The Remains of the Day

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

*Kazuo Ishiguro's new novel Klara and the Sun is now available*

WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE

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.

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 triumph . . . This wholly convincing portrait of a human life unweaving before your eyes is inventive and absorbing, by turns funny, absurd and ultimately very moving.' Sunday Times

'A dream of a book: a beguiling comedy of manners that evolves almost magically into a profound and heart-rending study of personality, class and culture.' New York TImes Book Review

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Greeted with high praise in England, where it seems certain to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Ishiguro's third novel (after An Artist of the Floating World ) is a tour de force-- both a compelling psychological study and a portrait of a vanished social order. Stevens, an elderly butler who has spent 30 years in the service of Lord Darlington, ruminates on the past and inadvertently slackens his rigid grip on his emotions to confront the central issues of his life. Glacially reserved, snobbish and humorless, Stevens has devoted his life to his concept of duty and responsibility, hoping to reach the pinnacle of his profession through totally selfless dedication and a ruthless suppression of sentiment. Having made a virtue of stoic dignity, he is proud of his impassive response to his father's death and his ``correct'' behavior with the spunky former housekeeper, Miss Kenton. Ishiguro builds Stevens's character with precisely controlled details, creating irony as the butler unwittingly reveals his pathetic self-deception. In the poignant denouement, Stevens belatedly realizes that he has wasted his life in blind service to a foolish man and that he has never discovered ``the key to human warmth.'' While it is not likely to provoke the same shocks of recognition as it did in Britain, this insightful, often humorous and moving novel should significantly enhance Ishiguro's reputation here. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

A fascinating novel about England by a Japanese-born English novelist. The narrative centers on Stevens, an aging English butler, and his solitary drive westward across the English countryside. It is a journey through his memory as well, and Stevens, who has so far structured his life around the meticulous details of caring for his uppre-class employers' comfort, gradually begins to confront the essential hollowness of his long life and the self-deception that has sustained him through it. Sad and humorous, this book is as much a haunting story about an ordinary man's heightened self-knowledge--which liberates as well as horrifies him--as it is a hilarious critique of the English class system and the uncertainties of postimperial Britain. Ishiguro, who has the advantage of being simultaneously a cultural insider and an observant outsider, projects a vision of English life that is affectionate as well as deftly ironic. Recommended for graduate and undergraduate students of English studies and general readers, this novel has just been awarded the prestigious Booker Prize in Britain. -E. S. Nelson, SUNY College at Cortland

Booklist Review

A little masterpiece of restrained prose exploring the subtle roots of fascism through the life of a well-intentioned but misguided butler.

Kirkus Book Review

Ishiguro is an Englishman of Japanese descent (he moved to England as a small child) whose two previous novels (A Pale View of Hills, An Artist of the Floating World) featured Japanese characters; here, he breaks new ground with a slow-moving rumination on the world of the English country-house butler. For 35 years, Stevens was Lord Darlington's butler, giving faithful service. Now, in 1956, Darlington Hall has a new, American owner, and Stevens is taking a short break to drive to the West Country and visit Mrs. Benn, the housekeeper until she left the Hall to get married. The novel is predominantly flashbacks to the 20's and 30's, as Stevens evaluates his profession and concludes that "dignity" is the key to the best butlering; beyond that, a great butler devotes himself "to serving a great gentleman--and through the latter, to serving humanity." He considers he "came of age" as a butler in 1923, when he successfully oversaw an international conference while his father, also a butler, lay dying upstairs. A second key test came in 1936, when the housekeeper announced her engagement (and departure) during another major powwow. Each time, Stevens felt triumphant--his mask of professional composure never slipped. Yet two things become clear as Stevens drives West. Lord Darlington, as a leading appeaser of Hitler, is now an utterly discredited figure; far from "serving humanity," Stevens had misplaced his trust in an employer whose life was "a sad waste." As for the housekeeper, she had always loved Stevens, but failed to penetrate his formidable reserve; and at their eventual, climactic meeting, which confirms that it's too late for both of them, he acknowledges to himself that the feeling was mutual. This novel has won high praise in England, and one can certainly respect the convincing voice and the carefully bleached prose; yet there is something doomed about Ishiguro's effort to enlist sympathy for such a self-censoring stuffed shirt, and in the end he can manage only a small measure of pathos for his disappointed servant. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.