The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Summary:

A booker prize-winning novel, this memoir is a story about regret, nostalgia and self-deception. Stevens, a butler at a large English House, undertakes a six day trip to the West Country in order to meet Miss Kenton, the former housekeeper at Darlington Hall, where both worked together before World War II. While motoring the country, Stevens struggles with the past while confronting the present, trying to deny that he has devoted his life to serving a man who wasn’t as great a gentleman as he thought and regretting his inability to tell her feelings to the woman he loved.

LRB

Critical perspective:

Ishiguro's novels are preoccupied by memories, their potential to digress and distort, to forget and to silence, and, above all, to haunt.

When he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017, the Swedish Academy praised Ishiguro’s work for unearthing ‘the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world.’ If Ishiguro's novels tend to defy genre expectations, with each new work veering from the conventions of the last, what haunts all of them is the abyss of memory and its potential to shape and distort, to forget and to silence. His protagonists seek to overcome the chasms and absences left by loved ones and lost family members by making sense of the past through acts of remembrance.

Ishiguro's characters are pathologically unreliable. They tend to deceive, rather than reveal themselves, through storytelling. His novels are not attempts to render the past convincingly, but rather to pursue how individuals interpret and (re)construct their lives through history.

Stevens' memories unfold in the form of a travelogue. Yet (…) Stevens' flashbacks help us to make sense of his past and simultaneously expose that past as provisional, partial and unreliable. As the story progresses, we learn that Stevens helped his master entertain Fascist leaders (…) and that his visit to Miss Kenton (…) has an ulterior motive. Stevens is a deluded character, and as such readers sympathise with, but cannot quite place faith in him. The stunning precision and clarity of Ishiguro's prose in The Remains of the Day belies the fact that it is also a fiction about imprecision and the distortions of language.

https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/kazuo-ishiguro

Biography:

https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/kazuo-ishiguro

Reviews by our book club members:

“A delicious description of the highest level, nobility in fact, of British society, through the eyes and sophisticated language of a butler -Mr.Stevens, the narrator, who depicts all the dígnity and loyalty he considers esential virtues oh his condition of manservant.

The structure arranged as a road novel allows the plot to jump from present to past, since the first twenties -being lord Darlington his employer, who played an important political role in both World wars,  up to 1956 -being Mr.Farraday his new American employer.

But, all in all, the trip is just an excuse, after having received a letter from Miss Kenton, the old housekeeper at Darlington hall with whom he had a too formal relation, to tell the reader about historical meetings held at the place and to make personal reflections concerning everything witnessed.

The figurative title leads the reader to the best moment of every day, or even to a certain feeling of satisfaction or hope.”

CJ

“The Remains of the Days follows Mr. Stevens, a devoted Butler, through his first motoring trip out of Darling Hall, where he has served most his life, looking back on his life during a six day period in July 1956.

It is a story about a frustrated life and how serving with dignity can turn you into your own worst enemy, but most of all it's a story about love.

This is one of the most beautifully subtle books I´ve ever read in a long time. Ishiguro´s command of prose is perfect, being one of the best examples of first person discourse narrative. In addition, it´s  quick and easy to read, perhaps a little dry at times, but it's definitely a book that everyone should  give a try.”

JLJG

“The theme is focused on the reworked memory of the protagonist, in an attempt to justify his sometimes erroneous actions, as well as those of his boss.  Two planes: the historical one with references to the political moment between the wars and the personal one, a reflection on the decisions made during his history as a butler, which are actually a confession about himself, about his life.  reflections, rectifications, which place him in a constant evasion of reality in an attempt to justify the search for the dignity of the perfect butler and the dignity of his boss Lord Darlington, a sympathizer of Hitler's government.  Dialogues between the past and the present.  The past is the scene of the European diplomatic political situation prior to World War II and the present in 1956 during a trip.  It is a back and forth narrative.  Two contrasting spaces: the security of the house, despite its conflicts, and the serene landscape of the English countryside.  This trip puts him in contact with another reality.  There is an interaction between the safe space and the free space that leads him to begin a critical reflection on his behaviour, on the dimension of his repressed affectionate relationship.  He is a grotesque, melancholic character who lives in the past.  During his trip he reconsiders his rigidity and tries to open up to his new boss in a more ironic way.  It is both a review of his behaviour and hidden feelings and of the control of his emotions.  Also, in this attempt at constant evasion of reality, a form of defence of his former master, Lord Darlington, a declared anti-Semite and fascist seen by the protagonist as deceived or seduced by Nazi ideology without acknowledging any guilt.  Neither him nor the historical figures, since he dares to say that to judge them you have to place yourself in that context between wars.  About the control of his emotions, I think he clarifies the page quite a bit. 44 on English rationalism and European emotionality. 

The story continues between past and present, back and forth about what was or could have been, in an attempt to justify the reproached behaviour of Lord Darlington and his own, which he tries to justify by the loyalty that a good butler owes to his master.  He continues to make a more emotional personal review of his life, seeking the concept of dignity based on loyalty to his lord.  After the meeting with Miss Kenton, or Mrs. B. he is aware of the missed opportunity to exchange affection.  The retired character at the end of the book also makes him reconsider the failure of his life, so rigid, so controlled.  The story becomes bitterer, but in the end it opens with the hope of surpassing himself in his work and being able to support the jokes and irony of his current boss.  The reaction comes as a result of his confrontation with a free setting such as the English countryside.  We must judge this character within English rationalism, that lack of emotionality, that control of emotions, is grotesque in the eyes of a European and within the Protestant or Calvinist spirit of salvation through effort at work.”

PRR

Praise: 

“This is a work that goes to the heart of a lost life. Beautifully composed, totally unsentimental, immeasurably tender.” —Harold Pinter, The Observer

“Apart from being suspenseful, intriguing, elegiac and politically astute, this is also the funniest novel I've read in ages. . . . Both subtle and humane. . . . Simply read it for pleasure, and be richly rewarded.” —Jonathan Coe, The Guardian

“A perfect novel. I couldn't put it down.” —Ann Beattie

“Marvellous. . . . Superb.” —The Globe and Mail

“The novel rests firmly on the narrative sophistication and flawless control of tone . . . of a most impressive novelist.” —Julian Barnes, The Literary Review

“Brilliant. . . . A story both beautiful and cruel.” —Salman Rushdie, The Observer

“One of the best books of the decade.” —The Boston Globe

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/85611/the-remains-of-the-day-by-kazuo-ishiguro/9780345809322

Radio Interview to listen to: 27:29 minutes:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b007674y

Read More:

• Kazuo Ishiguro in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/06/kazuo-ishiguro-the-remains-of-the-day-guardian-book-club
• Salman Rushdie on Kazuo Ishiguro: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/kazuo-ishiguros-legendary-novel-the-remains-of-the-day-resurges/article20077637/
• The Booker Prizes web: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/how-the-remains-of-the-day-changed-the-way-i-think-about-england

Kazuo Ishiguro in the library:

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Kazuo Ishiguro in EBiblio (november 23rd, 2023)