6. Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day

[pauraque]

I don't read many novels, and those I read are usually SF/F, so this was a departure for me. I haven't seen the movie either, so I didn't know much going in, but I thought I'd give it a chance

Comments

[kosarin]

Whoa, that doesn't sound damning at all (although I totally get when a book just doesn't grab you), it sounds amazing. I am adding it to my list! Thank you for the very thoughtful review, particularly since it didn't speak to you.

[pauraque]

Do give it a try if it sounds good to you! It is exceptionally well-written and I did like it, but exactly, it didn't grab me. Coincidentally, there's a lot of discussion in the book about what constitutes 'greatness' (in people) and whether it can be quantified or if it's something you just feel when you know the person. 'Greatness' in literature is a feeling for me, though I can try to quantify what makes that feeling happen.

[sanguinity]

It's been a long time now, but I remember getting near the end and the book all but shifting in my hands as I realized what Ishiguro was aiming everything at.

...and it's been since labeled in my brain as a scary or dangerous book, one that has truths I don't want to look at, thank you much. Speak to me, yes it did.

I've only read one other Ishiguro novel -- Never Let Me Go -- and that one did pretty much nothing for me.

[pauraque]

I can see how the book might have a scary effect. I saw where it was going pretty early on, and there is a relentlessness in the way it plays out that is quite unforgiving. Ishiguro is not afraid to take his premise to its natural, but devastating conclusion.

I've heard so much about Never Let Me Go, good and bad. Though I'm a fan of speculative fiction, I feel like it's a plot I've seen quite a bit before, so it would take a lot for it to impress me.

[sanguinity]

It's gotten good reviews and meh reviews on this comm; for myself, I think part of the division has to do with how you feel about litfic and sff. Never Let Me Go is a specfic plot in a litfic treatment, and consequently hit pretty much none of my SFnal buttons. It does appear to effectively hit litfic buttons, however. Which says to me that you if you read it, you shouldn't be reading it for the plot, but for litficcy non-plot aspects.

[pauraque]

That makes sense. I wasn't planning to read it, and you make it sound like that's the right decision for me.