The Remains of the Day

by Kazuo Ishiguro

Paperback, 258 pages

English language

Published Oct. 29, 1999 by Faber and Faber.

ISBN:: 9780571200733

(5 reviews)

In the summer of 1956, Stevens, the ageing butler of Darlington Hall, embarks on a leisurely holiday that will take him deep into the countryside and into his past . . .A contemporary classic, The Remains of the Day is Kazuo Ishiguro's beautiful and haunting evocation of life between the wars in a Great English House, of lost causes and lost love.

47 editions

Jim Brown reviewed Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

mundanity and tedium made dramatic

No rating

This is the second of Ishiguro's I've read (the other was Klara and the Sun), and I'm struck with how much his characters love to revel in tedium. In this book, it's done to comedic effect often (since the narrator is obsessed with the details of what makes a "good butler" or what counts as "dignity"). But it then surprisingly dips into a love story and Nazi sympathizers. The book is deep in the weeds of something that seems ridiculous while all of these other more important things are happening around the edges. In the end, it works.

starchy reviewed Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Remains of the Day

5 stars

There's so much in here. It bears another read, and I'm very curious how they managed the film adaptation.

Shauna reviewed The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

A deeply sad character study

5 stars

Content warning spoilers for the ending

This book is not a love story but a character study. It's a meditation on professional dignity, and what happens when you sacrifice everything - every opportunity, every chance for connection, for human emotion - on the altar of that dignity. It's a book about misleading yourself. It's a book about giving in to sunk costs.

The last few pages are what made this story work for me. Because Stevens is a sympathetic, if deeply frustrating, narrator. I was rooting for him to have some kind of growth, to leave him ready to grasp the remains of the day. And it seemed like Ishiguro was leading him there, showing him reconsidering the value of bantering (and thus, human connection). But the very last thing Stevens thinks is how this will make him a better butler. Because in the end, he is too scared to be anything but what he has always been.

Superbly done by Ishiguro.

Monika reviewed The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Review of 'The Remains of the Day' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

I didn't start getting into the story until around the 40% mark and even then, I felt like I had to make myself read it. If it hadn't been a book club pick, it'd probably be a DNF. I'm glad I stuck with it until the end. It was worth it from a literary and historical standpoint. But that ending felt incredibly depressing to me and I'm not sure it was meant to be? Was there meant to be little to no growth of the main character? Did he grow, but my own views are just so vastly different I can't see it? I have a lot of feelings to think about before my book club's discussion.

Amber Dickson

rated it

Sept. 11, 2021

Subjects

Modern fiction