The Remains of the Day

Nice book, and packing. Delivered on the committed day.

A hilarious novel on the surface, delving deep into some of life's serious issues. The entire book is a flashback of the life of the main character Mr Stevens, his relationship with his previous employer and colleagues and his father. Embarking on a journey to meet one of his former colleagues, who held a special place in his heart though he had suppressed his feelings and loses the opportunity, Mr Stevens reflects on several incidents ,some trivial and a few quite significant that were the 'turning points' in his life.The best thing about the book is that grave, serious and important matters like professional ethics, commitment, dedication and dignity are dealt in an interesting manner.This book is a perfect mood elevator providing many a situations of full throttled laughter and yet profound in giving us an insight into our own lives.The main attraction of this book is its language and its message. A message that is true for everyone of us when we regret on hindsight for lack of foresight.

The short description of the book says the story is about a motoring journey by the butler, as he reminisces and journeys into his past. It's probably the worst, most bland description of the book and does no justice to the actual story.The book is a person's journey of denial to actions borne out of baseless principles. So many of us often develop some strong point of view on certain matters, and rationalize our actions to that end, even when we *know* they are wrong. The author brings that out beautifully. The butler is shown to have a strong degree of perception on the environment around him, and cannot bring himself to "do the right thing". The book is an ode to the struggle that each of us face in breaking off the shackles of misguided yet deep rooted principles. The book ends well, with a glimmer of optimism, stressing that it's never too late to let go, and be hopeful that whatever remains of the day, will be good

The Remains Of The Day is fabulous. Kazuo Ishiguro expressed himself in unparalleled terms the complexities of human behaviour and the richness, dynamics and interdependence of society. His words have a rhythm, and sentences form certainty and power. Once you start reading you are elevated into a world of meanings and purposes of human life through diverse emotions and actions. I compare it with the Iliad, Odessey or the Bible. An everlasting fiction of human culture and living.Prof Varghese V Devasia.

रस निष्पत्ति - शृंगार🥰, शांत😇 (in readers)भाव निर्मिति - शोक😔, रति🥰( in characters)They are absolutely right when they say Work is worship. Or for someone like me whose work encompasses a tradition which is worship of Lord in real sense, thru art, as my art is commanded by devotionBut then where does the problem begin. Well when you unknowingly cross the line from Respect to blind Obedience or when devotion is underlined with subservienceYes then the problem startsIn the summer of 1956, Mr Stevens, chief of staff at Darlington Hall, is set for a motoring trip. On this trip he also plans to visit Miss Kenton, a housekeeper who left the house 20 years ago to get married. Miss Kenton whose marriage is falling apart, writes letter to inform the same to Steven. Restrained feelings of last four decades are flickering with renewed hopesStevens commitment towards his house, challenges him at every step. The idea of submission has been minutely ingrained in him, thru' his father. Both of them who cudn’t separate professional life from personal. His notion to prove that his commitment towards his Lord & his desire to be the best Butler, even leads to abstention of feelings towards his father & Miss KentonThis chance solo trip gives him an opportunity to reassess his life"He chose a certain path in life, it proved to be a misguided one, but there, he chose it, he can say that at least. As for myself, I cannot even claim that. You see, I trusted. I trusted in his lorship's wisdom......what dignity is there in that"This book is a great yet subtle study into the class difference of England of that era, with humor slaying the old age traditions of servitudeAuthor's writing comes across as very simple but the deeper you go you would be amazed by the layering & complexity. He uses his tools of story telling perfectly creating a narrative out of a place where you would actually think no story existsOpen ended plots, beginning & ending entices & challenges the reader in you

“Indeed — why should I not admit it? — in that moment, my heart was breaking.”The Remains of the Day is a story of a butler Stevens who takes a few days off to travel the countryside and meet an old friend and how this journey takes him into the past.Ishiguro weaves a tale, that is beautiful and subtle. What initially is rose tinted nostalgia turns into life that is filled with regret, things that are left unsaid and hearts that are broken.Stevens felt too real, his character reminded me of Carson from Downton Abbey with all his stoic charm. Funny in places and sad in others, the book is a delight, it's a story where nothing really happens, but somehow, a lot does. Truly moving and wonderfully written.

"𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐲" tells the story of an English butler named Stevens, who spent his whole life hiding his emotions and choosing duty over love and life. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘀’ 𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻; 𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗼𝗿 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘁, 𝘀𝗼 𝘄𝗲 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵. It is a heart-touching story about a man who realizes the pain of his missed opportunities and lost love only in the "evening of his life."𝐀 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥…🔥🔥🔥The book uses a formal, Victorian-style English, which can be a bit difficult to read. Ishiguro uses this style not just to show the discipline of a butler, but also to bring out the dignity and elegance of that era. While the story is excellent, the paper quality could have been better.After reading, you must watch the 1993 movie, "The Remains of the Day." Anthony Hopkins gives a brilliant performance that does complete justice to the character of Stevens.

I thoroughly loved this book. Loved the subtle humor and the too-professional conversations between Mr. Stevens and Miss Kenton. Although Mr.Stevens never deviates from his too-professional attitude, you can sense his feelings for Miss Kenton. Until the end, I hoped that Mr. Stevens would make up for what he has lost, but the ending didn't disappoint me either.Recommend this book to those who wish to explore the world of lords, butlers-the standards they were expected to live up to sacrificing their personal life in the journey.

This book lingered in my mind for days. It was one of those rare occasions where a book leaves me with strong but blurry feelings I can't quite put a label on. I felt an urge to reconcile with its subtle but profound effects before moving on, so here goes...Firstly, the book reads like you're actually traveling the English countryside with old Stevens, the narrator and protagonist, looking out the car window while he recounts his life to you like a grandpa would to his grandchild. The prose is so smooth, so restrained, so English, that you're almost tempted to sit up straight as you listen to his stories. The magic of the prose is in its subtlety. Everything happens between the lines, the unsaid undercurrent of the narrative. At times you almost want to interrupt him in protest and question some of the decisions he'd made, but then you realize that there's no point because what's done is done. The only thing you can do is figure out for yourselfwhat dignity means, what your values are, and how you can live a fulfilled life. Because as the butler demonstrates, the effects of living by misguided ideals without reflection only manifests itself, slowly and then all at once, when it's already too late.Dignity and social constraints of the time (1920-30s England) are key themes in the book. Even the tragedy of the whole story is restrained, there wasn't a dramatic breakdown when the butler finally realizes his mistake in pushing Miss Kenton away, nor did he decide to walk away from his job. Rather, he chooses to make the best of what remains of his day and continue as a professional. The irony is that he is a tragic character precisely because he successfully lived out his idea of the dignity that "great butlers" possess."‘dignity’ has to do crucially with a butler’s ability not to abandon the professional being he inhabits. Lesser butlers will abandon their professional being for the private one at the least provocation."Professionalism is Stevens' North star, and he inhabits his "professional being" so completely that even his inner monologue fails to betray the role. I found it simultaneously amusing and sad that he felt the need to reiterate multiple times that he wanted to reunite with Miss Kenton purely for professional purposes and not because, oh I don't know, he misses and loves her? It's like he looks to this professional ideal to guide all of his decisions at various turning points in his life. He lets this ideal consume him completely, and in the end, this was at the expense of a (potentially) happier and more fulfilled life. I think Miss Kenton spoke for us all when she asks him "Why, Mr Stevens, why, why, why do you always have to pretend?"It's not that Stevens thought so little of himself that he couldn't see himself as anything beyond a servant. On the contrary, he found meaning in his profession and saw this career of service not as a ladder but a wheel, where at the hub lies the houses of "great gentlemen" whose decisions emanated out to everyone else. The goal was to get as close to the hub as possible so that he can serve these great gentlemen - and by extension, humanity - to the best of his abilities. Houses like Darlington Hall had been where influential men gathered to debate their ideas and reach crucial decisions whose impact rippled out across Europe. Stevens reasoned that if he does his job well, these meetings will go smoothly, and thus lies his contribution to foreign affairs, and subsequently, to society at large.However, this logic was contingent on the man he was serving to actually have good judgment and make the right decisions. He didn't allow himself to make his own mistakes or even express his own opinions. A blatant example of this is during a frustrating exchange with Mr Cardinal, where he was trying to get our Stevens to realize that his master was making a big mistake by naively trusting the wrong people out of old-fashioned nobility. Stevens fails to even entertain the possibility that maybe Lord Darlington was not making good judgments after all.So there it is, our protagonist embodies his "professional being" and lives to his ideals so well that he was living through others, and never for himself. He even claims that even though he isn't well-travelled, he's "seen" more of the world than most people because of the sheer variety of prestigious house guests. In his lifelong strive to become a great butler, with all that dignity and professionalism, he fails to be someone who lives his life to the fullest. While I respect that in the end he doesn't wallow in lost opportunities, it raises the question: what was all that for? The whole story serves as a reminder to express yourself and live your life.I love that we do begin to see some (short-lived) cracks towards the end where the real Stevens shines through with his repressed longing."Rather, it was as though one had available a never-ending number of days, months, years in which to sort out the vagaries of one’s relationship with Miss Kenton; an infinite number of further opportunities in which to remedy the effect of this or that misunderstanding. There was surely nothing to indicate at the time that such evidently small incidents would render whole dreams forever irredeemable."And of course, that unforgettable admission while saying goodbye to Mis Kenton..."Indeed — why should I not admit it? — in that moment, my heart was breaking."These were some of the few moments of surrender where the butler allowed himself to lament on how his life turned out. What follows is melancholic but admirable. Instead of driving himself crazy with regret, or try to convince Miss Kenton to run away with him, he chooses to look forward to make the best of what remains of his day as a butler because he knows it's too late to do anything else. He leaves us with an ignited determination to master the art of banter, something he was struggling to fit into his professional persona at the beginning of the book ("this business of bantering is not a duty I feel I can ever discharge with enthusiasm"... lol). I do think that the trip to the countryside, seeing Miss Kenton again and reflecting on his life has made him realize that not everything he does has to be a duty. He's a human first before a butler, and he's lived his life with this in the wrong way around. I hope some good banter helps him set this straight for what time he has left.Really, what a story, what great writing. For me, old Stevens imparts his wisdom through his mistakes and his reconciliation of them: what he had failed to do, and then what he did do to move on. Basically, there comes a point where you have to be courageous enough to embrace who you are and start living life for yourself instead of through others. When you do that, it's inevitable that you make mistakes but at least you own them and can move on carrying the battle scars better off than you were before. Throughout his life, the butler never gave himself that chance. It was only when he's had a chance to reflect on the past as Stevens the man, not Stevens the butler, does he realize his own misjudgments and allows himself to grieve for what could have been just for a little while, before returning to his duties with a new meaning to find in his duties: true human connection."Perhaps it is indeed time I began to look at this whole matter of bantering more enthusiastically. After all, when one thinks about it, it is not such a foolish thing to indulge in – particularly if it is the case that in bantering lies the key to human warmth."

But I was surprised to find a thought provoking, heartwarming tale about the ins and outs of a butler’s duties, circumstances and misfortunes. I say the latter not implying a sad story, but rather a real one, one that showcases the consequences of a person’s choices, albeit not all of them consciously made.

Questo libro, secondo me, da ragione almeno in parte del Nobel dato a Kazuo Ishiguro. Il libro è un affresco dei tempi della decadenza della nobiltà inglese e conseguentemente del relativo personale di servizio. Al contempo, però, è la storia di un amore mancato e immolato sull'altare della "dignità" professionale. L'autore scrive in un inglese semplicemente perfetto e che si gode dalla prima all'ultima pagina, anzi si impara parecchio da lui. Ovviamente il testo è scritto da un autore inglese, ma di origine giapponese e la base culturale orientale fa capolino qua e là. Bisogna essere interessati alla scrittura e all'alta letteratura per apprezzare appieno questo libro, ma si è ricompensati con una storia molto particolare e con caratteri delineati alla perfezione. Naturalmente, non è una storia di pronta fruizione e occorre pazienza e interesse per apprezzare le sottilissime nuance della scrittura di Ishiguro.

The second book I read from the author. Very entertaining, I was quickly fascinated by the masterwork the author does with the main character. It is amazing how, with a relatively simple plot, one reads his books anxious to find the next moving dialog or devastating monolog. I'll keep reading the rest of his works.

A classic!