadn't just re-experienced TKAM.
I'm surprised by the term didactic, because I don't feel that way at all. The book evokes a time and a place so well and the narration by Scout is innocent and eye-opening. Yes, race is a key factor but I see it more as Atticus standing up for what he believes in whatever the cost. He's kind and tolerant regardless of the consequences.
I'm a CPA - not a litigator- however numbers support me! I'm not alone in the Goodreads group as a whole even though I stand alone here. HA! Love you guys anyway.

I would be interested in what TKAM fans made of Go Set a Watchman. I felt for all its flaws it presented a more realistic and nuanced view of the time and place in which it was set.

Interesting, GY. I didn't read Go Set a Watchman and never planned to, though most of that is because of my distaste for how the whole publication event came together. I didn't even read or listen to many reviews, but you're a trusted source, so maybe I should give in.

Back to To Kill a Mockingbird, though: I see where people are coming from when they think the book is didactic, though I'm more on Jill's side here. I think the book comes across as didactic mainly because it's taught that way. It's propped up as a moral standard for our community, and that's also a central reason why it is attacked . . . who is this Atticus Finch anyway, and why does he have anything nice to say about a KKK member? And I am sure that the moral standard perception is one of the reasons the book is as famous as it is.

But I think the book is both less and more than that. Less because I don't think books are there to teach but to enrich, and I think that's what To Kill a Mockingbird does. More because the perspective and Boo Radley himself are tremendous features in a very mysterious book.

I still cannot bring myself to vote for it here, though, because The Remains of the Day is such a lovely exploration of suppression and ensuing regret, and Ishiguro's style is perfectly tempered to that effect.

Surprised how easy Remains of the Day has had it here!

I did a good job seeding the other brackets so far, but this one: not even close. This will be the fourth upset out of four matches.

I'm still surprised to see how poorly To Kill a Mockingbird did here, but happy to see Ishiguro moving on!