The Remains of The Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

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T H E   B A S I C S

Title: The Remains of the Day
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
Date Published: 1989
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: 5/5




About thirty pages in to The Remains of the Day I really wanted to put it down and get on with something else. The plot was slow and I didn't care much for Stevens, the old, pushing retirement, grumpy butler. However now that I have finished it, I can say that I am so thankful that my friend Delia recommended this novel to me - I have well and truly loved it.

The novel follows Stevens, a butler of Darlington Hall, on a journey to the West Country to visit Miss Kenton, a former colleague. However, Ishiguro allows us to delve into Stevens' past as he recounts memories that have led him to be where he is today. He is full of nostalgia. 

In this sense it reminded me of Mrs Dalloway - Although in Mrs Dalloway, Woolf presents readers with many different character perspectives, rather than Ishiguro's one, it has the element of the unreliable narrator's stream of consciousness which forms a huge part of the novel. This is why I loved Mrs Dalloway so much...because I really felt an emotional connection to the character because we were transported entirely into their minds. Much like I have been with Stevens.

Ishiguro has constructed such fabulous characterisation in this novel that I honestly felt a love towards Stevens. I felt like I knew him, and not just knew him like we do most characters - I really knew him.

I feel frustrated at Stevens' loyalty to Lord Darlington and what he lost because of this. However, Stevens doesn't show bitterness or resentment - he simply realises the importance in enjoying the remains of the day. (Clever eh?)
After all, what can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished?...What is the point in worrying oneself too much about what one could or could not have done to control the course ones life took?...

 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^THIS QUOTE GAVE ME THE FEEEEELS^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

I haven't wanted to give much away in this review - there is nothing worse than reading a review and being left with not much point in reading the novel! But if you want a character to love and a story to make you realise that other people make mistakes, but that's just life... then read this.

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