Book #45: The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This novel takes the form of a series of diary entries by its main character, Stevens, who works as a butler. At the start, he asks to be allowed to take leave and go off travelling around the southern part of Britain, which he is permitted to do.
I took a while to get into this novel, because of its unconventional format. So, most of the early chapters open with a short explanation of where Stevens is travelling, but then the narrative launches into an extended flashback to his time serving his old employer, Lord Darlington. One of the early chapters was about his musings of "what makes a good butler", which I found difficult to get through.
I started getting more into the novel about half way through, as I got used to the narrative style. Some of the early chapters were about Stevens' father, who also worked as a butler, but one of the main plot threads involved his relationship with the housemaid, Miss Kenton.
I was tempted to believe that he and Miss Kenton would end up as a romantic couple, while they constantly kept their friendship as a professional one. Throughout the flashbacks, I got a sense that their relationship was a little bit strained because of the characters' different philosophies, but I could also tell that the narrative was leading up to Stevens and Miss Kenton meeting up on his travels.
I did end up downloading a reader's guide to this book on my Kindle, just to make sure I didn't miss anything, mostly because of the dense narrative style, and lengthy paragraphs. It helped me to pick up on the themes of servitude and loyalty (Stevens refers to "giving his best" to Lord Darlington at one point). He even comes across at times as an apologist for Lord Darlington, who is described as having possible connections with the Nazis. He even defends his former employer's decision to fire two Jewish members of staff, as apparently he had to do it for their own safety.
It seemed to me that there was an overall theme about live, and not regretting past mistakes. As Stevens and Miss Kenton say later on, you can't turn back the clock, and that it is good to be grateful for what you have.
Overall, although at first I wondered why I had bothered with this, I was glad in the end that I had taken the time to read it.
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