The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

★★★★☆|☆☆
“I can't even say I made my own mistakes. Really—one has to ask oneself—what dignity is there in that?”
Timestamps and links below the fold ↓

0:00 Intro
0:11 Summary

1:04 The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr
★★★★☆|☆☆

2:08 Dignity as a fatal flaw
3:17 Reticence and regret
4:25 Review
5:01 Comical
5:42 Democracy vs aristocracy
8:08 Class barriers
9:14 Manor house communities
10:08 What remains of the day
11:02 Goodbye

[kaurparveen]

His father's demise was the most heart wrenching part of this book

[themaskedcount]

I admire you putting your thoughts out there and creating a space to discuss the novel, but I think you’ve majorly misunderstood it. It is definitely not nostalgic - any wise historical novel typically isn’t - and I don’t think it’s trying to put democracy vs aristocracy up for debate. The book definitely draws a conclusion on Lord Darlington: he was LITERALLY a Nazi supporter!! You can’t make a clearer villain than that.
I think it’s more of a cautionary tale and an analogy for the average human experience. We are all “butlers” (Ishiguro has confirmed this metaphor). Most of us play small roles in the world and don’t see the full extent of what our work, actions and relationships are effecting in the greater story of humanity. However, it’s dangerous to take a stance like Stevens and resign yourself to ignorance. The first person narration is meant for us to question his philosophy, not accept or admire it, and we should see by the end that it’s clearly flawed and, frankly, even delusional. On a smaller scale, there’s also the tragedy of what could have been with Miss Kenton. Because he resigned himself to such a narrow view of his own existence and devoted his entire being to his job, he failed to see the affection she had for him and ends up alone. Maybe he wants to be alone, sure, but I think we’re meant to see him as a shadow of a man and, in the absence of love, one who has not fully lived. All he has now are “the remains of the day”, because his warped worldview made him waste most of the day away.

[Cotictimmy]

I agree with your take about the comic elements. You don't hear it mentioned too often, but the narrative voice itself is often highly comic because of its pomposity and denial of the glaringly obvious. I love the incident where Miss Kenton points out that Stevens' father has replaced the Chinaman ornaments in the wrong locations. Stevens searches for extra tasks (in the library?) & contemplates his possible alternative escape routes so that he can avoid Miss Kenton (who is waiting for him outside and wishes to get Stevens to acknowledge her point.)

[nanceygarnevicus]

Stevens did not “sit in” on the conferences which took place. He was there in his position as a butler. And Emma Thompson was not a housemaid, she was the housekeeper. There is a huge difference.

[bt]

Very well written book indeed. I found it also through a reference in a section of another book about unreliable narrators. Thanks for the review!

[lilin]

Insightful perspective, your talk is enjoyable and inspirational, thank you! Same as you I would love to read more Ishiguro’s book !

[johnr]

An absolutely heartbreaking book, I'm not ashamed to admit I cried a few times reading it.

[kaurparveen]

It's weird to say but I wanted Mr. Stevens and miss Kenton to be together

[al]

Informed voters? I tell you what, votes should be weighed. Your vote has a score that reflects your general and specific knowledge. So a specialist votes weighs, for example, 10 times more than someone that's ocmpletely ignorant or doesn't have the critical tools at his or her disposal to reason well enough on a certain topic matter of the vote

[bluemacaroons]

It’s nice to hear it put together like that. I just watched the movie cause the book seemed a bit daunting and it was rlly interesting!

[robotnic]

"The game of butlering" lol. I read this last year, I thought it was really accomplished but I never quite warmed to it or felt sympathetic about what was lost. To your point about democracy, something you didn't mention is that the people the public elect in their stead are still meant to serve their interests. We elect them to accountable to public will, but that social contract is broken whenever there's a corrupt party in power. I think part of the tragedy of Stevens is that he worked so diligently and honestly for corrupt and dishonest people whose "dignified" work enabled the second world war.

[elenashunkova]

Just finished reading the book. Thank you for this great review! ❤

[kuldeeepkhirwar]

It appears you have not watched brilliant movie based on this novel otherwise you would'nt have skipped Miss Kenton beautifully portrayed by Emma Thomson.

[michaeldeboer]

I've recently decided to starts building a personal library. I've bought books online and some of them are cheap paperbacks. Is it worth covering a paperback with laminate plastic covers or should I just pony up and buy hard covers?

[meganmeaney]

The evening is indeed the best part of the day!

[smarakkc]

Can you introduce about antihero perspective in the remain of the day ❤ 2:26

[ziadnadda]

And that’s a subscribe button for you.

[yazanasad]

No ceiling compared to before. So all competing - not successful until top
Personal and ancestral community lost

[edmunddonnelly]

Easily the most beautiful teeth I´ve ever seen!

[joeblow]

6:48 Must you dislike democracy. Yes it's very flawed but it's better than the alternatives. Politicians aren't more knowledgeable than you or me because they're smarter. They know more bc they have a large civil service to draw information (some of which is not released to the public) to make decision off of and even then politicians have proven to make the wrong decisions or at least bad ones over and over again because they're power hungry individuals who like getting elected not people who genuinely aspire to make better policy