The Remains of the Day
Review and impact of this lovely book By Kazuo Ishiguro
“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.”
When I closed the book for the final time, for a while I did not move from my chair. I just gave a sad smile, which I believe was not just because I had finished a beautiful novel that was layered indefinitely, but because I realized how complex life can be sometimes, even ordinary life. Night after night, I read more in to the life of Stevens, the butler at Darlington Hall, a lord’s residence located in the serene parts of Britain. The book gave me companionship while I was trying to do some writing myself. It didn’t inspire me, or give me any ideas. It was a friend I resorted to after spending time writing my own poems, sometimes fruitful and sometimes frustrating. Even though I was reading this book feeling primarily upset or elated, within minutes I was returned to the complexity of the stories that lived in the pages of ‘The Remains of the Day’.
The book begins with Steven the butler talking about his current employer, his problems regarding running the house smoothly and his plans to take a road trip. Stevens amazed me, a man who was getting older and slower, retained the poise of an efficient butler. He respected his employer with fierce dedication, an employer who was American and had methods of communication that were rather uncomfortable for Stevens. By such methods, I am referring to light or casual bantering. Stevens was uncomfortable and poor at coming up with witty replies. To my further surprise, he practiced his replies, attempting to grow bantering as a skill. That was Stevens in a summary, right there for me to admire and feel sorry for at the same time. Stevens took his work seriously, his life was about being a butler. His father was one himself, and Stevens carried it forward and believed to have done a good job at it. He explains the work of a butler as a progressive skill. He was a butler, and nothing else, and he preferred it that way as well. Stevens earlier served an English lord, named Lord Darlington, for a very long time, a man whose image was tarnished for being sensitive towards the Germans and involved in their workings. Set somewhere in the 1950s, that was rather grim for Lord Darlington, and until the death of the lord (after which Darlington Hall was bought by the American employer), Stevens was faced with many moments of conflict where he may or may not had taken part in helping his lord support the Germans. He adopted the values of his lordship, and never questioned the actions and motives of Lord Darlington, simply served him. Stevens always worked to reach a level of greatness. He aspired to be a great butler, and during the course of his service to Lord Darlington, Stevens merely ignored the values in serving against the national interest.
During the road trip Stevens takes, he looks back at many incidents, small and big, that happened during his employment under the Lord Darlington. Regret, remorse and confusion over right or wrong governs the thoughts of Stevens throughout the road trip. He questions his actions, then immediately tries to justify them under the pretenses of being a dutiful butler. I felt sad for Stevens at many places, his intentions were to make peace with the life he had led, to understand whether his life had been memorable, even happy. A major character in this book other than Lord Darlington is Miss Kenton. She was once the housekeeper of Darlington Hall and had a close yet professional relationship with Stevens. A love that was unrealized and ignored grew between them, struggling under the wraps of a working relationship, failing to surface throughout the story. Miss Kenton is in many ways opposite of Stevens, yet those two shared minds. Miss Kenton was specially a women who did her work very well, but did not refrain from having her own opinions and voicing them. Something about their interactions heavily implied how Miss Kenton saw Stevens, and how Stevens admired Miss Kenton, their growing understanding of each other and respect for their work. They shared many years in Darlington hall, and somewhere Miss Kenton decided that she wanted more meaning in her life, to be loved, to grow old gracefully with a man beside her. Failing to evoke similar emotions in Stevens, rather failing to encourage him in expressing them, she gave in to pick a different path for herself. It was heart breaking to see her make decisions that separated her from Stevens. Miss Kenton was strong, clear-headed yet carried the burden of not being reciprocated in love.
I would say that this book is about courage. From the first page till the last, Stevens is asking himself if his life had turned out to be how he wished. He remembers events of the past, realizes the parts he played in pushing them forward. He thinks of his time with Miss Kenton, and when he finally meets her, he is faced with the agony of knowing that had he chosen a life with Miss Kenton, she would have happily obliged. Nevertheless, Stevens gets the courage to go on being the butler he is, the butler he will always be for it is the life he may not have wished for, but chose.
Read it. Save it.
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