The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

SPOILERS

Summary:

Mr. Stevens is an English butler who is working for an American, Mr. Faraday, who suggests Stevens go on a motoring trip while he is away. Receiving a letter from his ol colleague, Miss Kenton, Stevens decides to take his motoring trip to go visit her.
Flashbacks ensue and it is revealed that Steven’s past employer, Lord Darlington, was in diplomatic and friendly relations with Nazi sympathizers. Stevens’ and Miss Kenton’s relationship is shows to be a very restrained friendship, though Miss Kenton wants something more.
More flashbacks show Stevens’ father pass away and tensions within Lord Darlington’s estate rise as a result of his emerging antisemitism. This causes conflict between Stevens and Miss Kenton, and after a few years, Miss Kenton leaves to marry.
In present day, Stevens meets Miss Kenton after twenty years apart, and their conversation reveals much growth, regret, and simply time which has passed.
Throughout the novel, Stevens questions what it is to be a great butler.

Noteable quotes:

The red text were the notes I had written on the page, transcribed under the quote they were in reference to.

“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” (pg. 28).

This idea of greatness – of modest beauty – would suggest the same of women. A woman who is beautiful without makeup is more worthy than a woman who is beautiful with makeup. The two may both be beautiful, but one’s calmness, or sense of restraint, or quiet awareness that she need not for any embellishments, make her ‘great.’ The same could be said then for a woman who boasts of her beauty, and a woman who keeps quiet about her beauty. Is beauty more worthy when it’s innocent? I don’t think it’s necessarily the fact that the beauty is fabricated, I think that it comes from ambition. The object should not want to be beautiful, they should not want anything, because it’s an object. The fact that they want anything at all is disturbing.

“‘as though he hoped to find some precious jewel he had dropped there’” (pg. 67).

This metaphor perfectly encapsulates Mr. Stevens and Mr. Stevens’ father’s feelings about the past. The two come from a time in England of prosperity and class. Where ‘greatness’ was not only treasured but able to be had. Now, time has passed and they have not the courage to end their practices. The jewel is the old time of England and Mr. Steven’s father is Mr. Stevens himself. He is carefully hunched to peer at the ground, keeping a careful eye to see if any semblance of the past may be rescued, but is not too disgraced that he may get on all fours and search through the blades of grass for his treasure. He moves through life with dignity, but keeps his eye and his mind on his precious jewel.

"I had expected the room to smell of death, but on account of Mrs Mortimer - or else her apron - the room was dominated by the roasting" (pg. 109).
“I think it fair to say, professional prestige lay most significantly in the moral worth of one’s employer” (pg. 114).
“’Why, Mr. Stevens, why, why, why do you always have to pretend?’” (pg. 154).
“And yet it was not a happy feeling to be up there on a lonely hill, looking over a gate at the lights coming on in a distant village, the daylight all but faded, and the mist growing ever thicker” (pg. 162).

Review and notes:

4.5 stars - sincere and classic.

Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson in The Remains of the Day (1993). Photograph: Columbia Pictures/Allstar

There are many parts of this novel worth praise, but I will focus on the characterization of Mr. Stevens and the distinct philosophical mentions of fascism. A little note on the writing style, however. Ishiguro’s writing, at least in this novel, can be best described as precise. The writing style perfectly matches the narrator’s character and personality specifically, which really adds to the immersion element of the novel. The writing is so exact and careful, formal and distinct, just like Mr. Stevens, so when reading it, one can feel completely in the mind of Mr. Stevens. I have not read any of Ishiguro’s other work, and so am unsure if this is simply his natural writing style, but nevertheless, upon any further analysis, it comes across as a genius and tactful decision to write the novel in this way. Now on to a serious look at the character of Mr. Stevens.

Mr. Stevens, at first glance, is a repressed and buttoned up English butler, dedicated to his craft and country and little else, essentially, a boring English layman. As I mentioned, the writing is so precise that it seems almost impossible that anyone could actually have a stream of consciousness so exact to be written as such. Mr. Steven’s dialogue and inner monologues are so robotic it seems hard to believe that he is even human. But he is human, which leads the reader to believe one of two things, (1) he is a severely repressed individual who has beaten his actual personality down so much that he may exist as the perfect butler and as such has destroyed even his inner conscious’ authenticity and humanity, or (2) Mr. Stevens is just a really weird, probably autistic, gentleman, and he just naturally exists as he appears.

I fall a bit in the middle. There are many clues that lead the reader to believe in (1), namely the scene where Mr. Steven’s father passes and Mr. Stevens is noted to be crying with no facial expression or internal monologue cluing himself into such an occurrence, and the scene where Mr. Stevens is caught reading a romance book and quickly excuses himself by claiming it was only so he could keep his “command of the English language” (pg. 167). Both of these instances, I need not explain, indicate a repressed emotional identity, and while I do believe this to be true, I do think Mr. Stevens is predisposed to have, and excuse my perhaps crude identification, autistic way of thinking. And English Rainman. Rainman if he were a butler. To be great, a status Mr., Stevens is obsessed with, he may not allow himself to be bothered with such trivialities like emotions and romantic relationships; his life then, to the reader, appears tragic and melancholic. For it’s in the moments where Mr. Stevens looks upon a pretty view, or enjoys some quiet motoring, that the reader sees a locked up human being able to break free, if not for a few moments, and enjoy the simply raw parts of a Good Life. In this way, The Remains of the Day is a triumph of literary fiction.

The second way in which Ishiguro impresses readers is in his portrayal of a, slightly, fascist character belonging to a, slightly, fascist house. I suggest here that Mr. Stevens is not a political fascist, but a social fascist of some sorts. He’s not anti-intellectual or incredibly anti-democratic but he is authoritative and dismissive of the lower class, his conversation and philosophical musings indicate a social fascist – a term I’ve coined. (I don’t mean social fascist as in a socialist fascist, but a fascist in one’s attitudes and manner of life having nothing to do with government and economic systems.) And while this book may seem boring at first glance, the perspective of such an interesting character gives such a magnificent and pleasant read, it couldn’t be called boring. Moreso, Lord Darlington, Mr. Stevens’ former employer, at least it’s believed, is tricked into fascist leanings. This on its own is such a ridiculous predicament, I could have laughed out loud had I read it quicker. Whether you as a reader choose to believe that Lord Darlington was not a fascist, anyone must admit that the whole plot line is so ridiculous and entertaining, it couldn’t not be called brilliant. Whether it’s Darlington firing his Jewish employees just so his guests feel more comfortable, and doing so in a very blasé manner, or him welcoming German Nazis into his house on account of diplomacy and respect, Ishiguro’s whole look at fascism and the English way of nobility is just priceless.

As well as those two aspects, which were simply my favorite parts of the book, there are many philosophical excerpts to be taken from The Remains of the Day, and I can appreciate the novel being hailed as a work of philosophical fiction. Mr. Stevens’ views on beauty, greatness, and other social morals are as exact and precise as his character, and compliment his personality perfectly.

The end of the book is one of my favorite endings to a book ever, and leaves the reader with an immense sense of peace, and perhaps grief.

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The Remains of the Day (1993)

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