statmanjack 's review for:

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

5.0

emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I am floored after reading this book. So intensely sad. Suspense is how I felt going through the second half of this book.

Hannah knew that Stevens and Miss Kenton may have been in love from very early on. The second half of this book, as Stevens reflects during the remains of each of his days - his evenings - allows him to detach from his present business and reflect on his past. Here, he uncovers deep regret. 

He regrets an uncaptured love. He reflects on all of the turning points he missed, where Miss Kenton clearly was seeking reciprocal care and love from him, and he didn’t give himself the capacity to respond. Ironically, in his loyal service to a literal pawn in Hitlers war, Stevens lost himself. As he puts it, he literally felt he had no dignity because he never let himself make his own mistakes. He chose to serve, seeing that as purposeful, dismissing the meaning of his own life. 

That is the tragedy of this book, shown too in the descriptions of the townsfolk near the end of his journey. That common people preferred to just live their own quiet lives instead of being involved in politics, in socialism that could hypothetically benefit them. There may be some criticism of this, but really the author is criticizing looking down on people’s own “small lives” because clearly, as Stevens sees when he gets to the evening on the pier, it’s all about other people. 

His poor heart, broken when Miss Kenton said she regrets not getting to see their life together. Not that hard to imagine! A turning point missed, a love and whole life. Lost.

Of the many, many passages in the second half of this book, I’ll reflect on this one that struck me:

“Naturally when one looks back to such instances today, they may indeed take the appearance of being crucial, precious moments in one’s life” (179). 

He really just did not have the ability, because of his own lack of self confidence but really self acceptance and self love, because of this terrible “gentleman” culture he’d been raised in, to express love and care and all of the things he did feel for Miss Kenton.

I’m sure there’s more to say, but really I was so captured by the second half of this book. The parallel of the war and Stevens’ figuring out his service was for nothing, and in fact to something evil, when he could have served himself by being more in tune with relationships. How evil a world to have made him like this, is one potential takeaway. The culture robbed him of love and of even the potential for love, because he had such a tough time with relating to people. As seen in all of his conversations. 

Maybe the only hopeful takeaway is that in the evening of his life, with this all realized, maybe he’ll be able to banter with Mr Farraday and seek relationships and find happiness. But he’ll clearly still have so much heart wrenching regret for lost love and loyalty betrayed. 

Crushing book. Held in suspense for so long only to be completely crushed by the feelings he finally expresses, though really only to the reader.