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Book Review: The Remains of the Day [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-11-08  

Today’s book review is of The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

This is my favorite novel. It’s a tapestry of different profound insights into human nature woven together by a Nobel laureate at the height of his powers.

Among them:

(1) Mr. Stevens is a British butler who spends the first part of the book deeply analyzing his industry. For example, he delves into the detailed nuances of what makes a great butler. Stevens’ comprehensive views about butlers illustrate how we all make our own circumstances more important than they really are. To the outside world, butlers aren’t worth much thought. To Stevens, they are the center of the universe. For many of us, our world—whatever it may be—is the whole world. As Arthur Schopenhauer once said: “Every person takes the limits of their own field of vision for the limits of the world.”

(2) Stevens’ views also analogize beautifully to other industries, including how many “star” butlers rise suddenly with fame and glory only to vanish from the scene shortly thereafter.

(3) Stevens' life is dedicated to his bosses, the men who own Darlington Hall. All his endeavors are thus served up to someone else. Sometimes for good. Sometimes for ruthless ends. This mirrors many lives in industrial societies, which are dominated by commercial hierarchies. Workers often neither control nor really even understand how the fruits of their labor are utilized by their bosses.

(4) Stevens never professes his love to Miss Kenton, his fellow servant at Darlington Hall for many years. Eventually she leaves and gets married to another man. In a shattering moment after they are reunited many years later, Miss Kenton reveals to Stevens that sometimes “I get to thinking about a life I may have had with you, Mr. Stevens.” After 238 pages of bottled up emotions, Stevens explains to the reader: “I do not think I responded immediately, for it took me a moment or two to fully digest these words of Miss Kenton. Moreover, as you might appreciate, their implications were such to provoke a certain degree of sorrow within me. Indeed—why should I not admit it ?—at that moment, my heart was breaking.”

Stevens is haunted by missing out on a life with his one true love. He was too afraid of rejection to tell Ms. Kenton that he loved her. As a result he stayed alone. And therein lies the book's biggest insight of all: don’t let the fear of emotional pain prevent you from pursuing your best life.

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