Ishiguro: The Remains of the Day
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1billiejean
I just read the book The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. I think that this is one of my top reads of the year. The style is understated, yet compelling. I was totally drawn into this story of the English butler looking back over his life and career thus far, and then looking forward to what remains.
2digifish_books
I've read all of Ishiguro's novels and The Remains of the Day is my favourite by him and was my top read for 2007. Have you seen the movie (with Anthony Hopkins & Emma Thompson)?
4fannyprice
>3 akeela:, Mine too, akeela (except it was 2007, I guess).
Ishiguro is fast becoming one of my favorite authors, after reading this and Never Let Me Go. I love the understated, almost emotionless tone of his writing when dealing with heart-breaking topics. Lesser authors would devolve into histrionics, but never Ishiguro. His characters just seem to accept their lots in life and muddle through, all too painfully aware that there are other options but completely unable to reach out and seize them.
This novel contains a passage that reveals perfectly for me why Ishiguro's writings are so amazing. Stevens describes how the English countryside is marked by greatness: "And yet what precisely is this greatness? I would say that it is the very lack of obvious drama or spectacle that sets the beauty of our land apart. What is pertinent is the calmness of that beauty, its sense of restraint. It is as though the land knows of its own beauty, of its own greatness, and feels no need to shout it."
Ishiguro's writings are like this landscape - no obvious drama, even when the situation could so easily lend itself to melodrama. Emotions are always tightly controlled. His characters are always the product of their world and since they see their world as normal, they accept it, leaving the reader to rage silently against the injustice of it all. Very little seems to change for Ishiguro's characters in the end, as they seem resigned to their fate in a quiet, melancholy way.
Ishiguro is fast becoming one of my favorite authors, after reading this and Never Let Me Go. I love the understated, almost emotionless tone of his writing when dealing with heart-breaking topics. Lesser authors would devolve into histrionics, but never Ishiguro. His characters just seem to accept their lots in life and muddle through, all too painfully aware that there are other options but completely unable to reach out and seize them.
This novel contains a passage that reveals perfectly for me why Ishiguro's writings are so amazing. Stevens describes how the English countryside is marked by greatness: "And yet what precisely is this greatness? I would say that it is the very lack of obvious drama or spectacle that sets the beauty of our land apart. What is pertinent is the calmness of that beauty, its sense of restraint. It is as though the land knows of its own beauty, of its own greatness, and feels no need to shout it."
Ishiguro's writings are like this landscape - no obvious drama, even when the situation could so easily lend itself to melodrama. Emotions are always tightly controlled. His characters are always the product of their world and since they see their world as normal, they accept it, leaving the reader to rage silently against the injustice of it all. Very little seems to change for Ishiguro's characters in the end, as they seem resigned to their fate in a quiet, melancholy way.