Book Review: Kazuo Ishiguro soars alongside his ‘The Remains of the Days’
Grade: A
Sooner or later, whether we want them to or not, the questions come:
Was it really worth it?
Did I accomplish anything?
Can I salvage what I have left?
Is there anyway I can change the past?
In Kazuo Ishiguro’s 1989 novel, “The Remains of the Day,” both the questions and their sometimes tragic answers find vent through the mind of a man coming to grips with the possibility that his last 30 years have been wasted on a false cause where, for good or ill, he couldn’t even say that he had honestly made his own mistakes.
Readers are first introduced to Stevens, an aging butler who has served Darlington Hall for about 30 years.
After belonging to the Darlington family for nearly two centuries, Darlington Hall has recently fallen under the ownership of a brash American named Mr. Farraday who wants to have a “genuine grand old English house” and a “genuine old-fashioned English butler” in order to impress his friends.
At Mr. Farraday’s suggestion, Stevens embarks on a six-day journey across England to a former coworker named Miss Kenton, leaving the ancient home empty for the first time in a century. As he wanders farther from familiarity, Stevens begins to focus more and more on the only life he has ever known.
Having believed during most of his life that serving a great gentleman was perhaps one of the most worthy ways to serve humanity, Stevens finds questions lurking in his memory taking to task the true nature of Lord Darlington’s greatness and even graver misgivings about his own faith in the man he served.
Ishiguro, who was born in Japan and reared in England, compels the reader in his novel with a first person narrative as refreshing as it is brilliant. The stark simplicity of his prose draws even the most reticent searcher into the mind and heart of the protagonist, and back again into the reader’s own soul.
Combining glimpses into the world of pre and post-WWII England with the private struggles of a man too dignified to love and too blind to see both the true nature of the good and bad in his life until it seems too late, “Remains of the Day” still ends on a final chord of hope and the belief that, after the work is over-be it for good or ill-the evening is still the best part of the day.
“The Remains of the Day” succeeds in breathing new and unique life into the concepts of trust and greatness, dignity and love while, at the same time, blending in the gripping narrative of one of the nameless billions that work to shape their lives and the world.
Very nearly perfect, the novel demands the very best of the reader as they join in the journey and the experience of Ishiguro’s vividly realistic world, one which is waiting to be explored.
Matt Wright is a book critic for the Utah Statesman. Comments or suggestions for future book reviews can be sent to him at mattgo@cc.usu.edu.